There are the countless intertwined connections amidst the people in South Korean society based on family ties or school ties or other kinds of personal ties, and how you are connected with others will considerably affect your life and career in the system if you are born in South Korea.
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The movie sarcastically tells that all he needs are the right connections, and Ik-hyeon does have them. You will wonder how such a promotion can be possible for him even though he is just a plain ex-public servant. Soon, Ik-hyeon finds himself at the top-or near the top, at least.
He quickly proves to Hyeong-bae that he is a valuable asset to Hyeong-bae not only during the competition with the other local crime boss Kim Pan-ho (Jo Jin-woong) but also during the expansion of their crime business involving night clubs, hotels, and casinos. Once he finds that Hyeong-bae is a distant relative of his (both belong to Kyeong-ju Choi clan), he begins to insinuate himself into Hyeong-bae's organization. They are merely a seller and a buyer at first, but Ik-hyeon goes further. That is how he comes to meet a rising young mob boss, Choi Hyeong-bae (Ha Jeong-woo). His greedy mind instantly gets a nice idea rather than reporting it to the authorities, why not sell it to a local mob organization in the town? Someone must take a fall, so Ik-hyeon is about to be fired just because he has the least number of children among them, but, not long after his discharge is decided by his direct boss, he happens to acquire a bag of methamphetamine by chance. Unfortunately for them, there comes a sudden internal investigation due to a citizen's complaint. When they return to the office with their latest loots, nobody particularly pays attention to them-or what they are doing in the bathroom with lots of 10,000-won bills and a Japanese electronic rice cooker which have been stashed above its ceiling. They have no qualms about that because that's what everybody in the custom office does for extra cash. There are always the people trying to smuggle something in or out of South Korea, and it is Ik-hyeon and his colleagues' job to catch them-and to extort money for overlooking them. Port cities usually attract the crimes like contraband trade, and Busan is no exception. I and other South Koreans have heard such a boring vainglorious speech like that at least once from the guys like Ik-hyeon, and Choi Min-sik perfectly captures the comical aspects of a petty hero with all pride but no substance. He has little to be proud about himself as a humble civil servant, and there is a silly scene in his shabby house where he tries to impress his future brother-in-law with a long superficial brag about his great Kyeong-ju Choi clan. And some of them were actually my family members.Ĭhoi Ik-hyeon, played by Choi Min-sik, is an annoying guy like that, and he is an ordinary civic official working at the custom office in Busan.
They annoyed me and others like hell with their constant bluffs and brags, especially when they were drunk like jerks. While watching the boorish and bullying behaviors of its unlikable protagonist during my first viewing at the local theater, I said to myself oh, I knew guys like him. The movie has not only the vivid looks and feelings of South Korean society at that time but also a certain disgraceful example of South Korean male I and others have seen.
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