Asura: The City of Madness

No one is happy in Kim Sing-su’s hyper-macho, ultra-grim neo noir.

“You have no idea how much of a prick I am.”

The gritty tones of noir can be tricky to accomplish properly. The balance is delicate: swing too much in one direction and the stakes don’t feel high enough, too much in the other and you run the risk of writing edglord, distasteful nonsense. Kim Sung-su’s Asura: The City of Madness definitely falls into the latter category, but is able to own some of the more obnoxious parts of its script. Let’s delve into why.

The city of madness in question is Annam, a place whose tourism board is done no favours by this film’s portrayal. Within Annam is a detective called Han (Jung Woo-sung), a thoroughly unpleasant corrupt cop who’s been working as a private mercenary to the childlike, immoral and extremely shitty Mayor Park (Hwang Jung-min). Under Park’s orders, Han arranges for the kidnapping and coercion of a key witness in the prosecution office’s case against Park. But when the aftermath results in the death of Han’s sergeant Hwang (Yoon Je-Moon), Han is put under investigation and must work for the prosecutors to take Park down.

Like any good noir protagonist, Han is a complicated person, torn between two worlds. He tries to alleviate himself of some of Park’s demands by setting up his partner Sun-mo (Ju Ji-Hoon) as Park’s newest merc, but only this only muddies the water further. Han’s torn affiliations are quite compelling, and even though he has very few positive character traits, there’s something about the oppressive misery of Annam that makes him considerably more sympathetic. Compared to everyone else in this cesspool of corruption, greed, and abuse he seems relatively normal.
Like any good noir protagonist, Han is a complicated person, torn between two worlds. He tries to alleviate himself of some of Park’s demands by setting up his partner Sun-mo (Ju Ji-Hoon) as Park’s newest merc, but only this only muddies the water further. Han’s torn affiliations are quite compelling, and even though he has very few positive character traits, there’s something about the oppressive misery of Annam that makes him considerably more sympathetic. Compared to everyone else in this cesspool of corruption, greed, and abuse he seems relatively normal.

Asura’s extreme macho energy does give it quite an identity (though how much you enjoy that will be down to your personal preference), and once the shock of being in this world subsides the movie becomes far more entertaining. Sometimes it does come across as a parody of manliness in films, with people screaming at each other constantly, ramming into cars, exploding things and treating women as objects to be looked at or after. Asura’s grim world is defined by the terrible nature of its men, who rule the roost and make sure that anyone trying to change things is dealt with swiftly and brutally. It would almost be good satire if it wasn’t such a downer.

This sort of depressing, everyone-dies style of filmmaking that was huge at the time. In the west, shows like Game of Thrones and Spartacus were all about horrible things happening to even more horrible people, and the formula seemed to have spread across the world. There isn’t a character in Asura: The City of Madness that isn’t an unlikeable, ultraviolent jerk. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Being unlikeable can be a positive trait in its own way, though it’s a delicate balancing act. Fair warning, however: it’s a movie you really need to be in the right mood to watch. It’s over 2 hours of nonstop misery, punctuated by some pretty great shootouts, fights and one exciting (if awfully CGI’d) car chase.

Director Kim Sung-su draws upon real-world current affairs to tell a story that, despite the movie occasionally coming across as being set in some heightened reality version of our world, mirrors things that were happening at the time. One can’t help but immediately draw comparisons to Korea’s then-president Park’s corruption charges, as well as new US president Trump, known for online tantrums and acting like the big crybaby Mayor Park is shown to be. Because of this, Asura: The City of Madness gets away with its larger-than-life characters and intense hyper-drama. Kim brings in some grimy, seedy colours and shoots Annam with angles and moods normally reserved for Gotham City, and paints a picture that while not always pleasing to sit through, is gripping throughout.

Verdict: Loaded with yelling, shooting, and the throwing of many things Asura: The City of Madness is a fun, often tiring film that certainly lives up to its name.

Overall entertainment: 7/10
Violence: 8/10
Sex: 0/10
Cheerfulness: 0/10
Kim: Sure likes to touch Han’s face, eh
Eun: The smallest man every caught on film? Perhaps!
Han’s wife: Of course she’s Park’s half-sister. Why the hell not.
When in doubt: Eat some glass!

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Asura: The City of Madness (2016)
Korean

Director: Kim Sung-su
Writer: Kim Sung-su

CAST

Jung Woo-sung – Han Do-kyung
Hwang Jung-min – Park Sung-bae
Ju Ji-hoon – Moon Seon-mo
Kwak Do-won – Kim Cha-in
Jung Man-sik – Do Chang-hak
Yoon Ji-hye – Cha Seung-mi
Kim Hae-gon – Tae Byung-jo
Oh Yeon-ah – Jung Yoon-hee