Review: For the Emperor (2014)

For the Emperor follows former professional baseball player Lee Hwan (Lee Minki), who dipped after getting involved in fixed games due to his own shoulder injury. After being arrested for illegal gambling, he goes on to join the gangsters who he'd been loosely working with before, where he becomes gang boss Jung Sangha's (Park Sungwoong) latest and greatest enforcer. The movie follows Hwan, a ruthless fighter with nothing to lose, on his way up the ranks; eventually finding someone he does fear losing as much as his position in power when he begins to see his boss more as a rival.

What you see is pretty much what you get with this one. Generally speaking, if you've seen one gang crime drama, you've seen them all, and For the Emperor is stacked with just about every cliché of the genre you can think of. We've got the cool, emotionless mad dog with not a care in the world until he falls for the beautiful call girl, who works to pay off her debt, and we’ve got that same mad dog who outgrows his teachings with intent to become the boss himself. But for all that's been done time and time again, on top of its lackluster writing, For the Emperor does manage to be pretty well-structured under the circumstances.

The cinematography and editing are good, and the score is bizarrely interesting. Once again, the weak point is the writing, which in film is like at least half of the production obviously so that will make or break it, easily. That being said, the lead actors do pretty well with what they’re given, which are some pretty bare-bones characters. Other than that, this is a movie that’s dedicated more to being a piece of entertainment than it is to breaking barriers, and it’s a fine watch if you can get into brutal knife fights and images of men in suits staring longingly at the sea or Busan while they talk.