South Korean film “I, the Executioner”, which is the sequel to director/co-writer Ryoo Seung-wan’s 2015 film “Veteran” (It is simply released as “Veteran 2” today in South Korean theaters, by the way), attempts to excite and entertain audiences as much as its predecessor did, and it succeeds to some degree even though it was often difficult for me to get engaged in whatever is going on the screen. Like its predecessor, the movie provides a number of competent action scenes, but I still could not care that much about its rather superficial story and characters, and there is also a certain glaring issue which kept distracting me throughout my viewing.

Hwang Jung-min, who previously chewed every moment of his with gusto as the fictional version of an infamous real-life South Korean dictator in “12.12: The Day” (2023), is back as Seo Do-cheol, your average tough cop who will stop at nothing for getting his job done. During the opening sequence, he and his fellow cops deftly raid on an illegal gambling site somewhere in the middle of Seoul, and the movie soon provides its first action scene as Do-cheol and several other cops corner and then clash with their main target.

Anyway, Do-cheol and his colleagues’ next case turns out to be much trickier than that simple criminal case. A certain prominent professor was killed, and, what do you know, this murder is revealed to be the latest one committed by a mysterious vigilante figure who has already done several other killings in the name of justice. All of the victims targeted by this vigilante figure were criminals who managed to get unpunished or less punished than they actually deserved, and these acts of killing have already drawn lot of attention in public thanks to one trashy online news channel which gladly reports on these killings for more viewership.

When this vigilante figure subsequently targets one particular criminal who is going to be released, Do-cheol is assigned to protecting that criminal in question, and he is naturally not so pleased about that. Nevertheless, he tries to do his job anyway regardless of his personal feelings on the situation, and he is also helped a bit by a young cop named Sun-woo (Jung Hae-in), who shows his considerable grit and toughness when Do-cheol and his colleagues struggle to protect that criminal from an angry mob.

As Do-cheol and other cop characters try to capture their very wily and dangerous opponent, the movie accordingly provides several good action sequences including the one busily unfolded around the Namsan Tower. Again, Ryoo demonstrates here that he is a skillful filmmaker in case of physical action, and Hwang and several other cast members really look like throwing themselves into actions, though I am sure that lots of stunt performers were hired for the movie.

However, the movie still failed to engage me in terms of story and characters. Although Hwang is a good actor, his character is not particularly interesting enough to hold my attention, and he only comes to show more of his usual mannerism without bringing more life and personality to his character. In case of several other cop characters in the story, they are merely broad characters just like Do-choel, and Jung Hae-in, Oh Dae-hwan, Jang Yoon-ju, and Kim Shi-hoo are simply required to fill their respective spots around Hwang.

I also do not like a subplot involved with his wife and their adolescent son, which is perfunctory at best and contrived at worst in my humble opinion. How it is later connected with the main plot is pretty predictable to say the least, and Jin Kyung is under-utilized again as Do-cheol’s ever-suffering wife, who is incidentally one of a very few substantial female characters in the story besides Kim’s female cop character.

In addition, the movie could be more interesting if it were willing to delve more into the moral and ethical issues associated with the vigilante figure in the story, but it eventually resorts to a simple cat-and-mouse game between Do-cheol and his opponent, and that is not even compelling at all. To be frank with you, you will easily guess the identity of the vigilante figure before the first half of the movie is over, because it will show and tell a bit too much from the beginning.

And there is a serious matter involved with one of the main cast members. I guess Ryoo wanted to use Oh Dal-soo simply as one of the returning cast members, but I and many other local audiences still remember that Oh was accused of sexual violence not long after the #MeToo movement was started in South Korea. After being “silent” during next few years, Oh recently began to appear here and there, and “I, the Executioner” is certainly another major stepping-stone in his “comeback”. Considering that one of the vigilante figure’s targets in the story happens to be involved with a #MeToo scandal, I cannot help but notice the hypocritical aspect of the movie and the people behind it, and this negative impression of mine on the film is further exacerbated by Oh’s substantial appearance in the film.

In conclusion, “I, the Executioner” does not surpass its predecessor much for having same weak and strong points, but it will probably satisfy you enough if you like “Veteran” more than I did. Because it is released here right before the Chinese Thanksgiving holiday week, it will probably earn enough money to guarantee the next sequel, but, folks, I have already lost more interest after watching how it just tries to sell same old stuffs.