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The Thieves
Released on: February. 12, 2013
Released by: Well Go! USA
Director: Choi Dong-Hoon
Cast: Gianna Jun, Yun-seok Kim, Jung-Jae Lee, Hye-su Kim, Simon Yam
Year: 2012
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The Movie:
Heist movies any more feel the need to up the ante so much that the object of the robbery itself becomes a bit of a Maguffin. Elaborate set pieces showing a team's slick effectiveness provide the basis for action pieces and then the now-inevitable double-crosses and love stories set the beats in motion for the rest of the story. I blame the Oceans 11 remake (and its follow-up films) for this trend but it seems to strike a popular chord with audiences worldwide.
Case in point is The Thieves, released mid-2012 in Korea it's currently the highest-grossing film of all time in that country. Here, the story centers on the highly improbable theft of a big diamond by both a Korean as well as a Chinese team of thieves. Being that this is a Korean film it thus opens showing that team pulling off an elaborate art piece heist. Led by the seemingly level-headed Popeye (Lee) and employing the acrobatic and seductive talents of Yenicall (Jun) they make a fool of the rich art collector and clearly define their talents for the next job at hand.
This team is joined by an old member just getting out of jail, the safecracker, Pepsi (Hye-su). She has history with Popeye and they both have a history with the mastermind behind this latest diamond plot, a mysterious older thief named Macao Park (Yun-seok). They both think he screwed them over on the job that got Pepsi nabbed and imprisoned. But Park is after the diamond to sell to big-time criminal Wei Hung, a criminal so reclusive that no pictures exist of him. Park has also called in the talents of a Chinese team, led primarily by the ever-cool Chen (Yam). Some awkwardness around racism and their subsequent use of different languages actually works to serve up some additional tension between the teams but they all seem to be clicking when it comes to getting the job done.
The heist itself plays out fairly straightforward but, as it turns out that one of the team members is an undercover cop, it all doesn't go quite according to plan. Some are caught in the ensuing mess, some escape and some die. And it's at this point then that more of the story is revealed as the cops are just wanting to trail Park to find Wei Hung and arrest him. The love story between Pepsi and Park - and, to a lesser extent, Popeye - gets an interesting twist or two as well. The meeting between Park and Hung also becomes something closer to revenge rather than just business. As all the groups converge this sets up a pretty stellar bit of action sequences, one part clearly inspired by part of Mission Impossible 4 but still entertaining nonetheless.
Alliances are forged and tested. Clichés such as there not being honor much among thieves gets turned on its head. And the older lead actors turn in some incredibly solid performances and really help sell the story overall. My biggest issue with the film is that it clocks in at 136 minutes but should've stopped at about the 100-minute mark. However, in that “overtime,†we're treated to some very fine action set pieces and eventually settle on an appropriate conclusion to the story.
Audio/Video/Extras:
This disc from Well Go USA Entertainment is presented with an MPEG-4 AVC encoding at full 1080p in 2.35:1 widescreen. The film is pretty crisp overall but the f/x or processed scenes look a little weak in it. Colors are strong throughout although the scenes within the gold-walled casino tend to get a bit soft, like they're washed out in the detail and look rather flat. Audio is served up in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 in Korean (and Japanese, Mandarin and Cantonese at times, based on the story as well) with English and Korean subtitling available. The balance here is quite nice with all elements getting appropriately pushed to the fore when called upon and then well balanced otherwise.
A short making-of featurette clocks in at 5:45 minutes and features a brief behind-the-scenes look at the six-month production. Meet the Thieves provides character introductions and actor interviews for the main characters in the film and it runs just 4:29 minutes. The trailer for this release of the film is also included, along with trailers for other Well Go USA titles.
The Final Word:
The Thieves is an entertaining but overly-drawn-out suspense/action film that throws some good kinks into the worn heist film framework that are welcome when they're delivered so well.
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