The Exclusive: Beat the Devil’s Tattoo is a film that is easy to spoil. Some dramatic plot twists are revealed fairly early into the story, so it’s best not to read too much about the film before watching it. In that spirit, this review will remain a bit vague on details, and reveal only the basic setup.
Heo Moohyuk (Jo Jeong-seok) is a reporter at the TV news station CNBS. He’s a motivated worker who is very committed to his job, but both his personal and his professional life look headed for ruin.
His wife Sujin (Lee Ha-na) no longer trusts him or believes in his potential, and wants a divorce. Meanwhile at work, a combination of circumstance and downsizing threaten his job as well. His superiors don’t seem particularly concerned at the prospect of losing him.
It’s at this moment that a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity falls into his lap.
Over the previous 28 months, Seoul has been gripped in a panic over a serial murderer who has already claimed seven victims, and shows no sign of stopping. The police have turned up no leads, despite the intense pressure being placed on them. However Moohyuk, following up on a random tip, stumbles into a breakthrough. CNBS leaps into action, and on an exclusive breaking news segment Moohyuk himself delivers a bombshell report that turns the entire nation upside down.
The Exclusive in some ways fits into the thriller genre, but its real strength is to capture and recreate the breathless, rushed energy of the contemporary news cycle. Moohyuk’s discovery vaults him instantly from the basement into the penthouse of the media world, and his entire company is swept up in the surge of attention that the report produces. It’s not just the general public who clamor for more information, but the police and the government are also jolted into action.
Moohyuk is at the center of all this activity and sudden fame, but at the same time, he has created a storm of breathtaking power that neither he nor his company can control.
This is the second film from director Roh Deok, who captured attention for her award-winning debut Very Ordinary Couple in 2013.
That film stood out for its unusually honest and spirited account of a couple in their twenties who break up, then decide to get back together and try again. The Exclusive shares some of Very Ordinary Couple’s strengths -- namely its ability to maintain its energy level through smart editing and well-staged interactions between the characters. Both films also capture the spirit of their workplace settings quite well.
Like the bank in Very Ordinary Couple, The Exclusive provides a vivid and often humorous feel for the tensions and behind-the-scenes power games that take place at CNBS. Veteran actress Lee Mi-sook (..ing) leaves a strong impression as the station’s powerful Editor-in-Chief, while the prolific supporting actor Kim Ui-sung (Assassination, The Priests) memorably expresses the calculating ambition of Moohyuk’s boss.
As for the lead Jo Jeong-seok, who rose quickly to fame in the film Architecture 101 but who doesn’t yet rank as a major star, his greatest strength is to make viewers empathize with his situation as it spins more and more wildly out of control. The story is very much focused on him, and he does an impressive job of handling so much screen time while maintaining the audience’s interest.
If there’s a criticism to be made of The Exclusive: Beat the Devil’s Tattoo, it would probably be the drawn-out ending, which lacks the tight energy of the rest of the film. But on the whole, this a quite impressive, ambitious and creatively-imagined work that showcases the talent of one of Korea’s rising young directors.