The Thieves (2012)

So I decided to watch this movie since it was the only Korean film on a plane I was taking. I had also heard that it was Korean's Oceans Eleven, and since I had enjoyed that movie, i decided to try out this one. I was NOT disappointed.

Story 10/10: The story is extremely interesting and has you on the edge of your seat. At first you hate a character, then you're not so sure, and by the end your view has flipped every which way.

Acting/Cast 10/10 : The cast did an extremely great job. They were absolutely flawless and I loved watching them act together.

Music 6/10: I don't really remember much about the music. It fulfilled its part but it didn't stand out and I wont' really listen to the ost.

Rewatch Value 4/10 : I don't rewatch movies or dramas. But if a friend wants to watch this I would watch it with them for sure. The greatest thing about this movie is the plot twists and already knowing them does kind of put a damper on the film.

Overall 9/10: It's definitely a must watch. Especially if you're fans of action/heist movies. If you love films with lots of plot twists, then this is the perfect film for you.

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It is a con within a con made by a con who knew a con and got conned by another con.

Confused by that? Well this movie is such a mess that after watching it, that sentence will make complete sense to you. This whole movie starts with a team of people who we don't know yet that have already established themselves as a team and goes to meet another team in China to get a heist job done. The whole time everything is happening in a slow paced with no real understanding of who the characters are. The only thing you understand is that betrayal is on the rise. You legit can't trust anyone because nothing makes sense.

You're only bonus is Ji Hyun, Hye Soo and Soo Hyun who look lovely. You get a flash of abs, very brief. Some lovely shots of Ji Hyun and Hye Soo being serious babes. The only thing this has going for it is that the actors in the film despite a terrible script and stupidity everywhere, act well in it.

The worst thing about this movie is that this shit is TOO LONG. I felt drained watching after getting halfway through it.

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One of the most anticipated movies of the year 2012, with an all-star cast, filmed in Macao, Hongkong, Pusan and Seoul. Great expectations and great success. Sold nearly 13 million tickets making it the second most popular Korean movie, and the third overall in Korea (the first is the Avatar - 13.3 million , the second is The Host (2006) - 13mln). Because of that it grossed over 91 billion won (~ 85 million dollars) making it the best earning movie in the history of Korean cinema. This is the fourth and the most ambitious movie of director Choi Dong-Hun (The Big Swindle (2004), Tazza: The High Rollers (2006), Woochi: The Taoist Wizard (2009)). This is the essence of cinema presented earlier by Choi, plenty of twists and turns, with characters trying to outwit each other. Everything reminds a bit of Polish movie Vinci (2004) directed by Machulski .

What is this movie about? As you can guess it tells the story of group of thieves, and more surprisingly the main characters are Korean thieves. Popeye (Lee Jung-Jae) and his accomplices together with recently released from prison Pepsee (Kim Hye-Soo), go to Macau and join forces with Hong Kong's group of thieves led by Chen (Simon Yam), to steal a diamond called "Tear of the Sun" worth $20bn, from a man named Wei Hong (Ki Guk-Seo) just to to sell it to him later, and all this at the request of the former partner of Popeye, Macau Park (Kim Yun-Seok). Everything seems to be perfectly planned, but as usually, something goes wrong. As in a typical heist movie there are plenty of unstable alliances, betrayals... This movie is one of the best in the genre, not because it is somehow revolutionary, but because it almost perfectly meets all the requirements of the genre.

Let clarify something, Choi Dong-Hun has never done an ambitious/brilliant movie. What he did is a solid entertaining cinema. His productions never pretend to be more ambitious than they are and that makes them so popular. The director leads a confusing story with remarkable certainty so there are no boring moments and entire plot in a nice fast pace heads towards the final. What is somewhat surprising is the "internationality" of the movie. Earlier Korean cinema hits such as Silmido (2003), Taegugki (2004) and The Host (2006) were heavily immersed in Korean history and culture, The Thieves with its international locations and stars is a nice change.

In addition to well-realized storyline, excellent cast is highly responsible for the success of the movie. The most important character in the movie is Macao Park, played excellently by Kim Yun-Seok. Just like other notable Korean actors (among others Ahn Sung-Ki, Park Joong-Hoon, or Song Kang-Ho) does not have the looks of a movie star. Instead, he has an great charisma and talent. Together with him, Kim Hye-Soo, plays veteran Pepsee with great class and accompanying her Lee Jung-Jae thanks to excellent body language perfectly played insecure thieve Popeye. At the premiere of the movie everyone expected return Jeon Ji-Hyeon to Korean cinema after 5 years break caused by highly unsuccessful attempt to rise in Hollywood. The star which has gained popularity thanks to the movie My Sassy Girl (2001) returned to roots and once again played the role which is somewhat goody, yet beautiful.

Apart from the main stars we have Hong Kong superstar Simon Yam, who portrayed Chen. In the usual comedic role we have Oh Dal-Su, and as Zampano, rising to fame Kim Soo-Hyun . In the movie appeared even Shin Ha-Kyun. All the stars perfectly fit the characters and everyone gets a fair portion of screen time, because of that movie lasts 135min, which for some may be a downside, but it is worth it.

The Thieves is a very good action movie with a really good story, there is no moment that is getting boring. The perfect movie for a lazy afternoon, full of action, funny dialogues, with very good characters. Nearly 13 million viewers in Korea, proves that Choi knows how to make a good action movie that will appeal to virtually anyone. It is a movie that I can honestly recommend .

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Chaotic

If you can make it through the first 30 minutes of the movie, which was really messy and boring, the movie will try to catch up later. What was a real waste, is the impressive cast turning out to be too much about nothing. Forget the first half completely, things turn out to be relatively more interesting in the second half. But not to the extend to salvage a Titanic. Some of the leading cast were good. Worth mentioning, Kim Soo Hyun, though his role was extremely short, but he marked it memorable indeed. Yet again, all was forgotten in a mediocre overall movie. Still, I wouldn't say the movie is among the worst watch list, but it doesn't score high. And if I need to pin point what went wrong for this impressive cast, I would say probably the story, there is no much to tell except bits and pieces of a typical heist action movie, and a huge cast chaotically ensembled without a solid plot.

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I will start this review, my first on MDL, saying that I am extremely biased towards Jun Jihyun. Whatever production she is in I feel like she outshines her fellow actors and actresses, she is funny both physically - in a light matter as either Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin - and in her dialogue, her downside is the lack of productions she is in.

Anyway, I'm not here to talk exclusively about her. The premise of this film is very similar to most heist films, however - unless there is a director's cut that I didn't watch - there are some flaws of continuity and characters that have a premature ending. Even though it is not a terrible flaw, the film could have been much better.

The acting is very good, funny moments and serious moments are well-dosed - even though Jihyun is mostly seen doing gags.

The music is meh, there are some moments that you can barely hear something and it doesn't mix well with the scene that you are watching and, for instance, an action scene doesn't seem that interesting.

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There's been a lot of comparing this to Oceans Eleven, which is actually a show I never liked and couldn't get through. However, I had to watch it after a friend stated it was more like the Korean version of The Italian Job. Which made me think of witty humor, clever heists, and cool characters.

This was an excellent crime thriller! Probably one of the better titles I've seen in a while. In fact, I'm going to be bold enough to say that this is what I've been waiting for to come out of Hollywood. Sure it was a bit of a slow begining, but it ended up being a really smart and slick korean version of The Italian Job--completely stands on its own. Really enjoyable and I got into it and loved all the sub plots.


All the actors are enjoyable to watch and it was hard realizing that The Thieves wasn't afraid to kill them off. This is an adrenaline rush of revenge, redemption, laughs, and cool thieving. Truly-totally-awesome fun movie!

If you're any type of foreign film fan, you've got to try this! There's some romantic elements, but for the most part it's all about the mystery, dazzle, and--poof--the heist. There are many layers to The Thieves and you're going to want to pay attention. Because when you think it's all over, it's not.

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The start was pretty good actually, I’ve always liked a swindler-themed movie. It was pretty entertaining watching how they got in, how they steal, and especially Yenicall’s part.

But unfortunately, the middle-end part was quite boring for me. There were too many kiss scenes that were quite absurd. And the part which I hate most, too many betrayals in one group. The ending seems to blurry, the “main group” eventually doesn’t get the diamond, and most of the members went to jail.

I never even once try to skip the action part in a movie, but this one made me skip the whole action part because it was too long. To summarize, I wouldn’t recommend this movie if you’re not in to action very much.

Overall, a 5/10 ⭐️

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From the get go I enjoyed the introductions of the members, however for me the film was slightly too long. Once watching 50% of the film, I had thought the film was close to ending. The Hong Kong and Korean collaboration didn't do it for me (there were times the English conversation was forced) and the abrupt endings for some of the casts.

It's one of those movies with so many characters, it takes a while to actually sink in - and by then you want this film to end.

Personally I did enjoy the film until the half way mark - and there are stand out characters: Chewing Gum and Yennicall especially.

Might I suggest you not to watch this film if you're a fan of the Italian Job. If curiousity kills - just watch it :)

Personally I think this film was better off with a full Korean cast, less useless characters, and a few edits on some character's loose or abrupt endings.

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As you probably already heard or read, this can be called Chungmuro's version of Ocean's Eleven, but with a cross-border twist - the coming together of a Korean team and a Hong Kong team. If you are a fan of Hong Kong movieland you would probably recognize some of the stars from the Hong Kong team.

It is definitely very stylishly put together, assisted by the glamorous Macau and Hong Kong cityscape, and gritty Busan apartment buildings in the backdrop. Most of the main characters well developed, with the exception of some supporting characters, whose backgrounds we had a a peek but were never quite fully explained. But if this was done well, it probably would last EVEN longer than the approximately 2h 20min duration (which is more than long enough for me). For me, this is the most interesting part of the film.

Besides some exciting action scenes, particularly those that involve wire work, there are many funny scenes too, especially those involving Gianna Jun, Kim Soo Hyun and Oh Dal Soo. The music was pretty snazzy and added to the exciting scenes of the movie.

There is no need to overanalyze this movie. Suitable for general entertainment.

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I came in expecting Korea's version of Ocean's Eleven. I came out entertained and applauding at the perfect casting. I thought Jun Ji-hyun really shined being goofy and sexy, even among the good turns by the other actors. Lee Jung-jae was convincing in his portrayal of an insecure leader.

I was glad Siri misheard my sister's question and instead randomly provided showtimes for our local theatre (Seattle). In the near empty cinema, we held our breath until the first line of English subtitle popped up; we had forgotten to confirm that it was screening with subtitles.

Catch it if you can. :)

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