Mayakwang

A small time South Korean smuggler gets involved in the production and export of methamphetamine to Japan, building a massive empire in the process. It's basically the Asian version of Scarface with less chainsaw murder and more nationalistic fervor. Includes a great lead performance from the ever versatile Song Kang-ho, some sweet period fashions, and plenty of choice 70's rock music. I didn't think I'd ever hear Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida featured in a Korean gangster flick, but here we are.

A very trite movie about the rise and fall of a criminal drug lord. Overal it is not bad, but it's painfully mediocre. The directing is competent, but very by the numbers, even the stylistic touches it does have, are exactly what you expect from a Scorsese clone. The characters are written so thin, there's not enough to sustain this the 140min running time. Even Kang-ho Song trying his best, couldn't safe this.

It's like if Scorsese had made Scarface instead of Goodfellas and were born in South Korea

Starts off as a pretty decent, and somewhat unique take on a rising star drug dealer story. By about half way though, it's devolved into the same old criminal destroys himself and his family story that we've all seen a dozen times before, only this time they were speaking Korean.

Compilation of gangster movies tropes. Overstays its welcome quite early.

Scarface set in Korea. A few good moments and an overall decent example of the rise to power through the drug trade, but aside from some interesting looks into political corruption, this one's pretty boring and not up to par with others in this genre.