South Korean film “Smugglers” simply has a fun with juggling its various colorful criminal characters, and I enjoyed that. Although you can clearly see where it is sailing right from the start, you will gladly go along with that while being entertained by the game efforts from its solid main cast members, and the result is one of more entertaining products during this summer season in South Korean theaters.

The movie, which is mainly set in a small fictional port city in the 1970s, begins with the extended prologue part establishing the conflict between its two female main characters: Chun-ja (Kim Hye-soo) and Jin-sook (Jung-ah). Along with several other local women, they have worked as female divers, called “hanyeo”, for Jin-sook’s father, but their work has recently been jeopardized by the pollution caused by nearby chemical plants, and that is how they later come into the world of smugglers along with their boss. Things seem to get much better for everyone for a while thanks to their little smuggling activities, but, of course, there eventually comes a moment where they come to face the consequence of their criminal action, and the following tragedy breaks Jin-sook’s heart while also making her quite angry about Chun-ja. After all, Chun-ja manages to escape and then is disappeared, and everyone thinks she is the one who betrays them all.

Two years later, we see Chun-ja working as a small-time black market operator in Seoul. Because she has done her business without any permission from a powerful (and ruthless) smuggler called Sergeant Kwon (Zo In-sung), she soon finds herself being about to be eliminated by Sergeant Kwon and his right-hand guy, so she quickly suggests one seemingly good business idea for him. She is going to establish a new smuggling route for him, and she is willing to go back to her old place for that even though she is well aware that she will not be welcomed much there.

Anyway, once she succeeds in convincing Sergeant Kwon, Chun-ja promptly goes to her old place and then starts her little criminal project along with Ok-bun (Go Min-si), a charming but opportunistic young woman who has run a little coffee shop there. Because Jin-sook and other female divers are necessary for her plan, Chun-ja contacts with a guy who once assisted Jin-sook’s father but now becomes a local criminal boss, and he is certainly willing to help her a bit because of whatever he may get as a new business partner for Sergeant Kwon.

When she soon comes to learn of Chun-ja’s return, Jin-sook is naturally not so pleased to say the least. Although she and her fellow female divers have worked for that local criminal boss from time to time, getting associated with Chun-ja again is the last thing they want, and Jin-sook even swears in front of Chun-ja that she and her female fellow divers will not work for Chun-ja at any chance.

However, not so surprisingly, Chun-ja’s offer eventually becomes the one Jin-sook and her fellow female divers cannot refuse, but things become a little more complicated in the meantime. There is a local customs officer who has been watching on whatever is going on among Chun-ja and her associates, and Chun-ja also has a little plan for her survival when the situation gets much riskier later in the story.

Although it takes some time for building up its narrative momentum during its first half, the screenplay by director/co-producer Ryoo Seung-wan and his co-writer Kim Jeong-yeon deftly rolls the story and characters to the expected climactic part, and it also provides some seriousness as paying attention to the estranged relationship between its two female main characters. While they do not like each other much, Chun-ja and Jin-sook subsequently find themselves sticking together for beating their opponents, and it is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Chun-ja actually has her own reason for running away from Jin-sook and others at the time.

When it eventually arrives at the climatic part, the movie does not disappoint us at all with a thrilling underwater action sequence, and the main cast members keep holding our attention with their good performance. While Kim Hye-soo, who is still one of the most interesting South Korean actresses at present even though she has been active for more than 30 years, is the most prominent member in the group, she does not overshadow her fellow cast members at all, and her showy acting is often complemented well by Yum Jung-ah’s more grounded performance. While Zo In-sung and Park Jeong-min are effective as Chun-ja’s two different criminal associates, Kim Jong-soo is also well-cast in his supporting role, and the special mention goes to Go Min-si, who effortlessly steals every moment of hers in the film.

On the whole, “Smugglers” is another good genre film from Ryoo, who has steadily worked since his debut feature film “Die Bad” (2000). Although I did not like “The Battleship Island” (2017) much, his next film “Escape from Mogadishu” (2021) reminded me that he is still a good director who knows how to thrill and entertain us, and “Smugglers” shows him trying something a little different. As mainly driven by the vivid personalities of its main female characters, the movie surely makes a considerable contrast with many of his usually male-dominant films, and that is sort of refreshing in my trivial opinion. To be frank with you, mainstream movies in South Korea really need more female characters these days, and “Smugglers” may be a small but significant sign of change.