Ever since his breakout role in Train to Busan, Ma Dong-seok (a.k.a. Don Lee) has been making waves both internationally and in mainstream Korean Cinema. His screen presence is unique, even among peers and character actors who lead some of South Korea's best genre films, and he's definitely not the boyband heartthrob type, but there's something about him, especially in action, that is simply electrifying,
The 2017 film The Outlaws is a film that fits Ma Dong-seok's screen persona to a capital T: in it, he plays Ma Seok-do, a tough-as-nails, fearless police officer who talks with his fists first and asks questions later. In that film, he helps bring down a Chinese crime syndicate from trying to set up business in the country. It was a hit with local audiences, becoming the third highest grossing film of all time in the country.
The Roundup is a sequel to that film (though to be fair, it functions perfectly well as a standalone film), and it mixes things up. This time, Detective Ma is in Vietnam, trying to catch a Korean criminal. But in the process of that operation, he comes across a much more fearsome adversary: Kang Hae-sang (Son Sukku), a ruthless criminal who preys on Korean tourists visiting South East Asian countries. Thus begins a fast-paced, surprisingly funny yet also very brutal action spectacle that starts off with the pedal to the metal and doesn't let go for the next two hours.
Ma Dong-seok doesn't disappoint; every action scene is a delight to behold, almost effortlessly dispatching perps left and right like a South Indian action superstar. It almost feels like he's in the wrong movie (in a good way,) in that it's like it's not a Korean detective out there kicking ass and taking names, but Gilgamesh from the Eternals punching a man so hard he flies through a bus window. But he's not all about kicking ass: director Lee Sang-yong (who, according to IMDB, has only directed one film prior to this) uses him as a deadpan comedy foil to create genuinely funny scenes that in the hands of a lesser filmmaker would be tonally jarring.
As an antipode to Detective Ma's immovable object is Son Sukku's Kang Hae-sang, a brutal, sinister, nigh-unstoppable force, one that cannot be stopped as he rampages through countries to get what he wants. Wildly different from his role as the morose gangster in the recent Korean drama My Liberation Notes, his turn in the film is just as electrifying as Ma's own, creating a counterpoint to our protagonist, his sharp knives and blades contrasting with Ma's hammer-like fists and brute force.
The film is a breeze to watch (perhaps the breeziest two hours I've spent in a cinema since theaters opened), with genuinely thrilling action sequences that will leave you at the edge of your seat. Fans of Ma Dong-seok will not be disappointed here; perhaps the only criticism I can level against it is I wish it had even more of him in it. The film debuts in cinemas starting today, and I hope people catch it there.
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