Asura - The City of Madness (2016)

[laagi]

 

I grabbed this of iTunes (Germany) the other day. Funnily enough this already got a Blu-Ray release in Germany as well. There's not even any Korean version available yet.

Han is a corrupt cop who's been on the paylist of the city mayor for years. Doing his dirty work and getting a big fat cheque at the end of each month seems to be going well. However when a fellow cop is murdered during one of his "investigations" and suddenly internal affair is breathing down his neck things take a turn for the worse (a lot). Han is now cut in the middle between his maniac boss and a prosecutor who will stop at nothing to bring him down.

It's difficult to feel any kind of sympathy for the protagonists. All of them play dirty and they will do whatever it takes to succeed. Including extortion, murder, bribery... just to mention a few. Han is probably the only one I could feel a bit of a connection once the story unfolds and you see a little bit behind his motives. But it's a grim ride with a lot of violence. The end doesn't really come as a surprise.

I would say if you like your standard corrupt cop fare you'll enjoy this. There's enough familiar faces here, which seems to be the case in a lot of these modern korean movies. Much like the ones from Hong Kong. Add all the violence and you got yourself a nice evening.

[kingofkungfu2002]

The UK dvd is out this week.

[One Armed Boxer]

I got through watching this one last week.  A brutal ride for sure, and definitely a movie for anyone that counts themselves as a fan of Korean gangster flicks.  I gave it a full review here -

http://cityonfire.com/asura-city-of-madness-2017-review/