Review: I'm still angry with myself that I didn't watch this movie earlier. I mean, I bought that movie about a month ago, but I never felt the urge of watching it. But my duty as a reviewer won over me and I finally decided to watch it. I was expecting again another typical Korean gangster movie, with some very noticeable similarities with Nowhere To Hide in the main plot. But I was totally wrong, and I hope that my review will convince you to watch this movie, especially if you like intense psychological movies.

The movie start like an ordinary movie, and except for the intro, nothing really exceptional happens during the first 30 min. The story takes the time to introduce us to the two main characters, which seem to be both extreme characters in their own way. But after that the main event of the movie happens, which is the first meeting of these two explosive characters, the intense roller coaster starts for real and never really stops until the end credit appear.

The story is not really about the underground gangster universe but more about a cop and murderer confrontation. It is true that if you already saw the other excellent Korean movie Nowhere To Hide, you will find some similarities in the main plot. But Public Enemy is a lot more story driven and well structured in the story department compared to NWTH, which was more about the visual style. So the comparisons between the two movies stop at the idea of a crooked cop who is chasing after a psycho. The story was very well built, intelligent, not over exaggerated and very intense to follow.

If the story works so well, of course it's probably because of the well-structured script but also because the performance of the two main actors was just incredible. If you are a Korean movie fan, you probably already know Lee Seong-Jae for his good performance in Attack the Gas station and Kick The Moon, which were both comedy. But in Public Enemy we see a totally different and frightening Lee Seong-Jae. I was a bit skeptical at first, wondering if he could handle that kind of psychotic killer role, but I bow to him and excuse myself for having questioned his acting performance in this different type of role. I will never forget that look he gives to his victim before he kills them, it really give you the creeps, trust me.

Seol Gyeong-Gu played the other main character, if you have noticed I said other character. I can't really say good because of his behavior as a policeman, this man is just wrong. But even if you know that his violent actions are not always justified, I really think that before the end of the movie, you will get attached to him. His perseverance at trying to find the murderer will convince you that maybe he's not that bad after all. Especially since everybody is against him and nobody want to listen or believe him when he try to find clues of Gyu-Hwan culpability.

Most of the movie is about these two characters, a story about cops and serial killer confrontations. There was maybe not that much action in the movie cause most of intense scenes are on a psychological level. But one thing that struck me during the viewing was the murder scenes; in which Gyu-Hwan kill his victim. They were extremely well filmed but also freaking cold bloody violent. I don't know if it was because of the amazing performance of Lee Seong-Jae but these scenes were very chilling and im sure that some people will find them a bit hard to watch but on the other side I know that some people like realistic violence, these people might find an insane joy while watching it.