The new Korean thriller, The Wild, is the latest entry into the Asian gangster genre. Over the last decade and a half, the Korean gangster picture has taken its place on the mantle, right beside China and Japan, forming an axis of countries who know how to craft such a film. The gangsters-versus-police movies made in these regions have a superior and unique style, blending brutal violence and powerful human dramas. Korean directors such as Wong-Tae Lee, Lee Jeong-beom, and Na Hong-jin (among others) have been crafting exciting crime pictures that play with the standard cliches found in the genre; infusing their works with originality and creative filmmaking. Now comes Kim Bong-han, announcing himself as a real player in the Korean crime cinema arena with this well-crafted character-driven thriller.

Park Sung-woong stars as Woo-cheol, a former underground boxer just released from prison after serving 7 years for killing an opponent in the ring. Woo’s friend and former partner Jang Do Shik (Oh Dae-hwan) ran the illegal fights and might feel a bit responsible, though his polluted conscience won’t allow any real remorse. Trying his best to seduce his friend back into the criminal life, Do-shik offers him a place to stay and procures him a woman for the night, Choi Myeong-joo (Seo Ji-hye). The two souls find they share enough darkness in their respective pasts to draw them closer to one another.

Do-shik tries to give his old friend a lucrative position in his gang, but Woo-cheol declines, while Myeong-joo is being stalked and manipulated by the sadistic and ultra-crooked Detective Jo (a menacing Joo Suk-tae). Woo-cheol gives the crooked cop a beatdown and a warning, but comes to find out that Jeong-gon works with Do-shik.Though swearing to live an honest life, Woo-cheol is forced to work for his buddy/former boss again in the hopes of damage control. As things begin to spiral, he is forced into Do-shik’s shaky drug deal going with a group of North Korean refugees led by Ri Gak-so (Oh Dal-su), one of the film’s most interesting character arcs that protects him from becoming a cliché.

What follows is a tale of love, betrayal and redemption with Woo-cheol trying to save himself (and Choi Myeong-joo) from the vicious hands of fate, as the physical and moral conflicts escalate to levels found in the cinematic worlds of Sam Fuller and John Frankenheimer.

The relationship between Woo-cheol and Myeong-joo finds the film at its most tender. Connected by grief and regret, the two represent for one another the good in a broken humanity. Both actors have natural chemistry and are as convincing as their well-designed characters, giving emotional center to a crime film already interested in subverting audiences’ expectations; their relationship giving profound weight to the film’s final act.

The Wild is a thriller that certainly has a few good moments of explosive violence that should please fans of this genre, but these scenes are born of realistic situations and are dramatically powerful in their execution, existing not to thrill but to bring intensity to the story. Director Kim Bong-han is more interested in the nuances of his characters, crafting them with depth and human emotion, assuring the scenes of brutality have purpose. Amongst the double crosses, shady deals, and gunplay, the film creates something complex and intriguing about each of the individual stories and their connection to one another. This is a multilayered and quite interesting picture that pulses with deeper subtexts of personal pain and redemption.