THE THIEVES (Choi Dong-Hoon). 135 minutes. Subtitled. Now playing, and opens Friday (October 19) at the Yonge-Dundas 24. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Unapologetically mainstream and thoroughly entertaining, The Thieves is the sort of Korean commercial venture that rarely makes it onto Toronto screens. Don’t think of it as an art-house picture it’s a slick, sprightly heist movie that just happens to have subtitles.
Choi Dong-Hoon’s charming caper picture sets itself up as the Korean version of Ocean’s Eleven, with a veteran thief (Kim Yun-seok, of The Chaser and The Yellow Sea) bringing together two crack teams of criminals – one set from Korea, and the other from Hong Kong – to rob a casino in Macau. Easy as pie, right?
It ought to be, but director Choi and co-writer Lee Gi-Cheol aren’t interested in a clockwork plot where everything runs smoothly and the good guys get away clean instead, once the premise is established, they start throwing one obstacle after another in our anti-heroes’ path, just for the hell of it.
There are rivalries within the groups, trust issues between old friends – oh, and an undercover cop has infiltrated the operation, just to throw in a little Reservoir Dogs sizzle. And once the job is pulled, there’s a whole second wave of backfires, betrayals and general chaos to be dealt with.
At two and a quarter hours, The Thieves zips appealingly from one clever sequence to the next. (The heist itself isn’t even the movie’s high point.) But the best part is how offhand it all feels there’s a spontaneity to the action that makes the movie feel as if it just happened while Choi and his cast hung out in various exotic locations.
Gianna Jun (Blood: The Last Vampire) best personifies that vibe as a gleefully shallow narcissist who’s as good at hanging off of buildings as she is at lazily seducing marks or annoying her older colleagues. But she’s just the actor having the most fun.
normw@nowtoronto.com | twitter.com/wilnervision
