The Merciless

The Merciless is a tense and wonderfully paced film with beautiful cinematography and dynamic camerawork. It's convoluted plot with constant surprises is nevertheless easy to follow and tricky narrative structure that features time-jumps and reversals cleanly delineated. The characters are clearly distinguishable from one another; hard-boiled and violent but also humorous at times. I was fully engaged, entertained and delighted by the effortless expertise and strong performances displayed in every frame.

Go for it .. it will never be disappoint you.. acting was perfect, story is unpredictable.

This is one of my absolute favorite K-action movies!

I've watched this movie the first time when it came out and rewatched it again now, even with all movies I've come across between and, in my opinion, it's the last decent K-action/thriller movie made so far.

First of all, the actors. Wow! Honestly, Siwan surprised me with how he absolutely nailed this role, Kyung gu is exactly how you'd want the actor for this role to be, and the chemistry between them is top notch.

The movie is not slow pased at all, it's more of a calculated, fermented thing, where every scene and every line has to have a perfect impact. Even better that is switches between past and present to give more depth to characters relationship. This movie is a masterpiece.

I'm confused with the reviews below 7. Are we watching the same movie?

This movie is really good. For those who like the crime genre, it's engaging and not boring. I've rewatched it more than 20 times. It's that good. You need to pay attention to the actors' microexpressions. Observe the cinematography and the chemistry-everything is perfect.

If you rate it below 7, it might not be your genre. You have to focus on the details. Im Siwan's acting here is truly amazing. Sol Kyung-gu's characterization is also impressive; he consistently delivers a stable and expressive performance. Chungmuro is truly remarkable.

This movie really made me obsessed.

This film was showcased at the Cannes Film Festival.

If you want to see what top shelf action crime drama looks like ,The Merciless, as the title translates, is its very definition.

This is a polished, likeable, laughable but ultimately, very dark film. Its essence if you look closely, is a proxy dysfunctional father son styled relationship. The older and younger crime figures play ball, they have fun, they make jokes, hang out, rough house, conspire, collaborate, share the good and the bad.

Of course given the nature of what they are and what they do the outcome was and is, very bleak and could be nothing else. In its closing scenes there's a certain sense of the events of this film coming full circle too. Of loss and a grim kind of anti hero, rebirth.

If you like quality crime drama, with healthy amounts of action, with an adjoiner that this film is violent and occasionally sadistic, then you really can't do better than this offering from Korea. A deeply impressive effort. 10/10 from me.