I big company called One Network is said to be involved in a fraud case. The police investigation team is made up of cops that are at the top of the police academy. They are on a mission to take down One Network by forcing it's chief in command to become a mole for reporting all activity happening on the inside of the company to the police. Little do they know, the founder of One Network isn't the kind of man to be taken down so easily.
This film might look like an off the chain action film. I'm going to tell you right now that its not. The poster and trailers of this film are misleading. Ploys to get action fans into the theater or to spend your money on a physical copy of this film. There's action in the film. Certain scenes call for a kind of action element but these scenes come on screen way less than the scenes that are dialogue heavy. A few Scenes portraying car chases and gun fights make appearances if you can imagine something like that[INSERT ME LAUGHING]. Master isn't meant to be a shoot em up crime thriller like many other Korean films. Viewers are instead introduced to a game of wits. A game that could be called "Who will get found out first?". Think a game of chess where you have to think a few moves ahead of your opponent while also trying to read their moves. Master's plot is all stuff with the characters trying to move around the chessboard in order to outwit each other. Since whoever gets away, gets a whole lot of fraud money. I was just watching this film to see where the story would end up. The actor's performances make up for the lack of action. I was on the edge of my seat watching the three face off with each other. Most satisfying part of the film for me was the ending. Gosh, the ending was a person forced to hold their breath finally being able to breath again. Rainbows always look better after thunderstorms.
Byung Hun still has a strong sense of acting out a character to their fullest potential. His character did a lot to hurt people but I didn't feel like he was totally a villain. He did what he needed to do. Just don't hurt others people to get what you want. That's where he went wrong. The character had a strong leader presence that wasn't to be played with. This could be seen in early scenes he had with Woo Bin's character. Woo Bin is an actor that I really want to see brake out of the same stereotypical gangster roles. Twenty was a take on a different character for him… It wasn't too much of a difference though. Master has him playing a character that isn't a gangster but he might as well be. The character adds comedy to the film which he has shown that he could do comedic roles in the past. I want him to do a role that is the opposite of what you would expect from someone that looks like him(He has a handsome scary looking face.). Sending my prayers for Woo Bin's fight against cancer. Kang Dong Won can't be stopped for anything. The man is a good actor. That's the bottomline. I've watch him play a numerous of different roles that tested his acting ability. This film featured him using what he learned over the years to act with some of South Korea's best actors(Byung Hun). He brought out such emotional quality in both Byung Hun and Woo Bin. I wasn't expecting Kang to have a strong presence being in the same camera frame as Byung Hun but he held his own. Like I stated above, watching these three go at it in a game of wits was more than enough to make up for the lack of action. Not that I'm really complaining about the lack of action scenes. Good chemistry from good actors can make any film good…. Ok, well... we need a good script too. Just that the point is having actors who can take me on their emotional journey through their acting. The cast of Master did this well.
Master's set on location changes a few times. I'm talking about going out of the country type changing of location. The transitions for this travel in the film is so spontaneous also. Fade out from the city line of Seoul to the crowded streets of Hong Kong. Then back to Seoul before ending up in Thailand. It's sad when people do bad and have to do every thing in their power to get away from punishment. Other than that, Master is filmed like all the other Korean crime thrillers.
I enjoyed Master the most after the ending result. I don't know if I would say that this is the best Korean film out there. It's a good film but I'm missing components leading to that WOW factor. The cast was fabulous till the end however.
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