Initially called Tomb of the River when released in its native South Korea, Paid in Blood (2021) has gone through something of a name change on its way Stateside, debuting on Well Go USA's streaming service Hi-yah.
Considering that Hi-yah is primarily known for its martial arts content, I was expecting for Paid in Blood to be much more of an action movie. Although it certainly has its violent scenes, Paid in Blood definitely falls into the category of interesting rather than exciting.
Once a staple of South Korean Cinema, the hard boiled gangster genre has somewhat fallen out of favour recently, although there are still some fine examples coming out of the country, albeit less than previous years. Paid in Blood seems to be an attempt to harken back to those popular gangster dramas of the 1990’s and 2000’s such as A Bloody Carnival (2006) and Friend (2001), which coincidentally starred Pain in Blood leading man Yu Oh-seong.
Taking place in 2017 in the lead up to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the leader of a criminal organisation is planning to construct what will be the largest resort in Gangneung, with it including a Casino, Night Club and a Hotel. He plans to get his loyal underboss Kim Gil-seok (Yu Oh-seong) to take charge of managing the resort. This causes something of an upheaval, with many disagreeing with Gil-seok being put in charge.
What initially begins as a number of disagreements eventually turns to violence, with debt collector Lee Min-seok (Jang Hyuk) deciding to rise up the ranks and setting his sights on the new resort. In order to gain complete control, Min-seok is willing to murder and double cross anyone who gets in his way with him an Gil-seok heading for a collision course.
For his directorial debut, Yoon Young-bin has made quite an accomplished film. Whilst I was initially disappointed by the lack of action,.Young-bin still manages to hold the viewer's attention by filling his film with noteworthy acting performances, shocking violence and an overall gritty sheen.
While Young-bin is clearly influenced by South Korean gangster films, there is also a distinct flavour of Japanese Yakuza movies here, with it being heavily reminiscent of the work of Takeshi Kitano with its mixture of quiet dramatic scenes and sudden bursts of shocking violence. A number of scenes brought my mind back to earlier Kitano classics such as Sonatine (1993) and Hana Bi (1997)
The stoic Kim Gil-seok is a tailor made role for leading man Yu Oh-seong. Not exactly the most emotive of actors, but as shown in the likes of Attack the Gas Station (1999) & Champion (2002), he can be a commanding presence when given material best suited to his talents. Gil-Seok comes from the old school, a gangster that lives his life according to a code of honour, one who puts loyalty above everything else.
These values are what sets him apart from Jang Hyuk's Min Seok, a gangster so evil that he is willing to do whatever it takes to get to the top. Controlling others through fear and violence, Min Seok is a despicable presence and easily the most compelling character of the movie.
Saying that, Park Sung-geun manages to impress as a conflicted cop friend of Sung-oh’s who is trying to uphold the law as well as help his friend, even if he is on the wrong side of the law. The scenes between him and Oh-seong were probably my favourite of the film, with the fact that one is a cop and the other a gangster giving their relationship an interesting dynamic, even if their scenes don't actually add much to the overall plot of the film.
In fact, this is one of the film's main issues, being that the inclusion of such scenes don’t exactly help the momentum of the film. One of the real obstacles of Paid in Blood is that at nearly 2 hours, it is just overlong. Now, normally I wouldn’t consider 2 hours to be particularly long for a film, but it is when it begins to seriously affect the flow of the film. As we enter the second hour of the film the pace seriously begins to lag.
It would seem that In Yoon Young-bin’s attempt to make an epic crime drama, akin to the South Korean greats of years past, has derailed the possibility of Paid in Blood being truly successful. The inclusion of a number of unnecessary side characters and plotlines ultimately become a hindrance to proceedings rather than adding to the overall experience.
As well mounted as Paid in Blood is, there isn't a great deal to differentiate it from other admittedly better South Korean thrillers. Put against some of the classics that I have already mentioned, Paid in Blood seriously pales in comparison.
Perhaps if it was shorn of 20 minutes to make it a tighter film it would fare better. Some action wouldn’t go amiss either. As mentioned, Paid in Blood is in no way an action film with the action mostly boiling down to a handful of brief scuffles, which are mostly well handled but lack the superior fight choreography that has made other similar fare from South Korea a standout.
The only real standout action scene is kept for the finale where Jang Hyuk squares off against a gauntlet of opponents before coming face to face with Oh-seong. The fight is both scrappy and brutal and gives Hyuk a chance to show off his action skills, something he had done the year previously to greater effect in The Swordsman (2020).
If Paid in Blood contained more scenes like this it could have been a winner. While I understand that Yoon Young-bin wasn’t setting out to make an action film, there are still some expectations with a film of this ilk.
While I’m not sure Hi-yah is the right streaming service for Paid in Blood I do think that streaming is probably the best way to view it. It is the kind of film that will certainly keep you entertained for the majority of its running time but will never return to.
Rating: 3/5
Comments