The Unjust

The Unjust
Hangul	부당거래
Hanja	不當去來
Revised Romanization	Budang georae
McCune–Reischauer	Pudang kŏrae
Directed by	Ryoo Seung-wan
Written by	Park Hoon-jung
Produced by	Koo Bon-han Kim Yun-ho Ryoo Seung-wan Kang Hye-jung Han Jae-duk
Starring	Hwang Jung-min Ryoo Seung-bum Yoo Hae-jin
Cinematography	Chung Chung-hoon
Edited by	Kim Sang-bum Kim Jae-bum
Music by	Jo Yeong-wook
Distributed by	CJ Entertainment
Release date	October 28, 2010
Running time	119 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Box office	US$18.2 million

The Unjust (Korean: 부당거래; RR: Budanggeorae; lit. "Bad deal" or "Unfair trade") is a 2010 South Korean action crime film by Ryoo Seung-wan. It is a dark and bitter denunciation of corruption in the South Korean justice system.

It was a critical and commercial success, with 2.7 million admissions at the box office and winning several awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay at the 2011 Blue Dragon Film Awards.

This is director Ryoo Seung-wan's fifth collaboration with his younger brother, actor Ryoo Seung-bum. Lead actors Hwang Jung-min and Ryoo Seung-bum previously worked together in Bloody Tie (2006).

Plot

After the rape and murder of 5 elementary schoolgirls, a crime which deeply upsets the entire country, a fleeing suspect is shot and killed by the police. This leads to negative publicity because the guilt of the suspect cannot be proven, and the real attacker may still be at large. Under pressure from the Blue House, a senior police official assigns Choi, a police captain, to a highly sensitive mission, namely, to find a former child rapist who can take the blame. Choi, in return, is promised a promotion and the dismissal of an internal investigation against him, which was caused by his brother-in-law receiving money from Jang, a corrupt businessman. Meanwhile, a corrupt prosecutor named Joo cancels the criminal charges, brought about by an investigation led by Choi, against a corrupt businessman named Kim, who is also Jang's rival in a bid for a construction deal.

Choi searches through several profiles of rapists, and having settled upon Lee, a school-bus driver, he enlists Jang and his henchmen to kidnap Lee and coach him in how the confession should be delivered. At the same time, Jang takes photographs of Kim and Joo playing golf and has a henchman approach Kim and murder him. The photographs are mailed to Joo to ensure that Jang will never be prosecuted. At the police station, Lee is denied immunity from the death penalty, and as such, reneges on the deal and tells Joo the truth. In response, Jang sends the earlier henchman to arrest and murder Lee from within the jail. This makes Joo furious and he investigates Choi, with the help of a corrupt journalist, finding evidence of his and Jang's partnership. Choi, in response, pleads with Joo not to ruin his career, and the two agree to a truce.

Meanwhile, Jang, who is tired of being blackmailed by Choi, has saved recordings of Lee's coaching session and black-mails Choi in return. Choi reacts by murdering Jang using a rigged elevator and pretends to make peace with Jang's assistant before murdering him as well. However, this incident is seen by Choi's lieutenant, who wrestles with Choi and tries to stop him. During the struggle, Choi accidentally kills his lieutenant, and afterward stabs the dead body with a knife, so that the police will assume that Jang's assistant and the lieutenant killed each other. As Choi receives his promotion and the lieutenant's family mourns, Choi's subordinates become suspicious and privately capture another one of Jang's henchmen, who served as Jang's videographer and who recorded Jang's death and the ensuing fight. Ironically, DNA testing proves successful on the body of one of the girls mentioned earlier, and Lee is proven to be the real attacker all along. Nonetheless, the subordinates release the video of the coaching to prove Choi's connection with Jang, and what is more, they order Jang's henchman to ambush Choi at a charnel house and murder him in revenge. The final scene reveals that they also released the golf photographs, but in spite of the media reporting that charges will be filed, Joo meets with his father-in-law, a senior official who calmly assures him that everything will be alright.

Cast

Film festivals

The Unjust has screened at numerous film festivals around the world, including the Panorama section of the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, the Hong Kong International Film Festival, the Shanghai International Film Festival, the New York Asian Film Festival, the Fantasia Festival, the Hawaii International Film Festival, the Vladivostok International Film Festival - Pacific Meridian, the Sitges Film Festival, the London Korean Film Festival, and the Udine Far East Film Festival.

Awards and nominations