A modern Korean take on "The Godfather" and "The Departed", this film beautifully explores the nuances of Korean culture through near flawless character development, script, cinematography, and pulse (the cycling of high and low points throughout the film that keep the audience fully engaged), though is not for the haemophobic (those who fear blood). Lee Jung-jae is absolutely phenomenal in his role; easily one of the best performances I've seen of any actor, ever. I would say the same about the character development in this film as well, which is extremely difficult to pull off in a film with such a heavy flow of "events". The only noticeable flaw is that the elevator scene towards the end is unrealistic (you'll see when you get to it).Easily in the top 3 Korean films of all time.

A highly gripping portrait of Korean crime syndicate, New World is arguably the best mob film to come out from South Korea since Kim Jee-woon's A Bittersweet Life & is an ingeniously structured, stylishly filmed, firmly composed & violently told cinema that shares a similar thematic structure with Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather. Opening with a bloodied face of a person being tortured as he is suspected of being the mole in the gang, this crime-drama sets the tone for what's to come & as the film progresses, becomes more & more engrossing until it all culminates on a rousing high with an expertly executed finale.The plot covers the conflicts between the police & the mob through the eyes of an undercover cop who has worked his way up over the past 8 years to become the right hand man of the second-in-command for the throne of Goldmoon; the biggest crime syndicate in Korea. When its leader is killed in a car accident, the crime ring is thrown into a succession struggle of which both the police & the mob wants to make the most of and which in the end comes down to our undercover cop, who must finally make a choice that'll decide the fate of this crime organization.Outstanding well written & directed by Park Hoon-jung who does a superb job in shaping the story & even better at illustrating it on the screen, skilfully photographed too with fine use of close-ups & camera angles, tightly edited as the film flies through its 134 minutes of runtime, spectacularly scored with music making its way in or out of scenes at the right moments & strongly performed by its stellar cast, New World works because of a combination of many things it does right & is one of the best films of last year plus one of the most impressive mob films in a long time. Do not miss it.

I will start with my only complaint: The subtitles were not very good, i think. I think the subtitles were dubbed over to make it really easy to understand the movie. I would rather longer reading and more depth than very easy reading and likely not getting the entire story.The Story was awesome! The acting was awesome! The plot was Awesome! The acting was so intense, the directing was so good, the flow of the movie was so well done, that you could probably watch this movie with no subtitles and understand the entire movie. There were just a few confusing parts that needed better translation, but even that did not hurt the movie. Intense is the word, and this movie delivered and i loved all the actors in here. Think of movies like: Heat, king of the city, and other hard core gangster movies.

I don't use the word classic lightly here, but this movie deserves it. It has all the right ingredients and even though it may be predictable from time to time (therefor not full 10 out of 10 from me), it never seizes to amaze. Be it the way it was shot, the acting, editing, scoring and the general storytelling.But if you can't watch movies from Asia (like the great Chinese Infernal Affairs before this), then you might not welcome this movie with the embrace I have. Korean action cinema has gotten a lot of attention in the last two decades and this movie just proves, that there is more to come. I'm not sure I'm looking forward to an American Remake, seeing they are mixed bags (a good "Departed" being followed by a very weak "Old Boy" to name but two).