Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Veteran Blu-ray Movie Review

Just a Cop

Reviewed by Michael Reuben April 6, 2016

Veteran is a slickly crafted cop drama from writer/director Ryoo Seung-wan. Released in August 2015, it quickly became the third highest-grossing film in South Korea's history (behind Ode to My Father and The Admiral: Roaring Currents), and therein lies a cultural mystery for the Western viewer. The hero of Veteran isn't a supercop who takes down powerful criminal conspiracies. He's an ordinary detective with decent fighting skills, a bad marriage and a rough camaraderie with the members of his unit. He doesn't possess any special investigative abilities, although he has good instincts for who's honest and who isn't. His chief nemesis for the two-hour-plus running time of Veteran isn't some criminal mastermind but a spoiled rich kid who goes out of his way to make himself a target for law enforcement.

What explains the film's broad appeal? I confess to being baffled, but CJ Entertainment America has produced a high-quality Blu-ray presentation that will let U.S. viewers judge for themselves.

The opening of Veteran tracks a sting operation by the unit of Detective Seo Do-cheol (Hwang Jung-min) to bust a ring of car thieves with Russian connections. To transport one of the vehicles, Seo works with a truck driver named Bae (Jung Woong-in), who tells Seo about being stiffed for fees by a subsidiary of the conglomerate called Sinjing. The detective feels bad for the driver, who has a son about the same age as Seo's, and gives him his card. Later, when Bae is found near death at the bottom of a stairwell, the victim of an apparent suicide attempt, Bae's son finds the card in his father's pocket and telephones Det. Seo.

We already know from an earlier scene that Bae unwisely confronted a Sinjing official, Jo Tae-oh (Yoo Ah-in), son of the company's CEO, from whom Bae received a humiliating beating. But we don't know how Bae ended up in a coma, and Det. Seo doesn't particularly care. Having previously encountered Jo Tae-oh, he has already taken his measure as a drug-addled sociopath. The hunt is on.

The challenge for Det. Seo is that he doesn't have a case to investigate. Jo Tae-oh isn't suspected of wrongdoing, since Bae's near-death has been ruled a suicide. Sinjing is a legitimate business, even if its style of operation (or as much as we see of it) more closely resembles a crime family than a modern corporation. Much of Veteran's drama results from the internal conflict in the police department as Seo is repeatedly warned off his pursuit of Jo Tae-oh, often with external pressure from Sinjing, but refuses to be deterred. Company minions try alternate routes to repel the detective, including a memorable sequence in which they attempt to bribe his wife (Jin Kyung). Seo eventually gets his man, but it's less a question of investigation than of sheer endurance.

Veteran Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shot on Red, Veteran arrives from CJ Entertainment America in a 1080p, AVC-encoded presentation that demonstrates all the usual virtues of digital capture, with a clean, detailed image and an absence of distortion or interference. Blacks are solid, contrast is excellent, and the brightly lit streets of Seoul at night shine on the screen. CJ has mastered Veteran with an average bitrate of 24.97 Mbps, which is sufficient for digitally acquired material, and the compression has been capably performed.

Veteran Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Veteran offers a choice of four audio tracks: original Korean and English dub in both DTS-HD MA 5.1 and PCM 2.0. The film has only a few action scenes, but they're well-mixed with effective use of the surrounds and solid bass extension. Non- action scenes also reflect a thoughtful use of sound (e.g., Blondie's "Heart of Glass" as background source music at a fancy car dealership in the opening sequence).

Veteran Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers
• No Tears for the Dead
• The Divine Move
• The Admiral: Roaring Currents
• The Piper #1--Standard
• The Piper #2--Creep Show
• Veteran

Veteran Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Some commentators have argued that Veteran tapped into a popular sentiment of "hate the rich", but it's just as likely that its appeal rests in having a hero who, in a refreshing change from Hollywood's Lethal Weapons and Hong Kong's Supercops, is just a regular joe trying to get by and occasionally do the right thing. Judge for yourself; the Blu-ray won't disappoint.