For some reason then I have been putting off watching the 2016 South Korean crime action "Doo Namja" (aka "Derailed") until now in 2022. Why? Well, I am not sure really, I guess other movies just kept piling up, and I wasn't sure what I was missing out on here from director Seong-Tae Lee.
While "Doo Namja" is watchable, I don't feel like I have been missing out on a particular extraordinary movie in the history of South Korean cinema. Sure, the storyline was interesting enough, or at least certain aspects of it were, but I wasn't overly impressed.
The storyline here was a little bit all over the place, as the audience follow three different story arches, the one of Jin-Il and his friends, the one of karaoke bar own Huyng-Suk and the one of Sung-Hoon who has a grudge against Jin-Il after having gone to prison. Yeah, the storylines are nicely interwoven, but you never really get to submerge and delve deeply into any of the three storylines, which is a shame, because the movie could have benefitted by adding a bit more in-depth to the characters.
There is a good amount of action throughout the course of "Doo Namja", which seems rather real, as it is nicely shot and rather nicely executed on the screen. This definitely adds to the tough atmosphere that permeates the movie.
All in all, then "Doo Namja" is a watchable enough movie. I doubt that I will ever return to watch "Doo Namja" a second time, however.
My rating of this 2016 crime action movie lands on a five out of ten stars.
