The City of Violence

Detective Tae-su works organized crime in Seoul, but news of a high school friend's death brings him back to his hometown for the funeral. There he reunites with the old group he grew up with, including Pil-ho, and the reunion stirs memories along with suspicion. Tae-su is not satisfied that his friend died the way people say, so he stays in town and digs into the circumstances. He and another friend, Seok-hwan, each pursue their own inquiries, and both trails point toward a local redevelopment project that Pil-ho has been running. The film is a Korean action crime thriller built around loyalty among former classmates and the question of who profited from a friend's death.

Ryoo Seung-wan directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Kim Jeong-min and Lee Won-jae. The film followed Crying Fist in his filmography, arriving after a run that began with Die Bad and continued through Arahan. Ryoo also appears in the cast as Suk-hwan, alongside Jung Doo-hong as Taesu, Lee Beom-su as Pil-ho and Kim Seo-hyung as Mi-ran. It was produced by Kim Jeong-min, Kang Hye-jung and Ryoo, with CJ Entertainment and Filmmaker R&K behind it, on a budget of about 3 million dollars.

On IMDb it holds 6.6 out of 10 from roughly 5,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.5 from 153. A critics' rating of 6.2 from nine reviews sits close to those audience scores, suggesting a comparable reception across both groups.