Extreme Job: Why Did the Chicken Cross the Police Lineup

"Are we cops or a chicken joint," one of the characters asks in Lee Byeong-heon's ultra-silly Extreme Job. That's a false polarity though because clearly as the movie goes on, this deep-fried squad is actually both. Sure, they're collectively running a thriving business inspired by the ribs recipe of Detective Ma (Jin Seon-kyu). But they only ended up "pretending" as a cover for their real career as narcs, hoping to bust an operation that's set up shop across the street. None of them were expecting this sideline scheme to end-up being such a success. Least of all, Captain "Zombie" Ko (Ryu Seung-ryong). So what's to do when the cash starts flowing?

Sabotage their business model? They try, time and again yet no matter how limited the menu and how overpriced, this spicy sauce-up can't stop from being an internet sensation. And while Ko's new financial security has its charms, Extreme Job might wait a little too long before the martial arts kick in during this action comedy. Considering Detective Jang (Lee Hanee) and lead surveilance Young-ho (Lee Dong-hwi) have martial arts in their backgrounds, it seems a shame to wait until the very end to let the physical hijinks emerge. An earlier scene involving two shirtless male crews going head to head in a loft while sexily entertaining doesn't feel especially connected to the tale at hand. Not that you can ever have too much hot sauce.

A Man of Reason: Welcome Crimes Against Logic

Watching most contemporary action pics requires a tremendous suspension of disbelief. But if you can let go of particulars like how the combined blood loss from car accidents and bullet wounds would naturally prohibit a character from fighting and running at a physical peak then enjoyment may follow. I say "may" because sometimes these impossibilities are impossible to ignore. However, in actor Jung Woo-sung's directorial debut A Man of Reason such concerns did not trouble me. I was perfectly willing to accept such nonsense as a young girl (Ryu Jian) outrunning a trained dog in a dark house and the hero maneuvering through traffic as easily as a fleeing motorcyclist tossing bombs. A Man of Reason isn't concerned with keeping it real. It's focused on keeping it entertaining.

With that goal in mind (and a performance that feels like an invitation for Tom Cruise to remake), Jung packs his picture with visually stunning sequences: a gang of stuntmen (I mean thugs) fight to gain control of a spinning car in a fancy lobby; a pair of survivors dive into a giant birdbath as a building explodes into glorious fire. Would a recently beat-up second-banana of the underworld be able to survive multiple nails shot into his throat by a deranged assassin couple (Kim Nam-gil and Lee Elijah)? Could a single assailant take on an entire room of killers with only a flashlight and a glistening knife? If you're asking yourself such questions you're missing the point... and all of this movie's many pleasures.

Ballerina: A Different Type of Fairy Tale

I don't know when Netflix first posted about the impending arrival of Ballerina but I've been waiting for it impatiently ever since. The image of a messy-haired young woman (played by Jeon Jong-seo), clearly in action-movie mode, coupled with this short description was just so irresistible: "Grieving the loss of a best friend she couldn't protect, an ex-bodyguard sets out to fulfill her dear friend's last wish: sweet, sweet revenge." I suspected the subtext here was "a young-woman/former-assassin in a loving relationship with lesbian undertones takes on the patriarchy, one slay at a time." And I wasn't far off.

Our heroine, Ok-ju (Jeon Jong-seo), is indeed a loner assassin who finds a new life purpose after a reunion with a high school crush Min-hee (Park Yu-rim) inspires her to massacre a mass of misogynist pimps, drug-dealers, and sex traffickers — particularly a long-haired, porn entrepreneur (Kim Ji-hoon) and his drug king boss. Will they be able to survive once Ok-ju gets gun-power from two geriatric arms dealers (Kim Young-ok and Joo Hyun) and further fuel for her fire from a sex traffic survivor (Shin Se-hwi)? Doubtful. Shoutout to director Lee Chung-hyun and whoever the cinematographer was for making the whole affair look so damned beautiful.

Kill Boksoon: Killer Queen

Murder is big business in Byun Sung-hyun's slyly satirical action epic Kill Boksoon. As the killer CEO Cha Min-kyu (Sol Kyung-gu) succinctly explains, the sloppy work and loose morals of amateurs have caused this line of work to be disrespected. So he's taken it upon himself to implement a new set of rules in order to restore some honor to the profession. Herewith...

1. Do not kill minors.
2. Only do jobs assigned by your company.
3. Always accept an assignment.

But the truth is, there were rules in the old days too:

If you send a bloody knife to a rival, you are inviting that person to a duel to the death.

That's right! Assassins have always had a Code of Conduct. But rules change with the times. As do players. A leader in the field currently is Boksoon (Jeon Do-yeon), a top-tier terminator who has worked her way up that deadly corporate ladder, one offing at a time. She's got her idolizers professionally (Koo Kyo-hwan) and in-training (Lee Yeon) — the latter under a company schoolmistress (Esom) who immediately feels like a rival. But as our heroine points out, "Killing people is easy when compared to raising a kid" (Kim Si-ah). Does being a scythe-for-hire inherently make her an unfit mother? To quote another character: "Making good money is the best qualification"... for that. Yet nothing complicates shady business practices than nosy cops. And love. I welcome such complications!

I also want to add that action pics attain a whole other level when you have a top-notch actor in the lead role: Think Gena Rowlands in Gloria and Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once. And Jeon Do-yeon in this movie, too.

The Outlaws 2: The Roundup

The Outlaws 2 is a very stabby movie. By which I mean, the weapon of choice is the knife for pretty much everyone. That's true for our villain (Son Sukku). Same for his blade-wielding bestie. Same for the brother assassins our villain hires when his bestie lands in the hospital. Same for a bistro's worth of serial sous chefs hired by a rich man (Nam Mun-cheol) to avenge one disarmed son. Everyone bad favors the knife. I mean everyone. Even the deranged hostage-taker in the movie's opening scene. Even the pathetic scam artist (Park Ji-hwan) who's mainly here for comic relief: The diminutive size of his switchblade is a cause for the titters.

Which begs the question. Who, in this universe of stainless steel stained with blood, prefers to fight by other means? And I don't mean the hatchet which also makes at least one appearnace. Well, our hero police officer (Ma Dong-seok) prefers using his fist. His sidekick of a captain (Choi Gwi-hwa) opts for the handgun should one become available. And the rich man's wife (Park Ji-young) who has her own negotiations with the stabbing maniac, she just uses her brains... and when that doesn't work, she runs! Funnily enough, though, the most exciting scene in Lee Sang-Yong's action-packed sequel isn't one of its many slice-and-dice bloodbaths. It's an extended car chase involving many vehicles and not dependent on endless crashes to create the drama.

Please Note: The Outlaws 2 goes by the title The Roundup and you don't need to have seen the previous film to make sense of the murderous mayhem.

Carter: Bloodbath

To describe the extended action sequence and stunt showcase that is Carter as bloody is an understatement. Within the first 15 minutes alone, our amnesiac/brain-tampered hero (Joo Won) has slaughtered a spa full of Japanese thugs with a scythe. Once he's jumped out of that building (not his first escape, dear viewer), he moves on to hand-to-hand combat, first with a white guy; then with a black one. It's only then that we learn what's going on: He's the muscle for an intricate plan to rescue a young girl (Kim Bo-min) whose the sole source of antibodies for a wide-spreading zombie virus. Further biographical details are shared when a U.S. operative reads his profile to him (and us) during a brief moment of captivity.

Oh yes, Americans as well as North Koreans can be bad guys here. Where do I go? What do I do? For stretches, Carter's answers come largely from an implanted earpiece that also instructs him step by step as if he were living in a video game. But when his molar explodes or he falls out of a pilot-less airplane, this parttime puppet is going to have to rely on his instincts and his training. Both serve him well. The freefall battle between him and one particularly deranged opponent is like nothing you've ever seen, right down to the paraglided landing in the back of a pickup truck full of hogs. As for who our man on a mission impossible truly is, writer-director Jung Byung-gil saves that crucial bit 'til the final act, which peaks with a panopticon of baldcapped undead unruliness. The question is, do you believe it!

Revenger: Bruce Khan, Step This Way

After watching the martial arts B-movie Revenger, you may ask yourself: Who the hell is Bruce Khan and where has he been all my life? An immediately iconic anti-hero of the silent-but-deadly type, the seriously buff, humorlessly serious Khan singlehandedly turns Lee Seung-won's skimpily plotted action flick set on a prison island that pits a crew of alpha dogs against a group of oddballs into an engrossing affair. He's not alone in keeping you engaged: A female archer (Yoo Jin-seo) with unfailing precision, her bratty daughter (Kim Na-yeon), and a goofy gang leader (Kim In-kwon) with a hook for a hand are all chewing up the tropical scenery with abandon as is the movie's main nemesis (Park Hee-soon), a mummy-wrapped madman who's taste for blood is insatiable.

He hasn't got a shot against Khan, though, since the latter is generally speaking untouchable whenever he's engaged in hand-to-hand combat or swordplay, regardless of how many people are encircling him. Why is it so satisfying to see one person take on a ill-advised crowd? Anyway, I'd say his most delectable adversary wasn't the film's ostensible embodiment of evil but his henchman played by the drop-dead beauty Choi Je-heon. When they strip down for the final confrontation, you may be struggling to choose exactly who you want to win: the beautiful bad boy or the righteous ruffian who sometimes wears blood like lipstick. I picked the high ground but you do you.

Mission for the Dragon: The Korean Bruce Lee

Did you know that after Bruce Lee died, a number of Asian actors took on very similar names for an endless line of Bruceploixtation martial arts flicks, all looking to cash in on the posthumous brand. There was a Bruce Li, a Bruce Lai, a Bruce Le, a Bruce Ly, a Bruce Lie, and a Bruce Lei. That last one also went by Dragon Lee but his real name was Moon Kyoung-seok and while he hardly ever garnered his iconic predecessor's mass appeal, he's certainly no less appealing than Jean-Claude Van Damme or Dolph Lundren (and likewise looks best when he's stripped his shirt for his cartwheels, bicep flexes, and tiger claw poses). In Mission for the Dragon, the chances to go topless come with some regularity as his character clearly prefers fighting bare-chested than with the encumbrance of a royal blue smock. Or even that fancy mirrored vest.

The central conflict here involves a beloved father who may have been murdered or may just be missing. More likely to hold your attention than daddy's whereabouts are the film's wacky audio tracks, both the sound effects (recalling the '80s-era arcade game Space Invaders) and the dubbed vocals (which, for all I know, might be performed by one underpaid actor doing multiple cartoonesque, often-accented voices). Be sure to keep the subtitles on despite the English dialogue, simply for the pleasure of seeing "(whips)" and "(thuds)," "(screams)" and "(grunts)" at the bottom of your screen. This feature also permits you to appreciate sterling bits of dialogue like "You can't recognize the truth," "Prepare to die," and "I must kill or be killed." Statements like that last one only gain depth and nuance when paired with "(emotional music)."

Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days: What the Hell!

A movie can take its inspiration from anywhere: a great book, a bad book, a play, a graphic novel, or in this case, a webtoon. As you might guess given this particular source material, Along With the Gods: The Last 49 Days isn't exactly realistic. Director Kim Yong-hwa's episodic tale of the underworld is instead a combination of video game action, Medieval redemption, and modern-day dramedy.

It's a complicated plot full of flashbacks and flashbacks in flashbacks, a story in which you may struggle to reconcile financially struggling humans on earth with costumed judges in the Hells of Filial Impiety, Indolence, Deceit, Betrayal, Injustice, Violence, and Murder. So many hells! So many green screens!

None of these hells are scary, mind you. The ravenous raptors and the firey Go-Bots, much like the CGI wolves and the animated tiger, are creatures more likely to surface via your PG-rated Xbox than by way of your worst nightmares. The closest thing this flick has to a real threat is the dwindling value of the mutual funds which the caretaker-grandfather (Nam Il-woo) and his guardian angel (Ma Dong-seok) pray will provide for the future of their young charge's future. As for the corny jokes and silly gags we've come to expect in action pics, one grim reaper (Ju Ji-hoon) does drink a chamber pot of urine. But overall, the comedy is more tonal than actual. So what's the point? "No one is innately bad. There are only bad circumstances," quips someone near the end. You could say the same about many movies.

Kundo: Age of the Rampant: Our Friends and Family on Screen

I'm not above having imaginary relationships with movie stars. I may not put posters on my bedroom walls or gossip about my celluloid boyfriend but there are definitely performers I've enjoyed meeting and looked forward to seeing again; actor whom I wanted to be a bigger part of my life; actors who I miss after I haven't seen them for awhile and greet with pleasure when they reappear. Ma Dong-seok fells into this category: He's in my inner circle, I mean I frankly adore him, although that wasn't always the case.

Over the years, our paths had crossed numerous times: He played the gang boss in Rough Play, a section chief in New World, and an ineffectual detective in Azooma. So sure I kind of knew him but honestly, we didn't really get that close until just very recently. His role as a lovable lug with a pregnant girlfriend in Train to Busan and now his turn as a rebel-thief in Kundo: Age of the Rampant has really brought us much closer than I'd ever expected. People are funny that way. Mind you, he's not the lead in Kundo, Yun Jong-bin's crowd-pleasing, action-packed historical drama about revolutionaries fighting a corrupt government in 19th-century Joseon.

That honor (or responsibility) falls to Ha Jung-woo who plays a politically enlightened butcher with a debt to settle and two cleavers to do it with. And Ha's great. He really is. So are co-stars Yun Ji-hye (as an archer with a low tolerance for bullshit) and Kang Dong-won (as the bastard son who takes his grudges a little too far). But I only had eyes for Ma. I guess that's just the kind of friend I am.

It's so nice to make new friends but you know what? Now I need to find out if Ma is in a film with my other buddy Song Kang-ho. It would be so great if there was a way for the three of us to hang out together for a night. Life is short. Way too short. So spend it with the people you love, right?

Rough Cut: Fighting Realism

Today. Here in my apartment. In Brooklyn. The year 2015. I wonder... Is the general consensus that the only life worth living is the one that's broadcast to the world? Are we all secretly aspiring to Kardashian levels of fame? Is it only through the media -- be it the web or TV -- that we prove ourselves as successful individuals — whatever "success" means — and should we write off the rest of the populace as "extras" or raw material to be converted into soylent green?

Directed by Jang Hun from a stinging screenplay by that great gadfly Kim Ki-duk, Rough Cut prompts these questions and more as it looks at the madness that follows when an action star (Kang Ji-hwan) with entitlement issues enlists a fan who's also a mobster (So Ji-seob) to be his costar because no one else will. As quickly as you can sign a contract in blood, the line between reality and fantasy is destroyed: The gangster has agreed with one stipulation; all fight scenes must be for real. Isn't acting "being," after all? Radiating jock cockiness and pretty boy conceit, So is good at both "real fake" (see how he treats his girlfriend) and "fake real" (watch the scene where he gets repeatedly slapped...if you can). Clearly, his mastery of dissembling has made him a superstar and a total louse. Now that attitude is going to earn him some bruises.

Kang, for his part, just feels real. And because of that, more sympathetic. Underplaying the hell out of everything, Kang's conflicted crook seduces quietly. So what if he's amoral, violent, desperate, lost. At least he's facing life head on without self-deception. Or is he? After all, Kang's gangster can't heed the advice he's doled out to Jo's prima donna. He too is playing to the camera and looking for validation from the big screen.

Is any actor really real when being real is just an act? And, in the world of Rough Cut, are you looking for honesty or just another sensational fight scene? (The slugfest in the mud near the end is FANTASTIC!) For that matter, why do the fight scenes, despite being staged, feel somehow more intensely true? Do acts of brutality register more viscerally because they're actions, not words? Is crime more honest than art? Is everything ultimately a sham?

There's a great line by the movie-within-a-movie's ingenue (Song Soo-hyun) who tells her new leading man something to the effect of "I thought I was good at understanding all types of people when I was young. But I've lost confidence as I've gotten older." In a society in which everyone is playing a public version of themselves, the ability to actually know anyone becomes seriously impaired. Egads, has our society degenerated into a pack of self-deluding liars? Could be.