Bloody Tie (사생결단) Review

The success of the icily precise A Bittersweet Life has triggered something of a boom in noir oriented crime films in South Korea. With a handful of similar titles releasing over just a few months it was inevitable that some would succeed while others failed and while Bloody Tie may lack the high art of A Bittersweet Life and the high profile stars of Running Wild it certainly lands on the winners side of the ledger, a smart, well crafted tale of drug dealers and police corruption in economically depressed Busan.

Ryu Bum Seung stars as Lee Sangdo, a mid level dealer in charge of a sizable Busan neighborhood from which he turns a healthy profit. A businessman through and through Lee is unusual in that he is a second generation dealer who never samples his own wares, seeing them only as a means to enormous financial gain. Lee is also a police informer, trading information on rivals and even people within his own organization to detective Doh Jingwang (Hwang Jeong Min) in exchange for his own security. Doh, for his part, is a shell of his former self, devastated by the execution of his partner by big time drug lord Jangchul years before and his own subsequent failure to bring Jangchul to justice. Doh has been reduced to little more than a hustler, leaning on drug world contacts to line his own pockets while bringing in the occasional arrest to keep his superiors off his back.

Recognizing that the DA’s office is pressing to take over all drug related policing matters themselves and desperate to prove his own worth Doh leans on Lee to give up his own superior, promising that Lee will be protected in the coming sweep. But the bust goes bad, Lee ends up in jail, and Doh’s entire squad placed under suspension. When Lee is released the entire landscape has changed. The DA has succeeded in breaking up the three dominant Busan drug rings, thereby paving the way for an entirely new drug power to set up shop and Lee has been squeezed out of his territory with no supports left in place. When Lee and Doh realize that the new drug lord is Jangchul, the same man who killed Doh’s partner, the two agree to an uneasy partnership – Doh agreeing to support and protect Lee for a year in return for Lee infiltrating Jangchul’s organization and serving him up to Doh.

While it may lack the technical sophistication of A Bittersweet Life, Bloody Tie succeeds on the strength of its characters with both Lee and Doh presented as highly complex men driven by a multitude of conflicting forces. The constant power struggle between them, the distrust balanced against mutual need, makes for always interesting viewing. Ryu and Hwang both acquit themselves well in their roles and the film is directed with a dash of style that lifts it above the pack. While not a classic Bloody Tie is certainly comfortably above average in terms of writing, direction and performance – a combination that makes for a solid piece of entertainment.

The new Korean DVD release is typically strong. The transfer is solid with deep, true blacks and contrast – very important with a film shot extensively at night – the audio tracks excellent – 2.0 and 5.1 options – and the subtitles very clear and well translated. Additionally some copies – mine among them – include inserts signed by members of the cast.