Veteran - Above the Law

Veteran does not deserve attention for its cinematic qualities, entertaining spectacle or the director’s typically brilliant physical action choreography, though in these respects it is a very solid genre mix. Much more noteworthy is the fact that, contrary to expectations, this solid yet not especially exceptional film became the third most-watched movie of all time in Korea. In this respect, the film has a perfect exploitation-style narrative, which for most of the runtime only builds up the outrage toward the demonised, degenerate parvenu and then allows that outrage to be vented in a gladiatorial manner. Paradoxically, however, the narrative concurrently serves as a means of justifying police brutality or even straight-up glorifying it as a necessary way to make the bastards who remain beyond the reach of the law at least partially pay the price for their actions. (26.06.2016)