[HanCinema's Film Review] "The Deal"

Kang-cheon (played by Park Sung-woong) is a übermensch serial killer. While I don't have any inherent problem with serial killer tropes in general, the übermensch serial killer is especially annoying primarily because it's so heavily fetishized. Dostoevsky pointed out the issues with the idea of the extraordinary man being a murderer way back in the nineteenth century. And this was back before serial killers and their bizarre fan clubs even came into existence. Newsflash- actual serial killers are cowards who would piss their pants if they had to face a task more difficult than hand-to-hand combat with a forty kilo accountant.

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I bring all this up because, at the very core of "The Deal", in order to accept anything that happens in this movie as reasonable, you need to buy into this fetishization of serial killers as being übermensch who have superhuman abilities which they gained through sheer force of will. At one point we discover another character has managed to give himself serial killer übermensch superpowers simply by imitiating Kang-cheon's philosophy.

If my harping on this point seems a bit ridiculous, well, I'm sorry, but I can't just pretend to ignore this fundamental aspect of the story for the sake of presumed objectivity. Americans genuinely believe that most people in prison today are evil übermensch of Kang-cheon's caliber. It's an idea that's resulted in rampant abuse of innocent people in American legal custody, and I am not at all happy to see it being promoted in a Korean film.

Now, as far as "The Deal" works on actual production merits...I suppose if you can ignore the movie's inherently toxic ideas, this is a passable thriller. As to be expected from an übermensch, there are multiple high-powered fistfights, knifefights, and even car fights all designed deliberately to keep your adrenaline levels up and running. All the characters fit into pretty basically defined archetypes, and for the sake of a revenge narrative, they fulfill these roles well.

The trouble is that no matter how well directed a film is, there has to be some sort of actual emotional point to the proceedings or else there's no serious catharsis. And as far as I can tell, the bigger point of "The Deal" is that evil übermensch exist and that good people everywhere should be willing to resort to all sorts of dirty dealing in order to fight something that is, for all intents and purposes, a bogeyman.

If "The Deal" was self-consciously absurd in any way about the tropes it uses I could probably give it a pass on these points. The problem is that it's not. When Kang-cheon smiles, we're supposed to recoil at the sheer strength of his evil. When the heroes snap, we're supposed to identify with them emotionally as the victims of a terrible crime that could happen to any of us at any time. "The Deal" is a case study on why most serial killer flicks focus on the mystery and tension rather than the archetype itself. This is a story that can only possibly appeal to someone with a horrifically, unrealistically pessimistic view of the human condition.

Review by William Schwartz

"The Deal" is directed by Son Yong-ho and features Kim Sang-kyung, Kim Sung-kyun and Park Sung-woong.