"Look, Officer Gang. I understand that you've got nothing better to do than vexing me since you are uneducated, stupid, and hardly anything good comes your way. But, you can get into big trouble for that. Ignorance and foolishness is a dangerous combination."

"You've got the worst fucking luck for meeting a fucked-up cop like me."

The scruffy, tough, cop who plays by his own rules. A coifed, upper crust killer. Cliches, true, and you'll find them both in the Korean crime flick Public Enemy (2002). Luckily, thanks to sharp characterization and a deft blending of genres, this is the kind of entertaining and energetic film that can take such cliches and turn them into gold.

In addition to being a widower and an ex-boxer, Detective Cheoljung Gang (Kyung-gu Sol- Slimido, Rikidozan) is twelve year police veteran who is overworked, underpaid, and tired. Over the years he has learned one thing, fighting crime is like putting out a fire with too little water, try as you might, the fire will just rekindle. When Cheoljung's partner finds out they are both being investigated by Internal Affairs, he blows his brains out. Cheoljung isn't quite ready to do that, but he is a man very much pushed to the breaking point.

Cheoljung gets sparked back to life when he is attacked one night while on a stakeout. His mysterious attacker sliced open his cheek and ran off into the night. A wealthy couple is later found dead in the same neighborhood, and Cheoljung realizes his attacker must have been the person behind the crime. Part personal vendetta, part moral obligation, Cheoljung sets out to find the culprit. He only has one suspect, the couples son, Gyuhwan Jo (Sung-jae Lee- Attack the Gas Station), who is by all outward appearances wealthy and well adjusted but is, in fact, a man driven by a deadly temper and selfish desires gone completely insane.

There is only one problem, Cheoljung neither posses the investigative skills to prove what he knows, much less the people skills to deal with anyone else. Gyuhwan Jo, on the other hand, is a cunning man with a good reputation. Still, the one thing Cheoljung has going for him is his steel-headed determination. And so it begins, a game of cat and mouse, or better yet, bulldog and viper.

Although it is essentially about the hunt for a killer, like Memories of Murder or Fargo, Public Enemy is about the characters and pitch black humor more than any real crime procedure or mystery. The killer's identity is always known to the audience, and the entire Cheoljung/Gyuhwan Jo dynamic doesn't even occur until halfway through the film's 138 minute running time.

Cheoljung is an absolutely perfect heroic loser, and, subsequently, Kyung-gu Sol's performance blazes through every frame of film. Cheoljung is rough, stupid, a tad corrupt, but good intentioned in the best down on his luck, anti-authoritarian sense. Internal Affairs thinks he is on the take but are actually surprised by how little money Cheoljung has, and when they try to rifle through his office, they open his desk drawer only to find a single, lonely pen rolling around. Convinced of Gyuhwan Jo's guilt of patricide, his only tactic to uncover the truth amounts to openly harassing the businessman, showing up at his house, following him while jogging, and berating him at work. Though this leads steadily to his demotion to a lowly traffic cop, Cheoljung never quits; he'll get his man somehow, most likely by sheer force of will.

The film juggles (hell, it blends) moments of violence and brutality with outright slapstick silly stuff. Bloodshed one minute, chuckles the next. While it is a bit long, I wouldn't sacrifice any of the extended scenes that are essentially unnecessary to the central plot because they are mostly scenes of humor and character. The ending is a bit anti-climatic, but it was a great deal of fun to get there. And, it is of little surprise to me that the character prover popular enough to warrant a sequel, Another Public Enemy, which I look forward to checking out.

The DVD: ADV

Picture: Anamorphic Widescreen. Overall, this is a very nice looking transfer. The film is a tad drab and dark, keeping that crime drama look, but the colors and contrast appear fairly well-rendered. Flesh tones are rich, and the sharpness appears to be pretty crisp. A little bit of grain but not to any bothersome degree. Compression artefacts appear to be pretty minimal, nothing too severe popped out to my eyes.

Sound: English 5.1 or Korean 2.0 channels with optional English subtitles. I always prefer original language. The 2.0 channel is serviceable, but the 5.1 track does have better separation and response, though I thought the vocal dub was a tad too high in the mix.

The subtitles are quite good. They present the dialogue in different colors when multiple people are talking. They also offer text translation, almost a bit too much, from name tags, to store signs, and taxi marquees.

Extras: ADV Previews.

Conclusion: It is a shame the disc is barebones, however, I really enjoyed the film and think that it merits repeat viewings, therefore I'll gladly recommend it. Public Enemy is film full of colorful characters and is a great mix of moments that are gruesome and laughable. Korean cinema has certainly been getting a lot of buzz over the past few years, and Public Enemy adds another admiralbe, commercial friendly reason why.