Review | Busan 2023: Believer 2 movie review – new Netflix sequel to the 2018 Korean remake of Johnnie To’s Drug War is a bloodthirsty, nonsensical mess
- Starring Cho Jin-woong, Cha Seung-won and Han Hyo-joo, Believer 2 is one of the most gratuitous parades of senseless bloodletting in recent memory
- It is utterly baffling that Netflix has bankrolled a sequel to a film they do not own that leans so heavily upon its predecessor
1/5 stars
While it might be considered pointless to complain about excessive violence in a Korean action movie – it is what has come to define the country’s output in this genre – Believer 2 arrives as one of the most gratuitous parades of senseless, and often nonsensical, bloodletting in recent memory.
Graciously, Believer 2 opens with a breathless recap of the first film’s pivotal events, and the sequel aims to fill in the blanks of what went down in the week between the first film’s violent climax and its mysterious Norway-set coda.
Suffice to say, police Captain Jo Won-ho (Cho Jin-woong) is still on the trail of the anonymous crime boss Mr. Lee, despite a number of different parties laying claim to the title.
Among these is Cha Seung-won’s Brian, who was left for dead following a brutal torture session at the hands of a duo of disabled chemists, again played by Kim Dong-young and Lee Joo-young. There is also Seo Young-rak, the gangster who reluctantly became Won-ho’s partner in the first film.