Over the last two decades the majority of the movies being produced in South Korea have been rooted in horror which, while pleasing fans of that genre, tend to be ignored by critics as well as mainstream and art-house audiences.
Things began to change in the mid 2010s with the arrival of prestige dramas such as “Snowpiercer,” “The Handmaiden,” “Okja,” “Forgotten,” and “Parasite,” which is the first and only non-English language movie to win not one, but two Best Picture Oscars.
Incorporating the better elements of American good cop/bad cop movies and the 2002 Hong Kong masterpiece “Infernal Affairs” (remade by Martin Scorsese in 2006 as “The Departed”: another Best Picture winner), “The Policeman’s Lineage” keeps the viewer guessing for the duration.
Three Generations of the Blue
The son of a deceased detective and grandson of another, Choi Min-jae (Choi Woo-sik) is an upstart baby-face policeman recently promoted to the internal affairs division for the specific purpose of gathering proof that veteran Detective Park Gang-yoon (Cho Jin-woong) is on the take.Living far beyond the means of even the highest-paid senior lawmen, Park certainly appears to be crooked, something his overseers previously ignored due to his string of celebrated, high-profile arrests. He is also well-respected and nearly worshipped by every man in his command.
After a playful, semi-embarrassing hazing event played on Choi by some of Park’s underlings, he quickly blends in, despite having busted another detective who was fond of torturing would-be criminals.
Pegged by Park to be his driver, Choi begins taking mental notes and snapping quickie smart phone photos of his new boss, all indicating Park’s been bought and sold by one or more individuals or groups. It also doesn’t help that one of Park’s informants is a junkie and he regularly “borrows” huge sums of money from a local loan shark Shylock. And he owns a boat—a really big boat.
The Appropriate Appearance Is Key
After noticing Choi doesn’t blink or raise issues with the company he keeps, Park starts bringing him along to clandestine meetings with high-end criminals or, as Park calls them, “the one percent” and suddenly his posturing, preening, and highfaluting lifestyle starts to make sense to Choi.“In order to blend in and earn their (the criminals) trust,” Park adds, “You need to dress and act rich.” That’s why the walk-in closet is overflowing with designer duds; he really takes this undercover thing seriously, Choi surmises. It’s either that or Park just doesn’t care or believes himself to be metaphorically bulletproof or something else yet to be revealed. There are a lot of “or’s” in this movie.
No Spoilers Here
If you feel that you’ve been given too much plot thus far, trust me, you haven’t. All of the above takes place within the first 40 or so minutes and screenwriter Bae Young-ik (adapting the novel “Blood of the Policeman” by Joh Sasaki) has barely scratched the surface.Bae and director Kyu-maan Lee (“Wide Awake,” “Children…”) aren’t afraid of challenging the audience by forcing them to pay attention and not spoon-feeding them the narrative.
Before it’s over, the movie presents close to two dozen characters with significant speaking roles. While it is a traditional linear story, the filmmakers do include flashback scenes of a single past event from different perspectives, with the final one revealing volumes.
They also find an ingenious use for coffee.
A Remake? Maybe
I’m not a big fan of remakes and, in my opinion, there are less than a handful of them worth anyone’s time, but one of those happens to be “The Departed.”As there are cops and robbers the world over (and many operating in both camps simultaneously), their stories are universal. But, no matter how many critics sing this movie’s praises, there are audiences that flat out refuse to watch a movie with subtitles and that is not in English.
In the right hands (Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, David Fincher, David O. Russell, or Christopher Nolan, for example) and with an excellent crime or thriller screenwriter, a remake could be in order and would likely thrill the masses beyond repair. But please change that ending. No sequel needed here.
