[HanCinema's Film Review] "Troubleshooter"

In a bout of inspired and efficient screenwriting, "Troubleshooter" doesn't bother giving us a whole lot of background on ex-cop turned private eye Tae-sik (played by Sol Kyung-gu). Right away he's off to work, and right away something goes horribly wrong, forcing our increasingly cranky problem solver to chase down leads to clear his name. From that point on the story is about as pedestrian as it gets, with no individual twist or turn carrying much weight.

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This goes for better as well as for worse. It completely escaped my notice, for example, that the weird bald guy played by Lee Young-hoon murdered Tae-sik's wife in the backstory. This detail among others is built up for the sake of trying to make the conspiracy against Tae-sik seem plausible although let's be honest here. The sheer convoluted nature of the set-up in "Troubleshooter" renders any attempt at rationlization pointless. Observe how the still active cop Sang-cheol (played by Oh Dal-soo) catches on to the scheme entirely because the cover story is so ridiculous he might as well investigate alternatives.

And beyond that, Tae-sik is an appealing protagonist largely because he's a working stiff. Observe the way Sol Kyung-gu asks, under immense frustration and stress, whether the current link in the plot chain even knows who he is. Tae-sik is constantly angry because he's being bullied around for no obvious reason except petty spite to do jobs he isn't even that good at. The main exception is hand to hand combat, which is very belatedly explained even though it didn't really need to be.

"Troubleshooter" is a very borderline movie because it's played just realistically enough that the proceedings don't really qualify as a farce even though that's what they look like on paper. There's a very crude quality to how Tae-sik has to wrap up his hostages with tape and prevent them from hurting themselves. Then there's the bewildered and terrified looks on the faces of the people Tae-sik runs into who have no idea who he is or what he wants and just think that Tae-sik is scary what with all his yelling and punching people.

Tae-sik is neither a hero nor an anti-hero. His moments of ultra-competence are tempered by alternating moments where he incompentently negotiates with everyone else around him. The best of these are interactions with his daughter, played with marked talent by Kim Hyang-gi as just a nine-year-old. Far from being a helpless victim, she's appropriately sassy with a single dad that has trouble making time for her and doesn't provide very convincing excuses.

"Troubleshooter" goes far just off of compelling chemistry between the cast. It's a classic example of leading man Sol Kyung-gu at his everyman finest, which is quite a difficult balance to strike in between intense fight scenes that clearly required similarly intense choreography. For all of this, though, "Troubleshooter" only manages to be a good movie rather than a great one. As an overall product the film is forgettable even if the individual parts can sometimes border on genius.

Review by William Schwartz

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"Troubleshooter" is directed by Kwon Hyeok-jae, and features Sol Kyung-gu, Lee Jung-jin, Oh Dal-soo, Joo Jin-mo-I, Lee Sung-min, Moon Jeong-hee. Release date in Korea: 2010/09/09.

 

How to Watch

Prime Video

DVD US (En Sub)

DVD (TW - English Subtitled)