Officer Black Belt

A South Korean action comedy. Jung-do is a young man. He holds black belts in more than one martial art; he spends his life in his father's shop and online, with no particular aim. During an incident he helps a probation officer. The man offers him a job. The job is this: supervising offenders on suspended sentences or monitored by electronic tags. There are few officers, many files, and some of these people were convicted of serious crimes. Jung-do is taken on. His authority is limited, his pay is low, and the people in front of him are dangerous. From there the film runs on two tracks: the ordinariness of daily checks, and one file that keeps growing. In the second half a man who cuts off his tag and disappears moves to the centre. What the film is interested in is not heroism but the system: what electronic monitoring does, what it cannot do, and who the people in between are entrusted to. The action is kept plausible; Jung-do fights well but he is not police, and the difference is kept in view. Kim Woo-bin plays Jung-do and Kim Sung-kyun plays the officer. The tone between the two is the best thing in it. Jason Kim directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes Korean action comedy and stories built on a working partnership. Who it is not for: anyone expecting weight; the film picks a serious subject and stays in a light key most of the time.