Jo Pil-ho: The Dawning Rage (2019)

It's not often I'll watch a film and completely change my opinion half way through, but through masterful direction, great acting and a half decent story with a few twists and turns this film actually became one of my favourite films of this year.

Jo Pil-ho: The Dawning Rage is a ridiculous title that I refuse to write out more than once. So, from this point on, I'll refer to it as The Dawning Rage if at all. But, title aside, this film is an interesting one. As always Netflix give you a one or two sentence summary of this two hour film, and it sounded pretty lame. But I feel like Netflix didn't really have any other choice as to describe this film in one or two sentences would be nigh impossible. You see the plot of this film isn't necessarily complicated, and in fact follows the tried and tested South Korean thriller formula pretty well; the thing about this film's narrative is that it's so well told and so detailed that you feel its worth more than a basic description. Let me try and elaborate. 

The story follows the titular Jo Pil-ho (Sun-kyun Lee, Parasite), a corrupt cop that likes to steal petty cash here and there. Due to his affiliations with some lowlife gangsters, internal affairs are watching him closely, so it's his plan to raise some money to invest in a business that'll help him keep a low profile. Of course the robbery attempt goes wrong, but not quite for the reasons he was expecting. Without spoiling too much the whole thing is embroiled in a big scandal, and the film turns quickly into a cat and mouse chase as both sides, Jo Pil-ho and co against the shady organisation responsible for the robbery gone wrong, look for various people connected to it. If that sounds complicated it's less so when you actually watch the film, and if it doesn't sound complex enough its more so when you actually watch the film.

You see, this film has been made so masterfully that all of its elements come together to create a cohesive, coherent and concise film that is easy to follow and is eventually engaging. The film is paced pretty well and gives out information when it needs to. Best of all though is that is really well written and acted. There are negatives, which I'll go into in some detail later, but for now I'll explain why it's a really great film.

The first forty minutes flew by and not all that much made sense. You get the idea of each character and their motivations become clear fairly early on, but its not until the female character Mi-na (So-min Jeon, Cross) becomes important that the film starts to pick up the pace. And this film is paced so well. Each and every character, whether or not they have more than one dimension, develop so nicely and so clearly that by the end everything feels deserved. By the time the final confrontation rolls around the whole thing makes sense, because it's what we've been building up to. It's sort of refreshing to see this, especially in a film that isn't a 22 part film series developing every single character through their own movie, to just have a film that introduces and develops its main character in a well thought out and detailed way within the confines of the 2 hours. And it's not just Jo Pil-ho that is well developed. The female character's arc, while a little similar to that of Jo Pil-ho's, also develops well and culminates into a beautiful finale for her character.

The good writing also helps the actual story, and story moments flow naturally, feel intense when it needs to and even at times feel a little comedic. There are some really good and funny scenes, some well thought out (and I know I've said this a thousand times) but deserved sentimental scenes, as well as just some good old fashioned action. There are twists that you're like "Saw that coming" but then moments where you just stare wide eyed at your screen thinking "What the actual FUDGE!" This is a film that isn't afraid to take risks and a lot of things you expect to happen just don't. This film is really rough on its main characters and it rarely goes their way, right up until the end. These characters feel real and natural because of the fact their not superheroes or amazing at martial arts or anything; one of them is a young little girl who while she can hold her own is no match for ten or so trained assassins, and the other is a cop who's alright at fighting, but not as good as his opponent (most of the time). It's super refreshing to see this, to see realistic characters interact with each other in a realistic way, while keeping the story a little dramatic and bombastic. It's awesome!

There are problems, like I said. For one, the opening forty minutes, while not a slog, are confusing. There are a lot of characters that are introduced only to die or disappear soon after. If you miss a story beat then you'll be lost for a long time. And while it's true that after those forty minutes it picks up, if you're not engaged then I understand why you'd turn it off, I almost did. It tends to be the case with these sorts of films where it has to introduce characters and plot elements really quickly and it ends up losing you as a viewer. It does pick up, but the confusing opening (certainly not as abhorrent as Tik Tok) doesn't help things.

The villains are lacking a few dimensions so to speak. Essentially their motivations come down to greed or not wanting to go to prison, and while its played off like they're more interesting than they actually are, they're still pretty basic. It's a shame because there have been some iconic and interesting villains coming out of South Korean thrillers like in Park Chan-Wook's Oldboy and Lady Vengeance, but in this they're just not great.

BUT... this film is still absolutely class and by far one of the better films I've seen this year. It's well worth a watch if you're into thrillers, South Korean cinema or just some good acting. Because the acting in this is awesome, it feels natural and realistic and the little things each of the actors do just makes the whole thing come alive. No one feels like a movie villain even if they're written like one. It's awesome stuff. You should absolutely watch it if it sounds like your sort of movie, and if you feel like you can push through some confusing stuff toward the beginning. But seriously, they should change the title.

8/10