The Guardian (2026)

Korean Gangsters cause trouble

It's hard to be a gangster in Korea these days because CCTV cameras are everywhere. That's why Korean gangsters are expanding their operations to the Philippines, where people tend to admire Korean culture, making them easier to manipulate. In this film, for example, Korean gangsters promise young Filipino women K-pop careers, only to enslave them. Of course, they're involved in plenty of other criminal activities as well.

The story follows Mi-jin, a Korean woman who falls into the hands of the mafia and has no one to rescue her except her son, who fortunately happens to be highly skilled in martial arts. From the very beginning, it's obvious that this isn't a film aiming for outstanding acting performances. The acting is rather mediocre, although much of the blame lies with the director, since the narrative often feels disjointed and lacks logical progression.

What ultimately saves the film are its fight scenes, so I don't regret the time I spent watching it. The hand-to-hand combat is well choreographed, and I only wish there had been more of it. I especially enjoyed the underground street-fighting scenes, where crowds gather around the ring, cheering for their favorite fighter. They reminded me of something straight out of a video game. I think this film had the potential to be much better if the story had been structured more carefully. As it stands, it's a fairly forgettable action movie with a handful of entertaining fight sequences.

Although this is a Filipino film, the lead actors are Korean, and most of the dialogue is in Korean, with somewhat less English and only a few lines in Tagalog. Even so, I think the combination of Korean and Filipino talent works very well, and I hope to see more productions like this in the future.

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