Another Public Enemy

The main character in this sequel to 2002 smash hit ‘Public Enemy’, public prosecutor Kang Chul-joong (played by Sol Kyung-gu), has a curious dynamic. He acts like Dirty Harry with a law degree, racing out into the field to pummel bad guys for vital evidence, but with his slight frame, hunched posture, worn face and infantile volatility he’s far from equipped for such a belligerent, committed approach to social justice. So it’s a shame that his adversary here, Machiavellian businessman and former school colleague Han Sang-woo (Jeong Joon-ho), is such a ludicrously nasty villain. Not only is he embezzling funds from his dead father’s educational fund, he’s also into fratricide and driving over doddery street cleaners who tick him off for dropping cigarette butts. As Kang bemoans the law’s inadequacy at protecting everyday folk from the evils of big business, others intimate that his own reasons for doggedly pursuing old schoolmate Han might not be entirely in the public interest. But such quasi-complexities, plus a few comic moments, hardly make the two and a half hours fly by.