South Korean film “Revolver” is a dry but wryly engaging mystery noir thriller which keeps its attitude as straight as possible along with its lead actress. While it takes some time for us to discern the rather complicated situation around its criminal heroine, the movie steadily holds our attention thanks to its competent direction and the strong performance from the lead actress, and it also shows some dark sense of humor as several criminal characters around its heroine clumsily try to deal with her in one way or another.

Jeon Do-yeon, who has been one of the most interesting actresses working in South Korea for more than 25 years, plays Soo-yeong, a female ex-cop who has just finished her 2-year prison sentence. As shown from a series of flashback scenes early in the film, she and several other cops had committed a number of serious cases of bribery, but then they and their criminal associates were on the verge of getting arrested and then charged for their crimes due to some unfortunate incident. After some persuasion, Soo-yeong agreed to take the fall alone by herself in exchange for the considerable financial compensation she will receive after her prison sentence.

However, when she is finally released from the prison, it does not take much time for her to realize that she is not going to be paid as promised. Nobody is waiting for her outside, and a certain close colleague of hers, who was supposed to hand out some money and a nice apartment to Soo-yeong later, was killed under a very suspicious circumstance not long before her release.

Naturally, Soo-yeong starts to search for any possible way to get her promised compensation, and we get to know more about the big criminal picture surrounding her. She and her fellow dirty cops were involved with some powerful criminal organization willing to bribe them a lot at that time, so she must go for several key figures in this criminal organization, and she is quite determined for going all the way to the top if that is required.

Meanwhile, the movie throws more pieces of information on her ongoing situation. It seems that that deceased colleague of hers was trying to blackmail the criminal organization, and whatever he planned before his ‘suicide’ was involved with a certain person who has been incidentally gone missing for a while. As Soo-yeong delves more into this possibly criminal matter, those key figures of the criminal organization are not so pleased to say the least, and they are ready to stop her if that is really necessary.

Because of its very title, you may expect the movie to go for a lot of action like “John Wick” (2014), but the screenplay by director/writer Oh Seung-wook, who previously collaborated with Jeon in “The Shameless” (2015), focuses more on mood and character instead. As its flawed heroine tries to find any clue for her increasingly risky private investigation, a number of colorful criminal figures accordingly pop out here and there around her, and that surely contributes extra personality to the story. While you may sometimes scratch your head as trying to understand everything in the story (Full Disclosure: I did), the movie keeps us engaged via building up more mood and tension along the story, and you can at least get some clear idea of where the story and its heroine are heading.

Above all, Jeon diligently carries the film to the end with her stoically unflappable attitude. While we never get to know that much about Soo-yeong except her serious criminal past, Jeon ably fills her taciturn character with enough life and presence, and she is also convincing in a couple of brutal action scenes where her character shows more of the steely toughness behind her detached façade. Yes, Jeon is basically following the time-honored playbook established by many different actors ranging from Lee Marvin to Keanu Reeves for many years, but she brings her own touches to her archetype role nonetheless, and the result is another distinctive performance to be added to her long and illustrious acting career.

Around Jeon, Oh assembles a bunch of interesting performers to watch. While Ji Chang-wook, Kim Jun-han, Kim Jong-soo, and Jung Man-sik are well-cast in their substantial supporting parts, Jeon Hye-jin, Lee Jung-jae, and Jung Jae-young are also solid in their brief but effective appearances, and the special mention goes to Lim Ji-yeon, who effortlessly steals every moment as a wily young lady who must balance herself well among Soo-yeong and several other key figures for her survival and benefit. Yes, her character is not exactly trustworthy, but she is quite frank about that from the very beginning, and it is fun to observe how her character playfully interacts with Soo-yeong as your average moll character. No, they do not look like being sexually attracted to each other on the surface, but you may sense some homoerotic subtext beneath their uneasy but fascinating alliance along the story.

Overall, “Revolver” may require your patience due to its rather slow narrative pacing and frequently murky storyline, but it is a more satisfying work compared to “The Shameless”, which bored me a lot as being merely and solemnly mired in the gloomy misery of its two lead characters. “Revolver” is also quite moody and solemn in many aspects, but it is sometimes darkly amusing in addition to having enough mood and personality to be appreciated, and the result is one of more enjoyable genre products of this year.