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Review | Cannes 2024: I, the Executioner (Veteran 2) movie review – Hwang Jung-min, Jung Hae-in lead superior thriller sequel

  • Box office blockbusters too often get lame follow-ups. That’s not the case with Ryoo Seung-wan’s sequel to Veteran. It’s more action-packed and has more to say
  • Hwang Jung-min plays hard-boiled detective Do-cheol, whose team, including Jung Hae-in as Sun Woo, is tasked with protecting a paroled thug from a vigilante

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Hwang Jung-min (left) as detective Do-cheol and Jung Hae-in as new police recruit Sun Woo in a still from I, the Executioner (category to be confirmed), directed by Ryoo Seung-wan.

4/5 stars

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In an age in which filmmakers tend to follow box-office blockbusters with sequels that provide ever diminishing returns, South Korean filmmaker Ryoo Seung-wan has bucked the trend by making a brainier and brawnier follow-up to his 2015 hit Veteran.

Upping the stakes from the first instalment in nearly every department, I, the Executioner is a crowd-pleasing juggernaut that warns against the perils of populism, takes violence to task – and takes viewers on a white-knuckle roller coaster ride.

With stunning set pieces, a well structured story, a relatable social issue at its centre and a couple of visual gags that pay tribute to Buster Keaton, I, the Executioner makes The Roundup franchise starring Ma Dong-seok looks like child’s play.
I, the Executioner new trailer official - Cannes Film Festival 2024

Ryoo’s film, which premiered in the Midnight Screenings section at the Cannes Film Festival, begins with a remarkably choreographed sequence featuring bone-crunching fist fights, groin kicks and police officers debating their children’s tuition fees while they pursue crime suspects.

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Leading the charge through the mayhem is Do-cheol (Hwang Jung-min), who was last seen battling an amoral multimillionaire in Veteran. This time, the rough-edged detective’s nemesis is Haechi, a self-styled vigilante targeting people who are believed to have got off lightly for their bad deeds.

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