Picture of the movie The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil © 2019 KIWI MEDIA GROUP. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil: a murder manhunt in South Korea
The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil: a cop joins forces with a gangster to hunt down a serial killer. When this formula is concocted by Lee Won-tae, a former producer and new guardian of South Korean cinema, the cocktail, presented out of competition, proves particularly toothsome.
Jang Dong-su aka Don Lee, a mafia leader and the target of an attempted murder, will lose face if he fails to find the serial killer who has dared insult him in this way. The merciless hunt for the murderer personified by Kim Seong-gyu feeds into the plot of a fiercely intense film, where the gangster joins forces with the police inspector to take out the criminal they are both pursuing for different reasons.
To compete with Don Lee's imposing stature, actor Kim Moo-yeol added no less than 15 kilos to play the role of Constable Jung Tae-seok. In playing Don Lee, who, according to him, is the "strongest character of his career" Kim surpassed himself, and in the eyes of producer Jang Won-seok "showcased an unprecedented side of his talent".
Meanwhile, in order to play the serial killer who dares to attack a mafia boss, a prey he finally considers to be his own, Kim Seong-gyu worked on chiselling his body to achieve that angular look that the director likes so much. A new silhouette that suggests an "ice pick" for the filmmaker and allows him, thanks to the actor's "disturbing, vulnerable and strong" gaze, to embody the perfect killer. "As soon as I saw Kim Seong-gyu, I knew I had my killer, he was the embodiment of evil."
And the producer, who is also an outstanding storyteller, added: "It was a real pleasure to see these guys who should never have come face to face passing the buck. The complicity between the actors was palpable."
