
Thick as Thieves
1999

Blowing the nation's drug scene wide open.
Navigating both the criminal underworld and law enforcement agencies, professional snitches called "yadang" provide covert information about the drug world to prosecutors and police. When a drug bust at a party attended by high-profile second-generation VIPs entangles those involved into a dangerous conspiracy, a seasoned yadang must do everything in his power not just to make it out on top, but alive.

Navigating both the criminal underworld and law enforcement agencies, professional snitches called "yadang" provide covert information about the drug world to prosecutors and police. When a drug bust at a party attended by high-profile second-generation VIPs entangles those involved into a dangerous conspiracy, a seasoned yadang must do everything in his power not just to make it out on top, but alive.
Kang Ha-neulKang-soo
Yoo Hai-jinKoo Gwan-hee
Park Hae-joonOh Sang-jae
Ryu Kyung-sooCho Hoon
Chae Won-binUhm Su-jin
You Seong-jooYeom Tae-soo
Kim Keum-soonKim Hak-nam
Lim Sung-kyunChang-rak
Cho Wan-kiManager Oh
Kwak Ja-hyungDetective Park
Yoon Tae-sooJong-soo
Yoon Hyun-gilPark Hyun-sook
Park Ji-hongReporter Song
Woo Ji-hyunOh Jae-cheol
Hong Seo-junCho Sang-taek
Kwon HyukManager Nam
Jeong Do-wonGeok-hyun
Kang Ji-woonInvestigator
Choe MinSponsor












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I must admit I didn’t quite understand just what was going on at the start of this. “Lee Kang-su” (Kang Ha-neul) is a brash and confident young man who manages to get information on drug dealers which he then passes on to the police and/or the public prosecutors in return for a cut and them getting a reduced sentence if they turn state’s evidence. Thing is, the further up the food chain they get the more political “interference” the investigators encounter and pretty swiftly that causes problems for this young “Yadang” as he ends up a victim of his erstwhile protector, ambitious prosecutor “Ku Gwen-hee” (Yoo Hae-jin) and pumped full of blue methadone to the point where he doesn’t know day from night. Once released, though, he unites with similarly manipulated former police captain “Oh Sang-jae” (Park Hae-joon) and an young actor (Chae Won-bin) whose career was wrecked after she, too, was exposed to this highly addictive substance and ultimately used as a glorified hooker by someone extremely close to the presidency - and the election is looming. Once the story gets up and running, this proves to be quite an entertaining, if not always entirely plausible, analysis of lucrative drug running and politicking in a South Korea that seems determined to stamp out criminality however perilous that path might be. It’s a gritty, sometimes seedy film that sees both men and Chae Win-bin deliver strongly and in the case of Kang Hae-neul enthusiastically too. There is plenty of action across the two hours and the denouement has something of “The Sting” (1973) to it as vengeance knows few bounds. Worth a watch.

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