Review of Officer Black Belt / 무도실무관, directed by Jason Kim

Although one would say that I specialize in Korean cinema and television, as when I was a film critic professionally I would largely cover Asian cinema, especially Korean, I had no idea Officer Black Belt was coming into the world. I kind of fell off of the news world when I temporarily relocated to Busan, South Korea, for two months in the summer of 2024.

Anyways, I knew about this movie immediately after it was released because it was right at the top of my Netflix page. I recognized Kim Woo-bin immediately, and I realized that if I were to watch it, it would be the first thing I watched from him since he received his cancer diagnosis.

That was partially why I decided to watch it. The other is the synopsis: it sounded like a lot of the early 2000s Korean films I had watched a while ago, and while they scream heavy masculine rage, I have a bit of nostalgia for Korean filmmaking during that time. Lee Chang-dong was having a moment when he was making movies then.

And that was how I ended up watching this movie in one sitting!

Let’s get into the review before I keep rambling.

A young man talented in martial arts gets involved with helping the police.

Our main character in this movie is Lee Jung-do, who, at the start of the movie, doesn’t really do much with his life. He works sometimes at his father’s chicken restaurant doing deliveries, and when he’s not on the clock, he kind of just sits around and plays video games with his friends.

However, when he goes out to do a delivery one day, he meets a probation officer named Cho Min-jo. Jung-do is doing the delivery when Cho is trying to stop a man on parole who’s violently resisting him. Turns out the guy is violating his parole, and Cho needs help.

We learn that Jung-do has a black belt not only in taekwondo, but kendo and judo as well. He helps stop the guy, impressing Cho, and then he gets recommended to the head of the probation department, Kim Sun-min, to work there. He’s dubbed the black belt officer because of his skills, and they want to use him to take down their aggressive violators.

Sun-min is going to become his mentor there, as well his partner in crime. These two get along really well, and even become friends somewhere along the way as they go out on patrol.

Things are shaken up though when Kang Ki-jung, a child molester, is let out of prison. He’s on parole, and Sun-min and Jung-do have to keep an eye on this guy. They launch surveillance on him. Despite this, he slips out of their reach and contacts his accomplice, taking on a new gig to film underage girls being exploited.

He then lures in a girl and kidnaps her, then tricks the police squad into going somewhere else. He recruited former parolees to take them down, Min-jo is killed by one of them, and then Sun-min has his neck snapped. He doesn’t die, but he’s left there as Jung-do finds the building Ki-jung is in.

However, Jung-do is taken down in the ensuing fight, but he does rescue the kidnapped girl. Jung-do and Sun-min end up in the hospital, and they have to attend the funeral of their fallen comrade.

After that, they get a lead saying that the debit card given to the criminals was used. Jung-do and co, including his friends from before, track them down into a restaurant. A fight breaks out, and Ki-jung and his accomplice are defeated.

Jung-do and Sun-min return back to duty after that, willing to stop anyone who violates parole.

Overall Thoughts

It’s a solid movie reminiscent of the early 2000s for sure. The plot is a bit nonexistent, but it’s a step up from movies like Carter for sure. It was kind of shocking the lack of women in this film though—there are only three involved with the plot mainly.

Kim Woo-bin does an excellent job, as always. He’s one of the few drama actors I could trust in a role like this, even if the plot itself is kind of dumb. There were some more meaningful moments of dialogue after the halfway point, but they were kind of misplaced at that point.

I’d say watch this if you haven’t already and are interested. It’s not too serious at times, and has some great laugh out loud moments here and there.

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