We’re back with a new film review and this time we watched the 2018 film ‘Believer’. If you’re into crime films at all, keep on reading.
‘Believer’ is a remake of the 2012 Chinese film ‘Drug War’ by Johnny To. I haven’t seen the original so I can’t compare.
This new edition was directed by Lee Hae-young and co-written by Lee and Chung Seo-kyung. Lee has also directed films like ‘Silenced’ and ‘Phantom’. There’s also rumours about a second installment of ‘Believer’ itself coming out.
Plot
In the film we follow along as detective Won-ho, played by Cho Jin-Woong tries to find the notorious Mr. Lee who runs a drug cartel. Mr. Lee is a figure shrouded in mystery as no one has seen him and there are a lot of impersonators around.
Won-ho has been on the case for a long time and is getting desperate to catch him. One of his informants, a teenage girl, dies but manages to give Won-ho a hint as to where he should start his search. His boss is starting to get impatient with his lack of results.
In the cartel itself there are also a lot of tensions, because of all the impersonators and the warehouse that exploded with some of the key figures ending up dead.
One of the survivors of the explosions Seo Young-rak, played by Ryu Jun-yeol, decides to help Won-ho in his chase.
Overall
The technical aspects of this film were incredible. The shots were beautiful, especially the ending shot and it really enhanced the beauty of the film even if the story itself was rife with explosions and dirty fist fights.
The acting was also really well done. Cho Jin-Woong especially was beyond amazing.
As for the story itself, you could kind of see the plot twist coming from a mile away, however that didn’t reduce in the fun of watching it at all.
Overall, it’s a really well-made film so definitely check it out!
Watch the trailer for ‘Believer’ below.
