New York Asian 2025 Review: THE INFORMANT, Moles Turn Double Agents in Labored Korean Crime Farce

Opening night at this year's New York Asian Film Festival featured the world premiere of The Informant, a crime comedy from South Korea. Despite engaging stars, this ride hits a lot of potholes.

Key to the plot is a ledger containing incriminating evidence about ganglord Hwang Sang-gil, first seen murdering an underling on a whim. Undercover cop Joo-hee hides the ledger, but is caught by Sang-gil's men before she can tip off her boss.

Also working for Sang-gil is Cho Tae-bong (Jo Bok-rae), a professional informant recruited by hapless cop Oh Nam-hyuk (Squid Game gangster Heo Sung-tae). Tae-bong is about to flee gang headquarters when he and his colleague Park Ki-cheol are abducted by Sang-gil's enforcers.

The crooks are looking for an informant known as "Elite Park." They should figure out his identity when Park hurls himself out of a speeding SUV, but in this movie almost everyone operates at an annoying level of idiocy.

Convinced instead that Tae-bong is Elite Park, the crooks tie him up and throw him off a smuggling boat. A passing fisherman rescues Tae-bong, leading to a long flashback about his relationship with Nam-hyuk. [That's just how haphazard the screenplay gets.]

Earlier, Tae-bong posed as Nam-hyuk's informant in several stings that earned him a fortune while turning into disasters for the cop. These quick, elliptical skits hit the comic highpoints for the movie, which otherwise spins its wheels setting an enormous cast of characters in place.

Another subplot devoted to Nam-hyuk's crush on fellow cop Lee So-young (a very appealing Seo Min-joo) details their relationship in a long flashback of varying quality.

Kim Seok's (making his feature directing debut) plot is repetitive as well as muddled. The Informant is set in a world where crook and cop alike operate at a Three Stooges-level of competence. Characters keep getting caught and escaping, only to be caught again through sheer ineptitude.

At times the movie hits comic gold, like an interrogation where Tae-bong and Nam-hyuk try to reconcile wildly divergent alibis before a skeptical So-young. Another scene reminiscent of vintage Stephen Chow finds Nam-hyuk trying to defend himself after being struck by drunk cops. "The car hit me, how is it 60% my fault?" he argues in disbelief at the hospital.

Late in the story, Seok commits the cardinal sin of veering from comedy to drama. Viewers are suddenly expected to care about whether Nam-Hyuk and So-young will fall in love, or to worry that they might get injured fighting the bad guys.

Jo Bok-rae and Heo Sung-tae generate some Detective Chinatown energy at times, but it's not enough to rescue The Informant.

(Stills © Joh Seok-hwan)