New World

The current explosion in populist Korean cinema shows no signs of slowing. The directorial debut of ‘I Saw the Devil’ writer Park Hoonjung, ‘New World’ was a massive box office success on its Korean release early this year, and has gone on to win a number of festival prizes. Another one of those sprawling crime tales that the country does so well, ‘New World’ follows an undercover cop (Lee Jungjae) as he works his way ever deeper into the underworld organization known only as Goldmoon. With ‘Oldboy’ star Choi Min-sik as our hero’s gruff police contact and a level of violence the London Film Festival brochure describes as ‘industrial strength’, this should be classy, hard-hitting action fun.