Korean: Tukabseu

Bitwin's TWO COPS 2 & 3 disc set was covered in issue #126a and Cinema Service has now issued Kang Woo-suk's original 1993 hit. After somehow managing to escape prosecution for taking bribes, Detective Cho (Ahn Sung-kei) is assigned a new partner: Detective Kang (Park Jung-hoon), a by-the-book rookie who is Cho's polar opposite in every way possible. Despite the fact that he almost just lost his job, the veteran (who has a second house he keeps secret from the department) sticks to his old habit of shirking responsibility and collecting bribes from just about every establishment in his jurisdiction. When Kang catches Cho taking money from a perp during a gambling raid, he is determined to have his partner kicked off the force. However, Cho turns the tables with the help of a masochistic interrogation suspect (the funniest scene here and one that would be reprised in the sequels) and forces Kang to tear up his report. Intent on getting the young tightass to lighten up, Cho cooks up a scheme involving a beautiful prostitute, only to see the rigid boy scout prove incorruptible yet again. When Kang later saves the hooker from a slasher preying upon women dressed in red, she rewards him with a night of esctasy. To Cho's delight, this greatly loosens the rookie up but far too much as it turns out. Kang’s new devil-may-care attitude and subsequent acts of naked corruption end up making both men the targets of a drug syndicate.

As with the two follow-ups, crooked civil servants are the main target here and the satire is reasonably fresh, considering the familiar premise (lifted wholesale from Claude Zidi's 1984 French hit, MY NEW PARTNER). Ahn (possibly the most beloved Korean actor) and Park (one of the hottest local actors and probably the one most widely known in the West) definitely have the best chemistry of the series and their smooth interaction gives the so-so material just enough of a boost for it to work. In contrast to the sequels, the "Big Action Climax" here is static and awkwardly assembled, inadvertently reminding one of how much better Korean films have gotten in this regard, since the beginning of the New Wave in the mid 90s. Kim Bo-seong appears in the final minutes, perfectly setting up the first sequel.

Cinema Service (No Catalog #) (South Korea label) Dolby Digital 2.0 Sync Sound Korean Language Optional Subtitles In English or Korean 24 Chapters Illustrated in the Menu With (Tiny) Clips Letterboxed (1.66:1) Coded for Region 3 Only Macrovision Encoded 110 Minutes Contains moderate violence, coarse language, mild sexual content, and drug use

DVD menu courtesy Cinema Service.

TWO COPS is available at Poker Industries.