Review of I, the Executioner / 베테랑2, directed by Ryoo Seung-wan

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I recently fell into a spell of unemployment probably during the worst time to be unemployed, as it was very hard to find a job. I was applying to hundreds of jobs, getting interviews, but no offer was manifesting for me in the near future. So during this time, I had a lot of free time, and spent a good chunk of it chipping away at the blog.

Korean cinema has always been my base for what kinds of movies I reach for when I want something familiar and comfortable. I’m not Korean, but I speak a decent amount of Korean, and I found that when I worked professionally as a critic, I often covered Korean and Japanese cinema because of my background in the region.

Anyways, even after I quit the critic job to work on the blog and do my own thing, I’ve still be gravitating towards Korean movies and television. I even went back to Korea to further study the language in Busan. So imagine my surprise one day, when I was flying United home from Los Angeles and saw they had a decent amount of Korean movies available to watch on the flight.

I never fly United or Delta unless work or a scholarship pays for it, as they tend to be more expensive, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by what they offer for their entertainment. The best I’ve been on so far have been Etihad and British Airways for the kinds of movies I like, but on this day, I was having a field day on United.

I ended up only watching one movie during my flight home from LA, and it was I, the Executioner. I didn’t realize going into it that this was a follow-up to Veteran, which I saw many years ago, and I didn’t recognize any of the characters despite this. Guess I need to rewatch Veteran!

Let’s get into the review for this film.

A team of police officers are trying to find a murder suspect, but don’t realize the threat might be closer than they think.

This movie takes place with the squad of the Violent Crimes Investigation Unit at a police department, specifically headed by Seo Do-cheol. For those who didn’t remember Veteran like I did: he’s the main character in that movie.

This film begins with his team busting a gambling den by sending in a female cop undercover. When the people running the den realize that she’s a cop, chaos breaks out and there’s some violence, people running everywhere, but the team manages to snag everyone they need before it’s too late.

After this, a video goes viral on the Internet. In it, a masked person kills an art professor who was known to rape a student who then killed herself after the fact. Turns out this masked killer is someone who’s doing this in a string of well-known murders, as he’s specifically targeting those who managed to escape justice while committing crimes.

The killer is also popularized by a YouTuber on the Korean side of the Internet. This YouTuber, Editor Justice, is depicting the killer as a bit of a hero and vigilante who is actually helping the people. It’s Editor Justice who also begins a rumor that Jeon Seok-woo, a man who killed a pregnant woman while recklessly driving drunk, is the next victim.

Do-cheol and his team are ordered to protect Jeon because of this. Jeon, despite the media swarming him whenever he goes outside, is moved into a safe house. It’s here that Do-cheol begins to notice rookie Park Sun-woo, who is strong yet polite with his elders on the team.

Sun-woo might be the next prodigy, but, at the same time, he’s acting weird. We see on the side that he’s been befriending Seo’s bullied son. It’s also been interesting how he’s integrated himself within the team, especially after an event occurs at Namsan Tower. The team is there and chasing a man who might be the killer, but then Sun-woo beats him violently, in front of recording bystanders, to the point where the guy almost dies.

At the same time, Jeon escapes after discovering the key in the bathroom and is killed. Seo and crew begin to cast their eye on Sun-woo, as he’s new and shows the same background as the killer, who clearly knows about police operations. The next victim-to-be is Min Kang-hoo, a former soldier, who killed some bikers with his car and escaped justice in the eyes of the killer.

When they go to track him down, Sun-woo starts suggesting he’s going to frame Kang-hoon, then uses violence against him after making it seem like Kang-hoon attacked him first. Kang-hoon tries to escape, but is stopped by Sun-woo using jiu-jitsu, which Seo realizes is the same way that some of the other victims were killed as well.

Sun-woo lays down his cards when he has a trap laid. He has Seo’s son in a terrible situation with his bullies, while Sun-woo kidnaps the YouTuber. Do-cheol has to make a decision. He decides to send his team to his son, while he goes after Sun-woo. They face off, and Do-cheol manages to stop Sun-woo by forcing a car accident.

Still he does CPR on Sun-woo, even if it means he has to go to prison for a lifetime. Sun-woo is taken away for treatment and to be arrested, while Do-cheol goes off to reconcile with his son.

However, after the credits, I saw there was a scene where Sun-woo manages to escape before getting to prison, setting this up for another movie.

Overall Thoughts

Despite not remembering anything that happened in the original Veteran, outside of Yoo Ah-in being in it as the villain, I had a fun time with this movie. It’s fairly standard and predictable if we’re going to be honest, so it might not be the best film in that sense when it comes to originality.

Regardless, I thought that this was weirdly the perfect plane movie. I never expected I was going to be watching this on a Monday morning West Coast time, when I should be sleeping, but I had a great time. The action is great, I didn’t have to think too hard, and the characters were lovable. You don’t need to remember the first movie or have seen it to understand this one.

So go watch this one if you have the chance and want to see it. You might find it worth it, and it’s a great Friday night movie. I don’t think I’ll be returning to this movie any time soon, but I’m glad I watched it in this moment.

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