Right here’s a pitch for a film Hollywood gained’t make in 2025: A karate champion decides to make a distinction in his neighborhood by becoming a member of the police drive and turning into a probation officer who hunts down and kicks the everloving crap out of kid predators in his space.
Think about if somebody pitched this film, but it surely was set within the Laurel Cayon neighborhood of Los Angeles. It shouldn’t be a shock to anybody that this can be a movie that didn’t come out of the standard Hollywood studios however from the nation of South Korea, which not too long ago got here out of martial legislation for all of two hours.
On the subject of black comedy, the way in which that Hollywood presents the style is by making mild of horrific conditions comparable to dying and sexual assault. In Hollywood’s eyes, comedy comes from making mild of great conditions to the purpose the place it seems like they’re going out of their technique to both belittle them or reveal their very own evil nature.
That isn’t the case with the newest Netflix movie, Officer Black Belt, a movie that labels itself a black motion comedy but does the exact opposite of what American screenwriters do with their material. As an alternative of belittling the gravity of the state of affairs, Officer Black Belt showcases it in a method that’s way more gripping for the viewing viewers.
Officer Black Belt is the story of a younger man named Lee Jung-do, a talented martial artist with a number of black belts in taekwondo, kendo, and judo. As an alternative of turning into the best blended martial artist that South Korea has ever seen, Lee spends most of his time enjoying on-line video games together with his small group of pals as he passes the times alongside.
Sooner or later Lee helps a probation officer named Kim Solar-min seize a violent intercourse offender within the neighborhood, and Kim decides to advocate Lee for a job throughout the drive. Lee is placed on a process drive that tracks intercourse offenders to the proximity of their ankle bracelets. This enables them to search out the violent intercourse criminals every time they step out of line with their probation phrases, making Lee a hero in his neighborhood.
Nonetheless, when a well known intercourse offender is launched again onto the streets, Lee finds himself biting off way over he can chew when the felony underbelly seeks to show him a lesson about entering into different individuals’s companies when these companies evolve little one trafficking and prostitution.
Officer Black Belt is an excellent movie that’s half buddy cop comedy film, with the laughs being on the expense of the perverted members of town. On the flip facet, the movie excels at being a gripping drama with out stepping on the toes of both style.
Lee’s nonchalant perspective in the direction of the criminals offers him the flexibility to diffuse a critical state of affairs till it’s time for the movie to get critical. Lee exhibits off his intelligence in addition to his skill to strategize a dicey state of affairs to the place he’s all the time one step forward of the perp.
In his private life, Lee spends his time together with his pals, both enjoying on-line video games or consuming at eating places. This offers the movie a robust sense of humanity that many darkish comedies faraway from their movies. The movie additionally doesn’t belittle our protagonist for being a gamer nor does it mock his pals who exhibit their usefulness in powerful eventualities later within the film.
When it’s time to get critical, Lee shifts gears and depends on his established abilities, proving he’s as nice of a hand-to-hand risk as his adversaries. The shift change within the movie additionally permits our character to appreciate the magnitude of the job that he has.
Lee is pressured to reckon with the gravity of the state of affairs extra as these near him start to get damage. When this realization hits, his place turns into a actuality, and the character shifts gears — which makes the movie really feel extra actual than different motion pictures that go for an absurdist strategy that tends to undercut and destroy the tone of the movie.
With the excessive reward the movie’s writing deserves, Officer Black Belt is very entertaining whereas addressing sexual crimes towards kids together with abuse of girls and women. It’s a movie that provides hope for justice, legislation, and order, which is why it was made in South Korea and never America.
Officer Black Belt is one among 2024’s finest movies.
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