The City of Violence | |
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Hangul | 짝패 |
Revised Romanization | Jjakpae |
McCune–Reischauer | Tchakp‘ae |
Directed by | Ryoo Seung-wan |
Written by | Kim Jung-min Lee Won-jae Ryoo Seung-wan |
Produced by | Kim Jung-min Ryoo Seung-wan |
Starring | Ryoo Seung-wan Jung Doo-hong Lee Beom-soo |
Cinematography | Kim Yeong-cheol |
Edited by | Nam Na-yeong |
Music by | Bang Jun-seok |
Production company | |
Distributed by | CJ Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 92 minutes |
Country | South Korea |
Language | Korean |
Budget | US$2.7 million |
Box office | US$6.2 million[1] |
The City of Violence (Korean: 짝패; RR: Jjakpae; lit. "Partner" or "Pal") is a 2006 South Korean action thriller film co-written and directed by Ryoo Seung-wan, who stars in the film opposite action director and longtime collaborator Jung Doo-hong.[2][3][4][5]
Wang-jae is an ex-gangster who chases a gang of punks into an alley where he is fatally stabbed to death. His four childhood friends reunite in nearly 20 years at Wang-jae's funeral. Up to then, each person has gone their own way: Tae-su became a Seoul police detective. Pil-ho has taken over his brother-in-law Wang-jae's business. Seok-hwan works as a debt collector while his older brother Dong-hwan struggles as a mathematics professor. After the funeral, Tae-su decides to investigate the murder within a week before he would return to his job in Seoul.
Meanwhile, Seok-hwan decides to find and kill Wang-jae's murderers. While investigating, Tae-su is attacked by youth gangs, where he barely escapes with his life after Seok-hwan's unexpected arrival. They decide to work together. After hunting the gangs, they discover Wang-jae's death is not a random mindless attack, but was a planned murder. The revelation leads them to Dong-hwan, who confesses that Pil-ho was behind the plan after Wang-jae disapproved Pil-ho's plans to turn their city into a tourist district. After strangers tried to kill him as part of tying up Pil-ho's loose ends, Wang-jae's young murderer agrees to testify against Pil-ho.
A killer douses the young murderer in gasoline and sets him on fire. Later, Pil-ho badly thrashes Tae-su and also targets to finish Seok-hwan, Dong-hwan and their mother in an accident, but Seok-wan survives. After Dong-hwan and his mother's funeral, Seok-hwan and Wang-jae's widow leave the funeral house and sees Tae-su waiting outside. Tae-su persuades Wang-jae's widow into revealing information on her brother Pil-ho's whereabouts. Tae-su and Seok-hwan storm Pil-ho's fortress where they fight their way through swarms of armed cooks and bodyguards until the banquet room.
Meanwhile, Pil-ho kills the Seoul president, which prompts all guests to leave. Tae-su and Seok-hwan confronts Pil-ho, who is along with his four elite guards in the room. A fight ensues where Tae-su and Seok-hwan manages to defeat Pil-ho's elite guards and sets to take on Pil-ho, who takes them by surprise by attacking Seok-hwan. Pil-ho turns and stabs Tae-su, but Seok-hwan later finishes Pil-ho with a katana. As Tae-su bleeds to death, an exhausted Seok-hwan notices the carnage that he and Tae-su had created and sighs heavily.
2006 Busan Film Critics Awards[6]
2006 Korean Film Awards