TL;DR – While the action scenes hit, unfortunately, we get a tonally confused film that never quite finds its feet.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Officer Black Belt Review –

Today, we are looking at a fascinating film that, for all its strengths, never quite came together. Conceptionally, you have an interesting story, the scenario is solid, your leading man is charismatic, and you are exploring an essential area in society. However, even with that strong foundation, what happens when you don’t land the tone? Well, that is what we will explore today.

So, to set the scene, Lee Jung-do (Kim Woo-Bin), who loves the competition that comes with sporting achievement, will try every martial art, race to deliver food orders, even dabble in some esports, anything he can find ‘fun’. He works so hard at this that he has multiple black belts across numerous disciplines. When Jung-do saves a police officer from being attacked by a former prisoner, he is propositioned by Kim Sun-Min (Kim Sung-Kyun) in the Seoul Probation Office to become a Martial Arts Officer to help monitor released felons and intervene if they re-offend. It is a job where you sit around, not doing much, interspersed with high action.

While I did have some problems with this film, I didn’t want to make it appear like there was nothing interesting going on. For example, full credit goes to the stunt and fight choreography team because the action scenes were some of the best features of the film. Given our focus on martial arts, it was good to see that most of the fights were up close and brutal. You feel the kinetic energy, you feel the danger, and there is a more significant impact from moment to moment as guns are not involved. There are some big brawls in the middle of the film, which could not have been easy to film, but they pull it off.

One area where the film did struggle is in the depiction of their main lead character. You could feel that they were struggling with the duality of him being an expert in his field but also a completely newbie when it comes to his occupation. There is an exciting give and take there that they tried to make work, and I think the actor did an exemplary job with the difficult position they found themselves in. However, it created an awkward tension that the film was not able to tackle. Being both wholesome but also a bit unhinged.

This leads up to the main issue with this film: its tone. Officer Black Belt was marketed as an action-comedy, and you can feel that choice in moments throughout the film. But in reality, it is more of an exploration of the difficult job of monitoring felons on parole, especially those who have committed sexual crimes. To say that action-comedy and sexual assault don’t really jive together tonally is a bit of an understatement. Add to this parts of the film that rightly want to shine the light on how South Korea deals with gender-based crimes but does that through lumping all those out on parole into being deviants that work together. You had competing forces trying to draw your attention and they never married together.  

In the end, do we recommend Officer Black Belt? Unfortunately, not. While this is a subject that needs to be explored, and the action is solid. The film is constantly bounced through these tonal shifts in a way that means that it can never find its feet. If you liked Officer Black Belt, we would recommend to you Extreme Job.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Officer Black Belt
Directed by – Jason Kim
Written by – Jason Kim
Music by – Jawan Koo
Cinematography by – Teo Lee
Production/Distribution Companies – Climax Studio, Seven O Six & Netflix
Starring – Kim Woo-Bin, Kim Sung-Kyun, Lee Hyun-Geol, Kim Yo-Han, Kang Hyoung-Suk, Cha Wang-Hyeon, Son Sang-Yeon, Woo Sang-Ki, Nam Ji-Woo, Lee Hae-Young & Kim Ji-Young
Rating – Australia: MA15+;