Heubhyeol hyeongsa na do-yeol (2006)

Director:

Si-myung Lee

Writer:

Soon-Wook Jeon (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 February 2006 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Fantasy | Romance

Cast

Ho-jin Jeon	...	Inspector Kang
Yeo-Jeong Jo	...	Yeong-hee
Hie-jeong Kim
In-mun Kim
Su-ro Kim	...	Ricky
Kwang-rok Oh	...	Vampire Hunter
Yeong-su Park
Byung-ho Son	...	Tak Mun-su

Also Known As:

Vampire Cop Ricky (International: English title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Certification:

South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

South Korea

Company:

Chungeorahm Film

Fangs, but no fangs

How far did I have to look for a vampire-themed action/comedy with a touch of romance you might ask? Only as far as I usually look when I'm in need of my fix of cinematic bliss. So came Ricky, a boner-fide vampire cop, in a not all too familiar setting, that most would have associated with such a person, South Korea.

All of this with the help of a single mosquito, that got the best of a certain Dracula of Transylvania. Ricky, which is the commercial name of the character played by Su-ro Kim of the Volcano High fame, portrays a crooked cop, that gets bitten by this very mosquito. The crookedness and the basic transition in the main character was somewhat reminiscent of Stephen Chow's never ending recipe of a misguided good guy mingling with the wrong kinds, until the inevitable turn for the bright side. Ricky's turn is anything but bright, as the symptoms become very visible and his hunger for blood rises. One thing that gets Ricky's blood pumping is rage, but so do good looking women, as he explains to a priest "I turn into a vampire whenever I get hard".

All of this might seem like throw-away humor but it's not, it's actually good when it gets the time on the screen, but this being a Korean comedy, issues like buddy-cop drama, girlfriend that wants him to turn his life around consume their share of the film and humor is sometimes put on hold. Now the action was the least impressive to me. The whole Bruce Lee mannerisms and 'one punch and you're out' fighting style have been done to the death and beyond, so here it felt as a cover up to avoid coming up with fresher fighting sequences. The actors do a fine job, considering how much is asked from them. The flamboyant villain, played by the veteran actor Byung-ho Son adds a new spin on the crime lord persona, but the entire film stands on Su-ro Kim who avoids exaggerations and plays his character out with adequate vigor both in comedic and dramatic moments.

But, because the film stood at 2 hours, it left itself with as many good parts as it did with not so impressive and useless parts, however it at least tried to inject some drop of creativity into the old formulaic fusion of comedy, drama and romance, even if the comedy was its strongest and limited value. So with the sequel somewhere in works, I don't know what to expect, but because the win some lose some attitude will never disappear in the money driven film industry, it is anyone's guess how much better or worse the next feature will be.