Today we bring you our review of the newest South Korean Netflix movie Officer Black Belt starring the one and only Kim Woobin in a very charming, action-packed role.
I was so excited to watch this movie because, first of all, Kim Woobin will forever have every ounce of my support and every role he takes always ends up being charming to me. It also didn’t hurt that the premise of Officer Black Belt sounded so fun and with a lot of potential to be a great action flick that we definitely needed during this autumn. I knew Officer Black Belt was going to provide us with a lot of action, but I didn’t expect it to be so emotional by the end, and it honestly had me at the edge of my seat during those last 20 minutes. Let me not ramble on more in this introduction and let’s dive into the review right away.
From MyDramaList: Lee Jung Do delivers food for his father’s chicken restaurant. He seems like an ordinary guy who likes to play video games with his pals at internet cafes and talk with his friends over drinks. Yet, he is a prodigy in the martial arts. He has achieved the highest rank in taekwondo, kendo, and judo. When he sees someone in trouble, he doesn’t think twice about helping them. One day, Lee Jung Do happens to see a martial arts officer being attacked by a probationer wearing an ankle monitor, and he saves the martial arts officer. After saving the officer, Lee Jung Do begins to fill in for the injured officer for 5 weeks. He is partnered with probation officer Kim Sun Min. As a martial arts officer, Lee Jung Do’s job is to help during physically dangerous situations. Kim Sun Min’s manages violent offenders who are on probation. While Lee Jung Do works with Kim Sun Min, Kim Sun Min notices his talent for fighting and recommends that he work full-time as a martial arts officer.
No spoilers ahead:
Officer Black Belt is straight action and loads of fun, sprinkled with some emotional and gripping scenes that will make you root for the main squad so much. I love Kim Woobin and I also love Kim Sungkyun (anyone else super hyped for The Fiery Priest S2 because I can’t believe it’s actually premiering by the time this review comes out) so I knew their chemistry was going to be excellent. Both of them did a great job with their respective characters and I feel like they worked so well together – I even wish we got more of their bromance, but everything we got was so good. I especially loved the fact that Jung Do introduced Sun Min to his squad – had my heart warming up.
Kim Woobin as Jung Do was fantastic. He’s just overall so charismatic and this type of role suits him so much. It’s serious but also funny and incredibly charming that you simply have to root for him from start to finish. Jung Do is straight-forward, talented, and above everything else a good human underneath his physical skills. I really liked the way he approached some of these cases and the fact that he had to have such good self-control not to smack the living hell out of some of these disgusting people. He’s better than me because I would’ve beaten them up to a pulp, so be it.
Maybe a minor trigger warning is that Officer Black Belt deals a lot with sexual offenders and their heinous crimes so be mindful if this is a topic that’s upsetting in any way for you. I think it’s sad how many of these crimes occur every single day and how much we have to fear to literally live a normal life as women – at this point, you can’t even be relaxed when you’re walking down the street during the day, or when you’re just doing your job because there’s more and more lunatics coming your way every day. The repeated assaulters in Officer Black Belt had my blood boiling because you just can’t phantom the audacity of men sometimes. Officer Black Belt combines reality with optimistic results, despite some rather graphic losses, but I think it does a good job of intertwining non-fiction elements with fiction. Special shout-out to Son Sangyeon who, just two weeks ago, I praised for playing in some of my favourite comfort shows, because he did his thing in Officer Black Belt by playing an absolute scumbag. Versatility.
I’d say that I could definitely see Officer Black Belt being a mini-series, and I’m sad that it’s not. The potential to have a case-based series with this one was so strong and Kim Woobin would’ve absolutely killed it. It would be nice to at least get some sequels to this film in the future because I would definitely watch it! If you’re up for a thrilling, action-packed movie with charming actors and a straightforward plot, then look no more because Officer Black Belt is just the thing for you. I’m giving it an 8.25/10 for its genre – would definitely watch it again if I stumbled upon it, but can’t promise I wouldn’t curse my way through some of the scenes.