Signature Entertainment
Jung Ho Lee’s second feature film takes the 2004 French crime film 36 Quai des Orfèvres and plants it in South Korea. After Parasite’s deserved win at the Oscars earlier this year, we’re bound to see a plethora of South Korean films released to ride the wave of success. Despite the fact there are plenty of films from the last two decades and beyond to enjoy, people will be looking for the next big thing.
36’s central plot is one that can be easily transposed to any society, with enough wiggle room to adapt it into something different. Two high ranking detectives find themselves up for a single promotion, with the position pretty much promised to whoever solves the current biggest crime. One cop is arguably more morally sound, but their methods are also questionable, whereas the other goes by the rule book but this can lead to questionable ethics.
It’s a fascinating premise and we see Lee put his own spin on the plot by changing the main crime being investigated from a series of bank heists to a series of murders. In typical Korean thriller fashion, the violence is rough and intense and the film is covered in a shroud of doom and bleakness.
Related: Parasite review
Lee creates tense pacing throughout the majority of the film, with the battle of wits (and sometimes witless) between lead detectives Jeong (Sung Min Lee) and Han (Jae Myung Yoo) being the main draw. Both give brilliant performances and continuously surprise as they slide between darkness and light, right and wrong. They’re the best thing about the film, which unfortunately becomes convoluted and messy.
Despite the fact that changing key details, and most of the second half of the original, means this is not just a carbon copy, the changes often hamper the conciseness of the original. Having the film centre around a serial killer makes an already foreboding film almost irredeemable. There are no characters to really like here and it becomes increasingly difficult to invest in. Not to mention the cases become convoluted and it’s hard to decipher what is going on.
Competent and well-produced, The Beast is admirable in creating its own voice but too cold to connect with. The likes of I Saw the Devil and Memories of Murder aren’t exactly feel-good films, but at least their humour leviates the horror at points.
The Beast is available on Digital HD from 6th April.
