The King

The King is a hard-hitting action drama in true Scorsese style.

Like a South Korean version of The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), The King is a tour de force in wild parties, abuse of power, stylish suits, and decadence, interspersed with humor, melodrama and impressive action sequences. The film won a number of awards at South Korea's two most prestigious film awards ceremonies, the Blue Dragon Film Awards and the Grand Bell Awards and was especially praised for its many great acting performances and the exhilarating editing work.

The story itself is as simple as it is complicated. The aspiring prosecutor Park Tae-Soo (Zo in-Sung) comes from a poor family background but manages with a mix of talent, charm, and determination to get up and ahead in 1990s South Korea. However, it is only when he meets Han-Kang Sik (Jung Woo-sung), the uncrowned king of the legal system in the country, that he realizes that if he is to reach the very top of the power elite in the country, he must also become completely unscrupulous. Suddenly he is part of the group of prosecutors who control almost everything in the capital Seoul, but he soon learns that if you have reached the top with fraudulent methods, you will rarely share power with anyone else.

Jon Sæter

Director

Jae-Rim Han (f. 1975) is a Korean director, writer and producer. He studied film at Seoul Institute of the Arts. His first feature film, Rules of Dating (2005) was awarded the Busan Film Critics Association awards for Best Film and Best New Director. Emergency Declaration is his fifth feature film.

This film is part of