A solid watch

Officer Black Belt, billed as an action comedy, is the latest in Netflix catalogue of movies from South Korea. It follows the 'adventures' of a martial arts - sports enthusiast as he volunteers for a position on the parole officers team.
Clocking in just under two hours, the movie aims to be a coming-of-age story covering a fair bit of ground as the protagonist matures over the course of a few weeks on the job. It is medium paced with very few boring or dragging sequences and the earnest performances by the cast - including the bad guys - hold the viewers attention admirably.

I'll start with the bad with is not too many
1. The screenplay is a little immature. The bad guys are purely evil and the good guys are completely good. There are no grey characters.
2. Our hero is an epitome of all values - best friend, honest worker, upright citizen, filial son, never doubts himself or others, eminently likable etc etc. The only slight 'flaw' - if you can even call it that - is that he wants his job to 'fun' but this quirk is written out very quickly.
3. Lee Jung Do looks a little old for the part - keeping the ages of his friends in mind he should probably be in early-mid twenties but he looks older. And you start to question why this older dude is living with his dad and having his dad prepare meals for him.
4. The tone of the movie shifts from goofy, cute, buddy cop story to dark quite suddenly. In the second half the movie is darker and then abruptly there's a goofy sequence where the hero's friends buy equipment.
5. The bad guy is 'boss - like' invincible. He just doesnt die or even break after a savage beating. After a point, it gets annoying to see the protagonist unable to prevail during the fights.
6. Some might find the action sequences to be a little longer than necessary - I did. There are four major fight sequences. At least 5-6 mins could have been cut down to reduce viewer fatigue.
7. Keeping the subject in mind, I would not classify it as a comedy though there are a few light-hearted scenes. Dont go in expecting to laugh.

The good
1. The movie has its heart in the right place. it tackles the very serious issue of law enforcement unable to 'act' against paedophiles, quite hampered by the laws. This is probably the same situation in most countries around the world and you can feel the frustration of the characters when they are helpless.
2. It never gets into 'exploitation' by having gratuitous scenes of sexual assault. There is one sequence but it is filmed well, so the character was never even in the same frame as the other guys. The movie makes you uncomfortable but to provoke righteous anger not titillate.
3. There is no romance forced in. It would have been completely out of place given the story.
4. For an action movie the action takes a while to start. On the bright side, when it does, it is brutal. The scenes are shot well.
5. Everyone has performed acted very well. Lee Jung Do could have been corny but he comes across as likable and reliable, the sort of guy you'd want to be best friends with. Lee Hyun Kul is one of the scariest characters on-screen at the moment, a proper evil character. He did so well, that I felt bad for him to have to play the villain.

In all it is a solid watch and will stay with you for some time.

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Binge-worthy with a fresh storyline

This is a solid, binge-worthy series with an interesting storyline. With seven episodes of approximately 45 mins each, it is an easy watch and well-paced.

The plot revolves around a group of con-artists who forge property documents and persuade the buyer into a sale. The first episode shows them doing this for a medium size property and then the rest of the series focuses on their planning and execution of a similar scam for a prime piece of land in downtown Tokyo. The specifics of the scam require serious skills to execute but at the end of the day, they are profiting by exploiting the weakness caused by the buyer's greed.

The writing is strong. It is refreshing to see characters that are unapologetically unethical and do not hesitate to exploit their victims. All of them are highly motivated to succeed and good at what they do - cheating.
Only one character gets a sad backstory and there are only 2 characters who could be considered ethical or 'good'. Nearly every character faces the consequences of their deeds.
What this means is that there isnt a character to root for, which some viewers may not like. I found that perfectly ok.

We get to see the meticulous planning behind the scam and there are many enjoyable, tension-filled scenes as they prepare to pull-off the big one. Sadly, there are also several victims and we are along for the uncomfortable ride of watching them walk to their doom.

The performances are mostly compelling. Go Ayano is the clear stand-out with his chameleon-like ability to switch characters and personalities. He has at least 4 different looks and plays each of the characters beautifully. The super-pretty Elaiza Ikeda doesnt have much to do but is lovely to watch. "Reiko', "Goto' and "Orochi' bring the laughs but there isnt a lot of comedy. This is a thriller through and through.

I hesitate to give this a 10 for few minor reasons but they wont take away too much from your viewing pleasure.
1. Unnecessary smut. There isnt a lot but the bold scenes have been clearly shoe-horned in to tick a box for Netflix. There's a completely random scene during a religious ceremony which is particularly offensive.
2. The somewhat poor ending. It sets-up a season 2 but felt unsatisfying.
3. It is incredibly hard to believe that all the money (millions and billions of yen) would change hands without the property actually being transferred.
4. The lighting and dark sets for where the team works or lives. They do spend a lot of time here and with quite a few scenes shot in natural lighting and outdoors, this felt dated, artificial and inauthentic.
5. The antagonist should have been a menacing, charismatic and energetic personality. But 'Harrison' is an evil and somewhat dull character. He indulges in typical villain activities - hunts animals, kills people, drinks expensive whiskey, espouses philosophy, dresses nattily and has henchmen to do this dirty work , but he leaves us indifferent- eliciting neither hatred or admiration for himself. Was it a badly written or badly acted character?

But again, don't overthink, just go ahead and watch it.

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The mayhem continues.

Season 2 picks up after a 2 year gap from the good times in season 1.

In this interval Mishima has done journalistically little of note as he is keenly avoiding having anything to do with Kihara. But a new case catches his eye - of criminals-on-hire, who murder an investor, steal a chip from him and then flee to Thailand. His supportive boss sends him to Thailand to cover the case where he crosses paths with Kihara. But is that by accident or did Kihara set him up? Why are the Thai gangsters and police behind them? Why are there Japanese thugs in Thailand? Who hired the murderers?

As in season 1, the writing and plot is wobbly. The plot, silly already, only moves forward because of bad decisions made by the characters and through contrived situations.
Example - The antagonist , who is shown to be very clever and strong, just leads the good-guys to the chip and is easily knocked out.

The pacing is odd. Episodes - at 30 mins length- have frenetic action scenes, prison breakouts, international escapes, characters getting seriously injured and recovering in the space of a week or two.
Then there is an entire episode that luxuriates over the backstory of the antagonist, something which could have been wrapped up in half the time.

What works is the thrilling action scenes, a fresh location and a good-looking cast. The story is easy enough to follow along. You can actually fast forward in a few places or switch off mentally , to find that you dont really miss much of importance and can easily understand whatever is playing out onscreen.
There is no sleaze, no intimate scenes, no nudity, no romance. So you can watch with family, if they can stand the mayhem.

Nearly all the cast from season 1 returns but they have very little screen time. The new cast and their shenanigans dominate. Standouts are Ikeuchi Hiroyuki who steals every scene that he is in, even in face-offs against the lead and Ninomiya Kazunari, who looks too young to be a senior cop and is equal parts earnest and untrustworthy.

The one change is that Mishima is now a whiny, super-annoying but still useless character. Where he was a naive-but-eager journalist in season 1, here he is just irritating. It is never clear as to what purpose he serves in this case where Kihara, Hirose and probably Tobio could have resolved it themselves.
Kihara also behaves maliciously. He implicates Mishima into a Thai prison filled with hardcore criminals without giving him a clue as to how the prison stint will help in sorting out loose ends.

You also have to accept leaps of logic. The leads are wanted criminals in Thailand. They escape from Thailand by helicopter. Back in Japan, life is back to normal in a day. Clearly Japanese police don't care to cooperate with their Thai counterparts in locking up lawbreakers.
Then there are point-blank shootouts involving machine guns and automatic rifles, where every single person dies - except the leads of course. There are plenty of such wtf or what-were-they-thinking moments.

But you will still enjoy it if you liked the characters from before. It builds out the universe and there are hints at another season with further adventures of Tobio, Hirose, Nikaido, Saeki and Kim. I'd watch it in a heartbeat if they continue with the formula of eye-candy actors. And maybe get rid of Mishima.

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