The Unjust

For director RYOO Seung-wan, who has worked in and alongside the action genre since his debut feature Die or Bad (2000), his greatest action film may well be The City of Violence (2006), in which he also appears as an actor. But as his finest genre film, The Unjust may be the more compelling contender. It is the kind of work only a filmmaker who has spent a career honing the craft of genre cinema could make. Without sacrificing cinematic momentum for even a moment, the film persistently cuts into reality. Through its world of entangled crime and power, rife with corrupt bargains, the film offers a compressed portrait of a Korean society governed by ruthless competition and the law of the jungle. RYOO neither overplays the material nor sinks into pessimism. His camera remains trained on a precise target, forcefully tracing how one crooked deal leads to another, until the entire chain of events hurtles toward catastrophe. Alongside HWANG Jung-min, YOO Hai-jin, and RYOO Seung-bum, every member of the ensemble—regardless of the size of the role—moves in perfect rhythm with the film. Their collective energy makes the film all the more dynamic.