New World (2013 film)

Story

Chairman Seok Dong-chool of Goldmoon International, South Korea's largest corporate crime syndicate, is killed in a mysterious car accident, and the possible successors are Jung Chung, Lee Joong-gu, and to a lesser extent, Jang Su-ki. Goldmoon is an amalgamation of several crime factions that were assimilated by the dominant Jaebum clan. Jung Chung was the former head of the Chinese-descended Northmoon clan, the largest of Jaebum's rival factions, until it merged, and has since become senior managing director of Goldmoon. Lee Joong-gu is the former second-in-command of the Jaebum clan, but was pushed down by Jung after the merging and serves as a managing director instead, despite being backed by the Jaebum faction, which as a whole holds the most power. Jang Su-ki, as the vice chairman of Goldmoon, is officially the heir apparent but his Je-il clan was dissolved during the merging and his position in the group is strictly a formality, with no real power or involvement in day-to-day operations of the syndicate. Although Jung has the highest chance of becoming the heir, Jung's right-hand man, sales director Lee Ja-sung (Lee Jung-jae), is really an undercover police officer. Ja-sung has been operating for eight years and is exhausted and constantly worried of being discovered. He was promised reassignment to an overseas position in the police force, but he is forced to keep working undercover with the threat of having his true identity leaked if he refuses.

Chief Kang (Choi Min-sik) and Director Ko wish to influence the succession to favor the weakest candidate, Jang, with the plan resulting in the syndicate being taken down before it grows too powerful for it to be contained by the police. They first ask Ja-sung to leak incriminating evidence about Jung. Then they go to Jung, and convince him to leak evidence about his rival Lee in exchange for not being prosecuted. Once Lee is in jail, they inform Lee that Jung betrayed him, the result of which is that Lee sends directions for Jung's murder.

Jung remains confused as to how the police got the evidence against him, and is insulted when Chief Kang refuses a bribe from Jung in a later meeting. He pays a large sum of money for Chinese hackers to investigate, which leads to the discovery of three undercover police within his staff, one of them being Ja-sung, the second being Ja-sung's Go instructor Shin Woo, who was actually his handler, and his own right-hand man Oh Seok-mu, to which Ja-sung was completely unaware of his real identity. He spares Ja-sung because they have become good friends to the point of Jung calling Ja-sung his brother, and proceeds to murder the other two. Shortly after, Lee's followers ambush Jung's faction, during which Jung, whilst killing most of his assailants, is mortally wounded. While lying in the hospital near his death, Jung tells Ja-sung that he needs to decide his loyalty, stating it will be the only way he can survive.

Chief Kang breaks his promise to Ja-sung once more by refusing to let him disappear, instead making him Jang's vice chairman upon Jang becoming chairman, thus giving Ja-sung more access to sensitive information that can take down the syndicate in the future. Moreover, Ja-sung's wife, who has been secretly spying on him on Chief Kang's behalf, was pregnant, but the stress from Ja-sung's profession and her own spy work, along the sudden shock of an attempted hit by Lee's men, results in a miscarriage. It also happens at this point that Lee is released from jail, due to the evidence against him proving to be insufficient. Lee will certainly seek the death of Ja-sung but Chief Kang show no concern for this, due to Lee seemingly losing all his power after the attack on Jung's faction and the public fiasco afterward resulting in his entire faction being banished from the syndicate.

Jang, who is poised to succeed, tries to kill Ja-sung, an event which Chief Kang anticipated but also did nothing to stop. However, Ja-sung had already secured the loyalty of Jang's men, along with Jung's faction, leading to Jang's own death, as well as Ja-sung's unanimous succession as chairman. Feeling deeply betrayed by Chief Kang's constant refusal to let him walk away, Ja-sung decides to become a full criminal. He orders the murder of Chief Kang and Director Ko so that no record will remain of his old identity. He also murders Lee, his only possible rival, as revenge for Jung.

The last scene is a flash-back from six years ago, when Ja-sung was still beginning as an undercover cop. He and Jung, at that time low-level members, successfully kill a much larger group of rival criminals, seemingly enjoying the process. This demonstrates Ja-sung's early corruption and also the depth of Jung's friendship with him.

Critical reception

The New York Times called the film "both less bloody and more thoughtful than most of its genre, the shifting-alliances plot becoming more engrossing as it progresses."

Los Angeles Times wrote that "writer-director Park Hoon-jung tells this twisty story of internecine warfare within a Korean corporate crime syndicate with patience, elegance and no small amount of bloodshed."

Salon said that "the rewards come from a satisfying plot, distinctive characters and a series of memorable showpieces, and Park handles all three demands well," and "no one in American movies has made a crime opera this good in years."

Film Business Asia praised it as "the best played and most gripping Korean gangster movie since Yoo Ha's A Dirty Carnival. [...] not only showcases three of South Korea's best actors at the top of their game but also manages to sustain its 2 and a half-hour running time on sheer character drama rather than action or violence."

Box office

The film scored admissions of 4.67 million, with a total gross of ₩34,831,698,405 (or US$31,212,801).

Awards and nominations

2013 Beaune International Thriller Film Festival

2013 Baeksang Arts Awards

2013 Buil Film Awards

2013 Grand Bell Awards

2013 Blue Dragon Film Awards

2014 Max Movie Awards

2014 Chunsa Film Art Awards

Remake

Sony Pictures picked up the remake rights, reportedly in the mid six-figure range. The production company Vertigo Entertainment will handle the project with producers Roy Lee and Dan Lin, Jon Silk and John Powers Middleton as executive producers, and Will Fetters as screenwriter.