Italian Premiere | In Competition | Online
South Korea, 2024, 100’, Korean
Directed by: Kim Min-soo
Screenplay: Kim Min-soo, Hwang Eun-seong
Cinematography (color): Park Jung-hoon
Production Design: Lee Min-hee
Editing: Choi Je-geun, Yang Dong-yeop, Seon Su-ji
Music: Shin Min-seop
Producers: Lee Han-seung, J K Youn, Kil Young-min, Jin Il-kyu
Cast: Jung Woo (Myung-deuk), Kim Dae-myung (Dong-hyuk), Park Byung-eun (Oh Seung-chan), Jo Hyun-cheol (Park Jeong-hoon), Jeong Hae-kyun (Ryu Je-yi), Yoo Teo (Jang Ji-yang)
Date of First Release in Territory: October 17th, 2024
Myung-deuk and Dong-hyuk are two police detectives working in the city of Incheon. Their personalities are quite different, but they share much in common – investigating crimes together as partners, socializing together outside of work hours, and both accepting bribes from a Chinese crime syndicate that is laundering money in Korea. Despite the easy money they are pocketing on the side, the two of them are seriously in debt. Dong-hyuk and his girlfriend have a gambling problem, and money passes through their hands like water. Myung-deuk is a bit more sensible about money, but after losing his wife to illness, now his 11-year old daughter is seriously ill and unable to leave the hospital, resulting in ballooning medical debts. So it’s an anxious sort of equilibrium that exists as the story opens.
Events are set in motion when one day they receive a tipoff that the Chinese gang is planning to send a very large amount of cash back to China. They know when and where the money is going to be delivered, so they assume it will be fairly straightforward to quietly borrow some rifles from the police station, put on ski masks and take the money without anyone getting hurt. “Dirty money is the safest kind of money in the world,” Myung-deuk says to Dong-hyuk, not entirely convincingly.
Debut director Kim Min-soo’s Dirty Money (the full Korean title is “Don’t Touch Dirty Money”) is constructed out of well-worn ingredients: bloodthirsty gangsters, corrupt cops, sky-high medical bills, and the job that can’t go wrong (but obviously will go wrong). Despite its familiar conventions, however, Dirty Money is engaging and suspenseful throughout its 100 minute running time. Part of this is due to its well-drawn characters and memorable dialogue, which makes even somewhat ordinary scenes entertaining to watch. Part of it lies in the film’s unpretentious and effective cinematic qualities: editing that keeps the energy from flagging, and cinematography by Park Jung-hoon which imparts a gritty beauty to Chinatown, the waterfront, and other districts of Incheon.
The actor Jung Woo is a familiar face on the big screen, though his biggest success to date was in the TV drama Reply 1994. (Audiences in Udine might remember him from the film New Trial which screened at FEFF in 2017.) The image he projects is not that of a typical masculine tough guy, but perhaps for that reason, he has been quite effective appearing in crime films. Myung-deuk is an atypical hero, and both his doggedness and his compassion are shown at various times in the course of the film. By keeping his character relatable, but slightly hard to pinpoint, Jung Woo brings the most out of his role. Co-star Kim Dae-myung too has had a long film career, but mostly in supporting roles, and he is best known for the TV drama Misaeng from 2014. He portrays Dong-hyuk as more emotionally open and expressive than Myung-deuk, but he too has much brewing underneath the surface. More than anything, it is the pairing and chemistry of Jung Woo and Kim Dae-myung that helps this film to stand out from the crowd.
Kim Min-soo
Kim Min-soo’s first major film credit was as the co-writer of Byun Sung-hyun’s The Merciless, which premiered as a Midnight Screening at Cannes in 2017. He teamed again with Byun on the screenplay for Kingmaker (2022), which screened at the 24th FEFF. Dirty Money is his directorial debut.
FILMOGRAPHY
2024 – Dirty Money