Ryoo Seung-Wan (director)
Filmmaker R&K (studio)
124 (length)
23 October 2015 (released)
25 October 2015
The London East Asia Film Festival premiered its first edition at the Odeon Leicester Square on Friday night.
Taking place over the weekend the festival offered a selection of major titles from Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, China and Southeast Asia. The Opening Night Gala welcomed the premiere of Korean box-office breaker Veteran and a Q&A with director Ryoo Seung-wan and producer Kang Hye-Jung.
In one word Veteran is a rollercoaster. A perfect mix of genres, Korean culture, pop culture references, martial arts, comedy, drama and social critique. Its popularity is thus of no surprise earning the film the status of biggest grossing film in Korea this year.
As the director described it the film’s narrative revolves around crimes based on loose truths about the Korean superrich. Crimes that are especially not dealt with by the judicial system such as underage prostitution, sexual violence, drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption.
Despite its big cast and multiple storylines the film completely succeeds in fully developing its characters giving each of them very recognisable, almost caricatured, traits and an evolution throughout the film.
The film was evidently influenced by Hollywood cop films of the 80s such as Beverly Hills Cop and Die Hard and the director stated that the inspiration behind the slapstick sequences at the beginning is, nonetheless, Buster Keaton.
The most interesting aspect of the film, which is often found in Korean productions, is the frequency of tone change, going from the highly dramatic to the utterly funny without making the scene jarring.
Seung-wan said that he can only be interested in Korean crimes and culture because he is a part of Korean society and this film really connected with the young audiences which is fundamental for the future generations.
Finally, he stated that the dark and the bright side of life always coexist in Korean society. Veteran is the ultimate example of this cultural trait and it will certainly be loved by both local and international audiences.
