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Review | Berlin 2024 movie review – The Roundup: Punishment, with Korean hard man Ma Dong-seok as a po-faced punching machine, is like a Hong Kong action movie on steroids
- This latest instalment in the Roundup series ups the ante with more intense action as Ma Dong-seok punches his way through a gang of internet gambling scammers
- The simple story is bolstered by brilliant sound effects, Ma’s endearing tech illiteracy, and Park Ji-hwan’s performance as his sidekick
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
3/5 stars
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Those who revel in the sound of knuckles crashing into faces, rejoice: South Korean master puncher Ma Dong-seok (aka Don Lee) has returned with The Roundup: Punishment, in which his no-nonsense, po-faced police officer again gets to thrash an endless stream of thugs in backstreet alleys, cramped toilets and the business-class cabin of an aeroplane.
Now into the fourth instalment of the series and with stunt coordinator Heo Myeong-haeng (Badland Hunters) taking the helm, the story has become more lightweight as the action has become more intense, with Ma’s now legendary Detective Ma and his underlings assigned to bust a gang running an internet gambling scam.
From the film’s very first set piece, in which the actor gets to show off his near-superhuman strength by removing a massive metal gate from its hinges with his bare hands, The Roundup: Punishment never really lets up.
Bolstered by a brilliant sound-effects team who have boosted the whirl and crunch of Lee’s each and every punch to skull-crushing effect, there is hardly any room left to ponder anything else.
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Not that The Roundup: Punishment, which premiered out of competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, calls for that much thinking anyway. Co-adapted by Ma himself from a screenplay by Oh Sang-ho (Fabricated City), the premise is simple even in the context of The Roundup series.
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