Yes, it’s a gun. But “revolver” also refers to rotation, spinning around. That motion that describes Revolver, a film that wants to rework the revenge genre.
This slow-burn thriller has antecedents in the Donald Westlake novel The Hunter, filmed as Point Blank in 1967, Payback (1999), Parker (2013), the upcoming Play Dirty, and any number of low-rent gangster knock-offs. The set-up: crook does time with the promise of a pay-off on release, only to be double-crossed by former partners. Bloody, implacable revenge follows.
Korean star Jeon Do-yeon plays Ha Soo-young, a cop framed in a payoff scheme. To protect her boss and lover, she agrees to a two-year sentence with the promise of an expensive apartment on her release. Jeong Yoon-sun (Lim Ji-yeon), a flashy and clearly untrustworthy moll, is waiting for her outside prison. She informs Soo-young that someone else has taken her apartment and her money.
Penniless and unemployable, Soo-young's only way to get her money back is by attacking her former partners. Every move she makes brings another obstacle. One of the cops who betrayed her is murdered. Jeong Yoon-sun offers to help, but is also working with the crooks. Rival gangsters want to silence her. On top of that, legitimate cops are out to get her.
An icon in South Korean cinema, Jeon Do-yeon played an assassin with John Wick-level skills in last year's Kill Boksoon. Her character here is equally formidable, but much less flamboyant. In Kill Boksoon she had a family and friends; in Revolver, she's on her own, apart from an infirm ex-cop with his own agenda. Soo-young's not that accomplished a fighter either, as we can see by the scars she's acquired in prison.
Soo-young isn't interested in stylish moves or ironic gestures. She's out for her money, no matter who or what gets in the way. If she has to swill a cocktail filled with blood, she'll choke it down. Fearless to a reckless extent, she faces down the most unhinged crooks.
Chief among those is Andy (Ji Chang-wook), the son of a gang leader who exerts his privilege with pointless violence. A coward when challenged, he hires his own group of killers to chase Soo-young. That allows director Oh Seung-uk to expand the film's scope with eccentric characters and settings.
What sets Revolver apart from other revenge films is how the characters' goals evolve. Some are trapped by their anger and pride; others can adjust, find ways to change their demands. Revolver offers the promise of cathartic violence, only to pull the rug when the moment comes.
Jeon and director Oh Seung-uk worked together before on the splendid 2015 noir The Shameless. This film is more a character sketch than a full-fledged thriller, but Jeon makes the journey worthwhile.
(Credits: Directed by Oh Seung-uk. Screenplay by Oh Seung-uk, Joo Byeol. Produced by Han Jae-deok, Park Min-jung. Director of photography: Kang Kook-hyun. Edited by Kim Sang-beom. Cast: Jeon Do-yeon, Ji Chang-wook, Lim Ji-yeon.)
The film screened in the Korean Cinema Today section of the Busan International Film Festival in Busan, South Korea.