Nameless Gangster

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Movie: Nameless Gangster: Rules of the Time (International English title) / The War Against Crime (literal title)
Revised romanization: Bumchoiwaui Junjaeng: Nabbeunnomdeul Jeonsungshidae
Hangul: 범죄와의 전쟁 : 나쁜놈들 전성시대
Director: Yun Jong-Bin
Writer: Yun Jong-Bin
Producer: Han Jae-Duk, Park Shin-Kyu, Kim Do-Soo, Yoo Jung-Hoon
Cinematographer: Go Rak-Sun
Release Date: February 2, 2012
Runtime: 133 min.
Distributor: Showbox/Mediaplex
Language: Korean
Country: South Korea

Plot

"Nameless Gangster" depicts the clashes in the Busan underworld when the government declares its war against crime. Former public officer, Choi Ik-Hyun (Choi Min-Sik) and crime boss Choi Hyung-Bae (Ha Jung-Woo) sit in the center of the maelstrom that sweeps the city.

In 1982, Choi Ik-Hyun works as a customs officer at the Busan Port. Choi Ik-Hyun and 3 other officers takes bribes, which leads to an internal investigation. The head customs officer has dinner with the 4 men under investigation and asks them point blank for one person to become the fall guy. Choi Ik-Hyun is chosen as the fall guy by virtue of having the least amount of dependents in his family.

A few nights later, Choi Ik-Hyun works the nightshift at the Busan Port. He spots two men breaking into a warehouse through the CCTV system. When Choi Ik-Hyun confronts the two men, a physical struggle ensues with the two men eventually fleeing the crime scene. After the two men escape, Choi Ik-Hyun and a colleague go into the warehouse to investigate. They discover massive amounts of heroin packed inside of containers. Choi Ik-Hyun then offers to his colleague that if they sell the heroin, Choi Ik-Hyun will retire from the department and become the fall guy for the bribe taking investigation. Meanwhile, his colleague knows crime boss Choi Hyung-Bae. The colleague tells Choi Ik-Hyun that Choi Hyung-Bae has connections with the Japanese yakuza and can become the facilitator to sell the heroin.

The three men then have a meeting at a remote house. Choi Ik-Hyun notices that crime boss Choi Hyung-Bae shares the same family name. The men discuss their respective cuts from the distribution of the heroin. After the deal is agreed upon by all sides, Choi Ik-Hyun informs crime boss Choi Hyung-Bae that they are distant relatives and he knows his father. Due, to the informal manner in which Choi Ik-Hyun addresses crime boss Choi Hyung-Bae, Choi Hyung-Bae's henchman beats Choi Ik-Hyun savagely. They are partners, but Choi Ik-Hyun isn't held with high regard yet.

The next day, crime boss Choi Hyung-Bae goes to see his father at his home and finds his father drinking with Choi Ik-Hyun. His father introduces Choi Ik-Hyun to his son and tells his son to bow down to his distant uncle. The two men then begin their partnership in earnest. Choi Ik-Hyun, with his uncanny ability to gain favors from those around him, and crime boss Choi Hyung-Bae, with his physical prowess as the head of a feared criminal organization, are set to take over the Busan underworld, but will it last?

Notes

"Nameless Gangster" opened #1 at the Korean weekend box office (Feb.3-5, 2012) during its first weekend of release. Movie sold 918,566 tickets on 701 screens, accounting for 38.90% of all tickets sold that weekend.
For its second weekend "Nameless Gangster" stayed at #1, selling 829,307 tickets on 712 screens & accounting for 40.90% of all tickets sold that weekend. Movie sold a total of 2,485,464 tickets in its 2 weeks of release
"Nameless Gangster" became the first film to pass 4 million tickets sales at the South Korean box office in 2012.

Cast



Choi Min-Sik	Ha Jung-Woo
Choi Ik-Hyun	Choi Hyung-Bae



Jo Jin-Ung	Ma Dong-Seok	Kwak Do-Won	Kim Sung-Kyun	Kim Hye-Eun
Kim Pan-Ho	Kim Sung-Bang	Jo Bum-Suk	Park Chang-Woo	night club manager

Additional Cast Members:

Kim Young-Sun - Ik-Hyun's wife
Ko In-Beom - Choi Hyung-Bae's father
Kim Eung-Soo - Prosecutor Choi Joo-Dong
Kwon Tae-Won - Heo
Lee Cheol-Min - Hyung-Bae's subordinate #6
Song Young-Chang - Attorney Han
Park Byung-Eun - adult Ju-Han (Ik-Hyun's son)
Lee Seung-Min - Ju-Han's wife

Trailers

Image Gallery

Awards

2012 (48th) PaekSang Arts Awards - April 26, 2012
- Grand Prize
- Best New Actor (Kim Sung-Kyun)

Comments

Comment #2
Ki Says:
Feb 03 2012 5:10 am

Watched NAMELESS GANGSTER and came away extremely impressed! Ha Jung-Woo's performance was just so smooth, maybe the "coolest" gangster performance ever? On the flipside, Choi Min-Sik's performance is a lot more ambitious, some of it works and some of it doesn't. During the early portions of the film his character speaks out in a drawn out Busan accent that lacked authenticity, distracting even, but by end of the film his accent became much less noticeable. There's also killer supporting performances by Park Chang-Woo as Ha Jung-Woo's #2 guy and Jo Bum-Suk as the district attorney.

Movie follows Choi Min-Sik's path as he leaves the civil service world and becomes a major figure in Busan's organized crime underworld. He hooks up with Ha Jung-Woo, but Choi Min-Sik's character holds only allegiance to himself. Movie builds up a lot of tension during these points and there's lots of violence to follow as well.

By the end of the film, I felt like I watched an impressive original work with one of the most charismatic performances by Ha Jung-Woo yet. Unlike a lot of other gangster films, I didn't think about past influences from other gangster films. With Ha Jung-Woo's amazing performance, tight script, tension, violence, appealing 80's set pieces in Busan, NAMELESS GANGSTER is a film to get excited about. Awesome film!
Comment #1
TOK Says:
Nov 17 2011 9:04 am

Two Great Actors! this is going to be one of the best film in 2012, along with 'The Berlin File' and 'The Thieves'.