There’s a brutal serial killer on the loose in South Korea. His modus operandi is quite simple: by faking a collision with another vehicle on a deserted road, he encourages the aggrieved party to get out of their car: when they do so, he waits for them to get distracted, then stabs them to death. Thus begins The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil – a particularly brutal slab of Korean crime drama, an unholy trinity of unorthodox policing, gang warfare and compulsive murder – albeit one which manages to offer more than a few moments of bizarre camaraderie and even humour along the way.
The serial killer’s antics are of great interest to local cop Jung Tae-seok (Mu-Yeol Kim), who would much sooner investigate this case than all of the other, to his mind, petty cases which his boss insists should take precedence. It’s quickly clear that the world in which Jung Tae-Seok operates is incredibly corrupt; the local crime syndicates exert control over the local area via a system of intimidation and bribes, and seem largely left to fight it out amongst themselves when any issues arise (spoiler: issues very much arise). At the very top of the chain is boss Jang Dong-su (the inimitable Dong-seok Ma); however, his usual assured position in life is severely challenged one night when he himself has a minor traffic accident, gets out – and walks straight into the serial killer, now known simply as ‘K’. Dong-Su is severely injured in the encounter, but escapes with his life. Naturally, as he recovers he wants to seek revenge in his own way, but the police have their own ideas. When meeting with his old nemesis Jung Tae-Seok shortly after his encounter, Dong-Su proposes both a truce of sorts, and a challenge: he tells Jung Tae-Seok that he’ll set his own enquiries in motion to find ‘K’, and invites the cops to do the same. Who will find the killer first? And at what cost?
We’re left in no uncertain terms from his opening scenes that Jang is a mercilessly violent man on his own terms, and we also see that Jung is an essentially decent man, severely hamstrung by his own department’s apparent corruption and inability to really tackle the crime going on at ground level; we are prepared for each man to really go for the challenge of finding the killer with some relish. Each is unafraid to manipulate their rival, as well as brooking no opposition to their respective schemes. Along the way, we get a sense of each man’s deeper character; this would be a weak film indeed if we were presented with nothing but a couple of blockheads, one in the ‘right’ and one in the ‘wrong’, and left to watch them play at a whodunnit as they look for the ‘devil’ of the title. There is a lot more to enjoy in this slick, well-paced film. The cat and mouse scenario at the heart of the film isn’t the only element of the plot to play out, as we also see Jang grapple with the power struggles within his own demi-monde, often fixing said issues with immense shows of brutality (the film boasts some seriously accomplished, brilliantly-choreographed sequences of gang warfare). Jung, on the other hand, has to endlessly sidestep the bureaucracy and boastfulness even of those operating legitimately – all against the backdrop of the machinations of a clever and conniving murderer, who seems to be enjoying the power he has over both men, making it his business to demonstrate to them that they are each being watched.
However, as both crook and cop get closer to finding their man, the action escalates; a clever character study this might be – at least in key places – but towards the film’s close, The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil demonstrates that director Won-Tae Lee is no slouch with shooting action; there are some particularly brutal car chases and pursuits, the end-points of meticulous surveillance and patience on behalf of each man. Their truce with one another is always uneasy, and there’s a keen sense of competition between them as they each try, in their own way, to make the streets of Seoul safer. Jang may be a crook, but it’s not a monster; he is depicted in many ways as a gentleman thug, only allowing himself to spill over into ultraviolence when the rules he lives by are violated. Likewise, Jung is something of a likeable rogue, someone who may be prepared to bend the rules, but only where he believes people’s best interests lie. The film falls broadly into key acts – though thankfully without the current obsession with on-screen chapter titles – and the last act of all contains a deep lull in the action which has come before, but it allows the film to finish on a sizeable pay-off, and a grim, black humorous conclusion which rounds off the film as a whole very well.
Fans of crime thrillers will find plenty to enjoy in this tense, well-realised example of the genre. It skates the line between overtly bloody and oddly picturesque, and there is more than enough here to engage audiences throughout. As Won-Tae Lee’s only second feature, there’s quite a remarkable amount of skill on display, a story which works on its own right but perhaps also has a few things to say about Korean society and its deeper issues. Whilst the finer points of this may be lost on Western audiences, I’m sure we can recognise the idea of odd bedfellows and contested motivations, things which this film showcases brilliantly well. Skilled, almost joyful acting performances within the key roles on display aid the film in landing a big impression. By the film’s close, I felt I’d seen something well-written and worthwhile. The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil might not always be an easy watch, but it’s absolutely a satisfying one.
The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil screened as part of the Mayhem Film Festival in Nottingham, UK in October 2019.