As a small courtesy, I’m just going to mention here that there’s a mid-credits scene in Lee Sang-yong’s The Roundup: No Way Out, which connects straight to the franchise’s latest entry. That would now be The Roundup: Punishment, with the undoubted reunion of leading man Don Lee and character actor Park Ji-hwan for another rippling crime story ripe with rib-breaking action and laughs to boot.
During the investigations of a drug trafficking app, the Monster Cop Ma Seok-do (Don Lee) and his team discover a connection between the wanted app developer, who was killed in the Philippines, and a massive illegal online gambling organization. Meanwhile in the Philippines, Baek Chang-gi, a former elite soldier, has been controlling the Korean online illegal gambling market, terrorizing it with kidnap, assault and murder. His partner, the IT genius CEO, Chang Dong-chul plans an even larger scheme in Korea. To put an end to the escalating threat, Detective Ma expands the operation by proposing an unexpected alliance to Jang, and unfolds the biggest roundup mission to hunt down the criminals, collaborating with the cyber unit and Metro Investigations.
The movie also stars Kim Moo-yul and Lee Dong-hwi, Kim Min-jae and Lee Beom-soo along with Lee Ji-hoon and Lee Joo-bin. Sitting at the helm of course is Heo Myeong-haeng, about whom the lead actor had nothing but praise to say for the man who served as his stunt double, in addition to directing him for Netflix’s Badland Hunters, in a quote to Polygon‘s Pete Volk:
“As it is challenging, the coordination and synergy with the stunt team are crucial,” Ma wrote in an e-mail. “Heo Myeong-haeng, the martial-arts director, and the stunt teams in this film have been working with me for 20 years, and they understand my intentions very well. That enables us to create more realistic action scenes.”
ABO Entertainment is opening The Roundup: Punishment regionally on April 24, with Capelight and Blue Fox shepherding a May 3 theatrical release in the U.S.. Check out the trailer below and don’t miss my review of the previous film.
Read more at Polygon
