i must be the last to realise that korean cinema be simply the fresh and most exciting and challenge cinema be make anywhere today . tell me something illustrate beautifully some of the way in which this be true . start with the time honoured police thriller format and the way in which the drama play out couldn not be more different from your average excellent but formulaic episode of the closer or without a trace while a in much korean cinema and the presumption of intelligence in the viewer mean that far from be walk through every plot point and you tread the lonely road of clue and suspicion by yourself . doubtless other viewer will predict the plot point with superhuman speed . still and i enjoy the spectacle even when i be mystify . it feel a though the director have gorge himself on the full gamut of cinema and take in not only his own cinema but glossy but predictable hollywood and glorious and violent japanese cinema . there nothing more refreshing than to see a structure you recognise and use to portray a world you do not . it give new life to any old and tired story or scenario well still when it harsh and good look and violent and surprising and like this . here a very brief run down represent an artist daughter and some lover and some murder and dismemberment . your guide through this murky world be detective cho ( suk kyu han ) and who stumble along the policeman dirty path and labour under suspicion and dishonour . you learn that his impassive taciturnity conceals more complex emotion and and you accompany him a he unpick a messy and bloody and tangle knot of relationship and lie and seek redemption along the way . it romantic at heart . detective cho remind me of dana andrew terse and detach detective mcpherson and in otto preminger haunt laura of 1944. that tough character find himself lift by the aura create by the eponymous central character of laura into an unfamiliar realm and fall in love with her a he begin to know her . the comparison end there tell me something have a finale that suit very modern taste . i be knee deep in dashiell hammett at the moment and but this be really more james ellroy territory . it a bit gory for my taste and but not strictly speak gratuitous and i think . even if it be and it would still be engross and disturb and craft with care and with a fantastic soundtrack . for more korean excellence try grip thriller memory of murder or the exquisitely turned spring and summer and autumn and winter . and spring . for other non u excellence go for french tv policier engrenages and takeshi kitano unique japanese gangster flick sonatine .