REVIEW:’ Hot Blooded: Once Upon A Time In Korea’

Korean gangster films are some of my favorites. They go hard and they cut deep and that’s no different for Epic Pictures’ Hot Blooded: Once Upon A Time In Korea. Directed and written by Cheon Myeong-kwan, the film is based on a novel of the same name by Kim Un-sun. The film stars Jung Woo, Kim Kap-su, Choi Moo-sung, Ki Seung-hyun and Lee Hong-nae and capture the politics and violence of being a gangster felt over time.

Set in the 90s. Hot Blooded follows a veteran gangster, Hee-su, who is looking to retire from his crime family in the violent port town of Kuam. Opening around a table with tension thick in the air, Kuam’s violence has turned to relative piece because of the leaders of each gangs coming to an understanding. For his part, Hee-su is gangster on one of the lowest rungs and serves Don Son, one of the gang’s leaders.

But Hee-su isn’t just trying to leave a violent life behind, he’s trying to fix his mistakes, one being his debilitating gambling debt, and to do it the right way. With his mind set on a simple life, an unexpected betrayal leads him down a bloody path where he gets caught in the middle of a mob war with deadly consequences. The film itself is rather simple that pays off in its action because of the time it takes to develop its characters. And that’s the crux of what makes Hot Blooded a great film.

While the pacing is relatively slow in parts, the deliberate building of tension and drama helps each moment of action have a climax that goes beyond well-choreographed moments. In fact, the tension reaches a roaring boil thanks to the way Hee-su relates to his childhood friend Chul-jin who works for a rival gang, led by the erratic Yong-kang. But these three aren’t the only ones you have to pay attention to.

This is a gangster story through and through which doesn’t offer any real surprises if you’re used to them. but not every film needs to reinvent the genre that it’s situated in. In fact, with Hot Blooded, director Cheon deeply understands what makes the genre work, and more importantly that those elements aren’t just violence and the eccentricities of gangsters. While the character work and investment in them have a great pay-off in many sequences, primarily in for anyone directly connected to Hee-su.

That said, Jung Woo’s dynamic performance as Hee-su serves every praise I can give it. As his status in the gang rises, so do the spiral of emotions he experiences. Watching Hee-su change and develop in the film is breathtaking, and when he finds himself in the center of violence it radiates through his life. There is beauty and grit in Woo’s performance and everything it captures.

Overall, Hot Blooded’s tempered pace draws in the audience and its moments of surprise and double cross keep you there paired with great performances keep them there. Hot Blooded isn’t perfect, it has the same pitfalls of many gangster films, but it also has all of the highs of the genre in spades.

Hot Blooded: Once Upon a Time in Korea is available now on VOD. 

Kate Sánchez

Kate Sánchez is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of But Why Tho? A Geek Community. There, she coordinates film, television, anime, and manga coverage. Kate is also a freelance journalist writing features on video games, anime, and film. Her focus as a critic is championing animation and international films and television series for inclusion in awards cycles.