‘The Roundup: Punishment’ doesn’t mess with a winning formula
When “The Outlaws” came out in 2017, audiences were introduced to Don Lee’s Ma Seok-do, a well-intentioned cop who’s stubborn, an excellent boxer and unafraid to skirt a few laws in his dogged pursuit of justice.
It did well enough at the box office, but Lee liked the character enough that a sequel called “The Roundup” made its way to South Korean theaters five years later. This time, it went gangbusters, becoming the highest-grossing film in its country in 2022.
A follow-up was quickly greenlit, and the following year, “The Roundup: No Way Out” was the second highest-grossing film of 2023.
This year, we have “The Roundup: Punishment,” a surprising tenth of which takes place in the Philippines, Koreans’ choice for escaping criminal punishment, according to several films and K-dramas.
In “Punishment,” Ma and his squad take on digital crime, going after Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (how timely!). When a Korean man is found stabbed to death in what looks like Angeles, his grieving mother crosses paths with Ma, and she asks him to punish those responsible for the murder of her boy. Turns out the son was being held prisoner in the Philippines, forced to use his programming and coding skills to operate and run the website and systems necessary for their particular operation.
The big money launderer based in Seoul is Jang Dong-cheol (Lee Dong-hwi [“Reply 1988”]), but the badass enforcer is Baek Chang-gi (Kim Mu-yeol [“Space Sweepers”]). Baek is ex-special forces, a level-up from the previous antagonists Ma has faced, which includes corrupt cops, mob hit men and especially violent thugs.
Satisfying action
“Punishment” doesn’t mess with The Roundup franchise’s winning formula: highly entertaining, satisfying action with lots of fisticuffs from Don Lee, and absolutely ridiculous amounts of stabbing from the villains.
Lee Joo-bin (“Queen of Tears”) is a new addition, as a cybercrime investigator that the mostly Luddite squad needs to be effective in their campaign. Unused to field work, she gets an up-close look at how Ma’s rough-and-tumble team operates as they shake down some local crooks for some petty cash.
Returning is Park Ji-hwan’s Jang I-soo, a running bit player/consultant who is a reliable source of comic relief, though this is always ample in the “Roundup” films. Here, some of it comes from Ma’s lack of familiarity with tech jargon, as well as his usual hangdog facial expressions when faced with goons that really should know better than to pick a fight with a guy who looks like he’s built from several slabs of toughened beef.
Its copaganda qualities aren’t enough to sour the experience; the main act is truly watching Don Lee dismantle his foes with haymakers and punches that sound like cannons. Ma takes a pounding as well, especially when he takes on multiple opponents at once, which happens more than once in “Punishment.”
But there’s a catharsis to watching Lee lay into bad dudes with body blows and open-palm wallops. Righteous beatings from a grizzled man standing up for the downtrodden never gets old, but rarely is it this charming.
