Fans of South Korean actor Ma Dong-seok/마동석 aka Don Lee, as he is known in the West (THE ROUNDUP (범죄도시2); ETERNALS), will no doubt be punching their fists up in the air in excitement with the arrival of the latest installment in the cases of Police Detective Ma Seok-do. In THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT, Ma continues his pugilistic ways as this time he battles both the Japanese yakuza and a corrupt cop who are involved in the manufacture and distribution of a powerful drug that’s becoming popular at the clubs around Seoul.

Seven years have passed since the events of THE ROUNDUP (so says a colleague) and Ma and his team have been promoted to the Metropolitan Investigation Unit. When an autopsy of the body of a young woman reveals that she died from an overdose of a new and highly addictive club drug known as Hiper, Ma and the boys begin to investigate where the drug is coming from. The trail leads them to the yakuza operating in Seoul, and a ruthless, katana-wielding killer named Riki (Munetaka Aoki/青木 崇高) who has been dispatched there to find 20 kilos of the little blue pills worth US$30 million that have gone missing. Meanwhile, corrupt cop Joo Seong-cheol (Lee Joon-hyuk/이준혁) also wants to find the cache of drugs so that he can cut his own deal with a pair of Chinese buyers.

While the first film in the now-dubbed “Crime City” series (THE OUTLAWS) deals with Chinese and Korean gangs operating in Seoul, and the second film (THE ROUNDUP) deals with Korean criminals operating in Vietnam, THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT finds new villains in the Japanese. Other than that, the story follows pretty much the same beats as its two predecessors. That’s not so much of a bad thing as Ma is still the one-man wrecking crew that he always was but NO WAY OUT doesn’t break any new ground. This time, however, he seems to be using his fists a lot more but, to be fair, he does so only because the bad guys don’t want to surrender when they really ought to. Lee Sang-yong/이상용, with also directed the first ROUNDUP film, clearly knows that this is why audiences come to see these films and he leans into it by adding in thudding sound effects whenever Ma takes a swing at some unfortunate sap. Judging by the audience’s laughter each time that happens, I’d say he is 100% correct. Unfortunately, the plot gets a bit woolly with all the different bad guys trying to get their hands on the pills but I doubt audiences really care too much about the story here. It’s the punches they want to see and Ma, with his two supersized appendages, delivers another knockout performance.

Word has it that production has already finished on the fourth film in the series, THE ROUNDUP: PUNISHMENT, which is expected to hit cinemas late next year. Four additional films as well as two spinoffs are also planned, making CRIME CITY South Korea’s answer to the FAST & FURIOUS franchise.

THE ROUNDUP: NO WAY OUT opens in South Korea today (May 31st) and in Hong Kong tomorrow (June 1st). While it’s not as good as THE ROUNDUP, it’s still entertaining. If you haven’t seen either of the other films, you’ll be fine starting out with this one although you may miss out on some of the gags that show up in each of the films.

Thanks for reading but don’t be a lurker! If you liked what you just read, here are some suggestions:

Sign up to receive my movie reviews in your inbox automatically
Share this review on your Facebook page
Leave me a message telling me what you thought of my review or the film
Bookmark the site and visit often
Like my Howard For Film Facebook page
Watch my reviews on my YouTube page
Check out my Howard For Film magazine on Flipboard
Tell your friends about the site