Director: Kim Jee-Woon

A true gangster epic with brilliant performances, direction and action and not a mockney geezer or wideboy in sight. Simply: great.

If you are willing to substitute blood for brains and real heart for cheap scares, this movie will be one you will remember long after you see it.

Not even the odd moment of black humour and Kim Jee-Woon’s knack for crafting exhilarating sequences of action and tension can elevate his film beyond pure nihilism.

‘Illang’ looks fantastic, often thrills, and features some incredible and expertly staged action but suffers from pacing issues and a lukewarm emotional core.

Packed with switching allegiances, twists and turns and on occasion stellar set-pieces, ‘The Age of Shadows’ rockets along on its quest to keep one guessing and in a perpetual state of tension.

Despite its obvious shortcomings, ‘The Foul King’ is an excellent advert for Korean cinema and retains a strong entertainment value even during its weaker moments.

‘The Good, The Bad, The Weird’ is a great achievement and another success for Kim Jee-woon and is most importantly big, bright and ballistic entertainment that should be seen on a screen as big as possible.

‘Three’ is a bold idea, but one out of three is too bad. The follow-up, ‘Three… Extremes’ would do it all better.