3/5 stars After her breakout performance in Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite , Park So-dam confirms her leading-lady status as a hard-as-nails getaway driver in the action-packed crime thriller Special Delivery . Through minimal dialogue but lashings of pouty attitude, Park runs circles around her male co-stars as her character reluctantly protects an orphaned youngster from the clutches of Song Sae-byuk’s vile corrupt cop. While the film is not an official remake of Nicolas Winding Refn’s neon-drenched noir Drive , writer-director Park Dae-min is endlessly indebted to the Ryan Gosling action vehicle. From its central premise to its retro synth score, Special Delivery lifts entire set pieces from the 2011 film. Both focus on a mysterious loner with a shady past, who works as an expert driver-for-hire, transporting high-risk criminals cross-country at even higher speeds. Both Park’s character Jang Eun-ha and Gosling’s nameless driver work as mechanics by day, sport shiny bomber jackets and live quietly under the radar, only coming under threat after they cross paths with a young child and their wayward father. Special Delivery ’s big hook, which separates it from its influential forerunner, is the gender-flipped protagonist, and the movie goes out of its way to emphasise just how surprising it is to the criminal underworld that a woman like Eun-ha could be such a formidable force. Yeom Hye-ran’s National Intelligence Service agent, the film’s only other female character, is revealed to be a veritable liability behind the wheel, just to hammer home the point that women and cars shouldn’t go together. When Eun-ha’s past is eventually uncovered, it does little to further the plot, but is presented as ample justification for her decidedly unladylike abilities. Undeniably exhilarating in its action sequences, which are as slickly choreographed and unremittingly violent as we have come to expect from South Korean cinema, the film loses traction whenever the dust is allowed to settle. The script is rife with casual sexism and racial epithets, notably against Eun-ha’s South Asian colleague, and boasts a surprising propensity for emphatic belching. This unrelenting crassness sits uncomfortably alongside Park’s efforts to unlock Eun-ha’s dormant maternal instincts and nurture a growing tenderness between this emotionally closed-off woman and her precocious young charge (Jung Hyeon-jun). Wayward and derivative, yet fitfully entertaining, Special Delivery earns its title by gifting Park So-dam a convincing showcase for her versatility as an unconventional, yet wholly capable star. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook