Going by the Book (2007)

Genre: Comedy, Crime














Going by the Book (Bareuge salja) is yet another lesser known quality product of South Korea. Directed by Hee-chan Ra, who despite being almost unheard of before managed to secure box office success locally for his first feature film.

I'll allow myself to quote a bit from Wiki:

Jung Do-man (Jae-yeong Jeong) is a low-ranking traffic cop whose tendency to do things "by the book" sometimes gets him in trouble, such as when he pulls over his new boss, newly instated police chief Lee Seung-man (Byung-ho Son), and issues him with a traffic ticket.

Though surprised and annoyed by the unexpected fine, the police chief has bigger problems; the town of Sampo has been hit by a string of bank robberies, and to reassure the public he decides to carry out a realistic drill which will demonstrate the police force's capability. Do-man is chosen to act out the part of the bank robber, but with his usual fastidious attention to detail he sets out to commit the perfect crime.

What police chief thought would make for an easy PR trick for hungry public eyes, turns out to be quite an opposite.

And what I though would be a generic comedy, turns out to be actually funny and really enjoyable movie. A remake as I recently learned of a Japanese movie Bang! (2001) that I personally haven't seen or heard before.

It managed to squeeze out of me a lot of good hearted laughs, while keeping the flow of story interesting and engaging. While it's a comedy, it's not a wacky one, and offers quite a number of serious scenes.

What can I say, I really enjoyed it. Good camera work, great performances and most important great humor. Not everyone will find it to their humor taste, but those who do, will definitely have a great time.

DVD Special Edition from Amazon