[Movie Review] The Con Artists (SPOILERS MAY BE INCLUDED): madditms

madditms

[Movie Review] The Con Artists (SPOILERS MAY BE INCLUDED)

Apr 10, 2015 21:59

I recently watched ‘The Con Artists’, a Korean movie about a thief, an engineer and a hacker breaking into Incheon Customs and stealing government slush funds with a time limit 40 minutes. This movie is probably going to go on my list of “Best Movies Ever”, not because of the plot (which I will touch on later), but because of the the cast.

Kim Woobin stars in the movie as Lee Jihyuk, a thief who is talented at safe cracking (the movie shows him cracking a Swiss M-Series safe in 5 minutes, I don't know if thats good or whatever, but I can't even crack a lock).

With him is Lee Hyunwoo as a genius hacker, Kim Jongbae, and Go Changseok as the engineer and plan man, Goo In.

*Jihyuk making a note of the day of the heist*

*Jongbae hacking*

*Goo In making the bombs for the heist*

Go Changseok aside, the cast is pretty much eye candy for the girls watching it, but what about the guys? What can they expect?

Well, for one, Jo Yoonhee plays Jihyuk’s love interest, Oh Eunha, and she is definitely very good-looking.

*Eunha discussing ‘business’ with Jihyuk*

Not only that, the plot of the movie is very much like that of Oceans 11, 12 and 13, with the heist as the climax of the movie, except with a Korean twist to it. My dad, who watched it with me, said that what got him into the movie was the intrigue of how it was going to go down.

The movie starts off with Jihyuk breaking into a safe to steal an antique chicken head (God knows why a chicken head is so valuable), which he promptly breaks upon reaching his hideout with his ‘partner’, Goo In.

Goo In, as the comic relief, freaks out and calls Jihyuk crazy for breaking an antique item, while the thief himself uses a 3D printer to fake the chicken head.

Minutes after the scene, Jihyuk has successfully convinced an antique dealer to auction off the fake chicken head, and has also promised to invest 1 million won in Eunha’s (She believes him to be a renowned artist) art gallery.

On the other side of things, CHO (played by Kim Youngchul), has buried his accountant in cement for promising to tell the police everything he knows about CHO’s gangster activities.

*CHO explaining his plan to rob Incheon Customs to Jihyuk, Jongbae and Goo In*

CHO is then seen expressing his desire to get revenge on the politicians of Korea for not nominating him into politics by robbing them of their slush fund (about 10.5 billion won) in Incheon Customs. To do this, he realises that safe crackers need to be able to break into the “unbreakable” Israel L-Series safe in under 10 minutes.

While CHO is busy kidnapping his safe crackers, Jihyuk uses Eunha's diamond necklace to get into the VIP area of jewellery shops for a scheme to sell the diamonds so that he can get money (as with all thieves).

*Jongbae turning off the alarm systems during the break-in*

Unfortunately (or not?), Jihyuk robs a jewellery shop that belongs to CHO and CHO catches him (and Goo In and Jongbae) in their hideout.

*Go Changseok (Goo In) and Lee Hyunwoo (Jongbae) in Behind-the-scenes photos for the capturing scene*

CHO’s right-hand man digs up photos of the three men’s loved ones, and they are threatened to join CHO’s scheme to rob Incheon Customs.

*Goo In staring at CHO after being shown a photo of his daughter, taken by CHO’s men*

Jihyuk agrees to CHO’s plans on behalf of all three of them, much to Goo In’s surprise, since Jihyuk stated earlier that “(he) doesn’t work under anyone”.

During the recon period where they plan the heist, CHO calls Jongbae into his office and offers him cash to spy on Jihyuk and Goo In, believing that the two will not keep their word to giving him the money. Having been familiar with Korean dramas, I suspected that Jongbae would totally go for it. (And hey, I was right).

*Jongbae listening in to Jihyuk and Goo In’s conversation via very a tiny radio they he placed somewhere*

I had a lot of mixed feelings about this, because I like Hyunwoo, and I like him as Jongbae, the badass hacker who seems to be a traitor (he protested that he wasn’t a traitor to Jihyuk when they first met), but actually isn’t. This scene really killed his character for me, I was really mad at him for even being in the same room as Jihyuk and Goo In (kudos to Hyunwoo for awesome acting).

Fast forward to where the movie gets messy. The police have found out that Jihyuk was the one that broke into CHO’s jewellery shop (although they don’t know that CHO owns it…its complicated…Korean mafia shows…OTL) and are chasing him down. Jihyuk is then seen leaving his apartment (he lives rather extravagantly…I would totally doubt his job as a thief tbh) after packing his plans for the big heist. What the audience sees afterward, however, is that Jihyuk forgot to clean his “secret room” (he is such a spy, I’m so done) which has the floor plan of the customs as well as the date and timing of the heist.

Day before heist: CHO captures Eunha to use as leverage against Jihyuk since Jongbae (that lil’ shit) told CHO about Jihyuk’s plan to double cross him later. Of course, this being a Korean drama movie, Jihyuk already factored it into his plans (which I’m assuming, he didn’t tell Jongbae, cause Jongbae is such a traitor).

D-Day: I won’t really go into detail with this part since it really is the climax of the show and I have seriously given many spoilers already, so if you want to know the good, bad and ugly of this part, please go watch the movie. And watch it on a legit site and don’t just download it off somewhere (support Woobin and Hyunwoo, and everyone else in the movie, guys).

*Jongbae escaping after the heist*

Lets just say that the movie ended well, and I completely enjoyed the show. I mean, I remembered practically half of Woobin’s and Hyunwoo’s dialogue…lets just say that if you’re going to watch the movie for either of them, you will not be disappointed.

Now its time for me to watch Hyunwoo’s dramas (I’ve watched Woobin in The Heirs, it was so trying. I swear KDramas are really really OTL for me) and then cry in a hole because I cannot even begin to understand what the hell is going on.

Before I go, here are some cuts and behind-the-scenes photos from 'The Con Artists':