The Roundup: Punishment (2024)

"Do you know what the rich want?...To get richer"

If you watched the first three Roundup films then you know what to expect from The Roundup: Punishment. Our wrecking ball ahjussi hitter takes on cyber crime this time around with his team and comic relief criminal sidekick.

Detective Ma makes a promise to a grieving mother that he will find the criminals responsible for her son’s death. The investigation takes him and his team into the world of cyber gambling and sundry crimes. What he’s not initially aware of is he’s dealing with The I.T. Genius and his vicious, knife-wielding enforcer. Ma will have to call in help from the police department’s own I. T. crowd and also the shady Jang I Su.

There is something about Ma Dong Seok I find compelling to watch, even if he’s just throwing hands at bad guys and little else. I thought Ma “no cartilage” Dong Seok moved smoother in this film which was probably due to better choreography and shorter scenes. His punches and ducking were swifter and of course with a little movie magic, always highly effective. The bad guys, led by Kim Mu Yeol’s Baek Chang Gi used knives which I’m not a huge fan of and didn’t think the knife fight choreography was particularly creative. I was only invested when Ma and his meaty fists entered the room.

The film which bounced between the Philippines and RoK lost focus a few times, which may have been more to translation issues. Ultimately, when the big hearted, pounding hitter wasn’t on screen, the story’s momentum faltered. I enjoyed Roundup Punishment for what it was, and in that I wasn’t disappointed. If you’ve watched the other entries in this franchise this is one to give a try. The Big Guy with No Cartilage rarely disappoints.

10 April 2026

Ma has quipped that he has “no cartilage” in interviews before. Glad he’s still able to make the movies he wants for now!

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Fist is still strong

The Crime City movie series has not run out of fuel. I would say that the previous sequel was slightly better, but the tone of this new film is the same as in the previous part, good and brutal action with a touch of comedy. Those who liked this series before will also like this sequel. Charismatic Ma Dong-seok has aged a bit, but he is still the main asset of the film. More precisely, it is his fist that smashes everything in front of him. It surprises me and makes me laugh every time when I see enemies fall from the force of his blows.

An important part of the film are the criminals, who also have strong personalities here, and it is interesting to see how they clash with each other. They also created the best action scene in the film, where instead of fists, they fight with knives and we practically see the entire fight choreography in one shot. As for the story, it's good enough to hold attention, but it doesn't have too many twists and turns.

P.S. for the Croatian translation. Our translator was very creative in translating Korean curse words, so he would invent a new curse word for each F word and thereby increase their influence on the plot, which bothered me a little because I'm not a fan of rude words.

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