Master

Jin Hoe-jang runs a large investment company. It collects money from thousands of people and promises returns; the system pays the old investors with the money of the new. Kim Jae-myung is in the financial crimes unit and is after the file. Park Jang-goon, who runs the company's computer operations, is in between and could work for either side. A raid is made, but the books are gone and the list of payments the company made to politicians is nowhere. The man escapes abroad. The chase reaches the Philippines. Cho Ui-seok directs. Lee Byung-hun, Gang Dong-won, Kim Woo-bin and Uhm Ji-won are in the cast. It is a South Korean production. The film came out in 2016 and was one of the year's large box office productions. The narrative uses a setup that recalls the major investment frauds that really happened in Korea. The matter it treats is the size of the web; the fraud does not stand alone and politics and the bureaucracy are inside it. The film leaves the victims in the background and gives its focus to three male characters. Lee Byung-hun plays the villain quietly and politely; the threat comes through silence rather than a raised voice. The narrative is long and changes country in its second half. The action is large in scale and the production expensive. The ending gives the reckoning while implying the system goes on. Its limit is plausibility; the plan works too perfectly and some turns come easily. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean crime films and large scale thrillers. Who it is not for: it is long, crowded, and the ending familiar.