PIG VILLAGE: Don Lee Reteams With ‘The Roundup 2 & 3’ Director For Hollywood Action Adventure, Cast Announced
Production is expected to wrap in the first half of 2025!
lee sang yong
THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT Review: Don Lee Is Thrice The Muscle And Bustle In Lee Sang-Yong’s Hard-Hitting Action Comedy
Lee Sang-yong’s The Roundup has a shorter runtime in comparison to Kang Yoon-sung’s 2017 predecessor, The Outlaws. I’m fascinated by this in terms of its characteristics for success, and the momentum handed to it in course of its fruition as a franchise nowadays with a total of four movies in its deck. The same goes for its third chapter, Lee’s The Roundup: No Way Out, which opened in Cannes and in South Korea last summer. Whatever the case is or may be, there’s no question that Lee capitalizes on just about everything that worked in the 2022 sequel. That film’s writer Kim Min-sung, as well as its Cha Woo-jin, paired up to pen The Roundup: No Way Out, for a story that beefs things up plenty in the action department without losing a beat in the energy that keeps it going. Par for the course is frontman Don Lee, centerstage […]
Trailer: THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT Rounds Up A June 2 U.S. Release!
Capelight Pictures is proudly releasing Lee Sang-yong’s hotly anticipated threequel, The Roundup: No Way Out, on June 2 in North American theaters. The film returns actor Don Lee back in the spotlight for another round as the no-frills and no BS detective Ma, following 2017’s The Outlaws in which he tracks down a notorious mobster in South Korea’s Chinatown district, and in last year’s The Roundup in which he hunts down a vicious killer. Cue the obligatory “…but wait, there’s more!”: The beast cop Ma Seok-do returns — This time, to the Metro Investigations! Seven years after the roundup in Vietnam, Ma Seok-do (Don LEE) joins a new squad to investigate a murder case. Soon, he finds out this case involves busting a synthetic drug and starts to dig deeper… Meanwhile, the guy behind it all—Joo Sung-chul (LEE Jun-hyuk)—doesn’t stop looking for trouble, and the Japanese drug distributors, Ricky (Aoki […]
THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT International Official Trailer Launches
ABO is going hard this month as the release date approaches for Lee Sang-yong’s Don Lee threequel, The Roundup: No Way Out. The film comes out in South Korea late May with other territories pending from this summer, including ours, and I reckon it’ll be just in time for some of this year’s festivals to add it to their slates, hopefully. What I love most is that Jun Kunimura gets a few visuals here along with the film’s Korean and Japanese cast which really antes things up some since the franchise took off in 2017. This time, our main star is part of a regional investigation unit tackling a new enemy in actor Lee Jun-Hyuk, and the Yakuza are involved as well. Hence Kunimura and sword-wielding Munetaka Aoki. The trailer below also arrived hours earlier with Korean subtitles with ABO debuting in English as of Wednesday. Check it out!
THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT Rounds Up Some Major Poster Art!
I’ve been awake for a few hours before I’m actually supposed to be up and about my day, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share some of the latest enticing poster art for director Lee Sang-yong’s The Roundup: No Way Out. There’s a main poster in both Hangul and English, as well as a trio of character posters making the rounds for the film’s May 31 release. Detective Ma (Don LEE) is back again, now as a part of the regional investigation unit. With a new team, he has to catch a new villain (LEE Jun-hyuk). On the other hand, Riki (Aoki MUNETAKA), the Japanese gangster adds suspense by joining this fierce battle. Just after “The Roundup” became the biggest blockbuster of 2022 in Korea earning over $100 million, the director LEE Sang-yong and Don LEE team up again to keep up the momentum. The official launch trailer […]
Punch Into The Week With The First Teaser For THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT!
The Roundup franchise is making its way back to relevancy with the first teaser for The Roundup: No Way Out. This one marks the third chapter in the upbeat crime thriller saga led by actor Don Lee who continues to grow his career both at home and abroad, as he’s been hinting of late through his social media posts following his most recent stint with Marvel. The action star is also producing once again, and is joined by none other than director Lee Sang-yong whose work on last year’s sequel, The Roundup, was a hit at home and at the festivals. Actor Munetaka Aoki of Rurouni Kenshin franchise fame joins the fray as well, as Lee Joon-hyuk and Lee Beom-soo, in addition to a special appearance by veteran actor Jun Kunimura. Detective Ma Seok-do joins the Metropolitan Investigation Team, to eradicate Joo Seong-cheol and other Japanese gangsters from committing heinous […]
Don Lee Action Threequel THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT Punches In With Production Already Underway
Production is underway for The Roundup: No Way Out, according to THR‘s Patrick Brzeski who says cameras began rolling last week. The news comes following reports back in May citing casting news now confirmed in this week’s coverage with Don Lee heading up the cast once more. According to the report, The Roundup: No Way Out “continues the gritty action adventures of Lee’s beefed-up detective Ma Seok-do after he has joined the Regional Investigation Unit to face a new crime conspiracy.” Lee Sang-yong, who succeeded The Outlaws helmer to direct its most recent sequel to box office fruition, is directing the third film which is currently poised for several more sequels going forward. Also starring are Lee Joon-hyuk (Along with the Gods) who joins the franchise to play the new film’s villain, as well as Munetaka Aoki (Rurouni Kenshin franchise) who will co-star as a Yakuza named Riki, Lee Beom-su (The Divine […]
Fantasia XXVI Review: Lee Sang-Yong’s THE ROUNDUP Knocks ‘Em Out Once More In The Hit Action Crime Sequel
Watch any of actor Don Lee’s earlier films and you’ll know he wasn’t as sizeable as he has been in the last, say, maybe eight or ten years. Regardless of whether his beefy build was a planned effort or not, however, you have to give it to him for using it to his advantage and ultimately paving a way for an evolution in Korean cinema of late with a raft of hard-hitting roles as a big, hard-hitting character with enough screen charisma to match the likes of Schwarzenegger and current business partner Stallone to name a certain few, which now brings us to Lee Sang-yong’s The Outlaws follow-up, The Roundup. Enter Ma, the “Beast Cop” himself played once more by actor Don Lee in a story now set in 2008 where he and his unit’s captain, Jeon Il-man, are sent to extradite a criminal operating in Vietnam. The case eventually […]
Don Lee Starrer THE ROUNDUP Takes To IMAX In New Poster Art
I credit Yoon Jong-bin’s 2014 period adventure, Kundo, for my own discovery of actor Ma Dong-seok. It’s been terrific seeing some of his regional work, and being around for his career growth of late from relatively known Korean movie star to a burgeoning international hitmaker now starring in Marvel movies and circling Stallone projects. Who knows how long it’ll be before Ma gets there though? Of course, his progression has only made it easier having coined the stage name, Don Lee for Western adaptability, and with that, his posterity remains with prospective films like the impending The Outlaws sequel, Lee Sang-yong’s The Roundup, which is due out in South Korea from the 18th, and in Hong Kong SAR as of the 26th. Indeed there are more territories to come for the film’s release while we have a brand new IMAX poster to celebrate the occasion which you can view below. […]
THE ROUNDUP: Don Lee Action Crime Sequel To ‘The Outlaws’ Now Filming
Production is currently underway for The Roundup, a sequel to Kang Yoon-sung’s 2017 action hit, The Outlaws. Lee Sang-young is making his debut at the helm for a returning cast that currently sees Don Lee (The Gangster. The Cop. The Devil., Unstoppable, Along With The Gods 2: The Last 49 Days, upcoming The Eternals), and the new addition of actor Son Suk-ku (Hit-And-Run Squad), with filming expected to wrap this summer. The first film saw Lee at the wheel as Ma Suk-do, a.k.a. “the Beast Cop”, heading a small anti-crime task force and dispensing justice amid warring gangs and the rise of a vicious crime boss in a South Korean Chinatown district in 2004. The Roundup sees Ma, front and center once more on a mission to Southeast Asia to extradite a suspect where a ruthless killer who has been targeting tourists for years emerges. “Buyers have been telling us […]