A Company Man

This is going to be a heavy one.

Ji Hyeong-Do (So Ji-Sub) is a seemingly ordinary salary man; he starts his day with a balanced breakfast, he carries a briefcase and wears a suit to work. Everything about him from his hairstyle to his manner of walking makes him indistinguishable from the average Korean working man. However, Hyeong-Do's job is anything but ordinary. Working as a hit-man for a company specializing in assassinations Hyeong-Do has been with the company for a long-time. Having never failed a mission and always completing his assignments without question, his boss Representative Jeon (Jeon Guk-hwan) plans to leave the company in Hyeong-Do's hands. That is until Hyeong-Do falls in love with a woman named Su-Yeon (Lee Mi-Yeon), a single mom who is also the mother of Hyeong-Do's most recent target. Hyeong-Do is forced to choose between his duty and his heart. When he chooses wrong he finds himself hunted by the very same organization that trained him.

 

He was a model employee.

If you follow me on Twitter you're probably aware that I'm a huge fan of Asian cinema - Korean cinema and shows in particular. Undoubtedly my favorite Korean film (and one of my favorite movies of all-time) is 2010's The Man From Nowhere which has since become the standard by which I judge these films. While 'A Company Man' won't be taking the crown I'd put it right next to 'The Man From Nowhere' as one of the all-time greats given that this movie was filled with drama, suspense, action and very deep characters that made me care about them. The story hooked me in from the word go and I was captivated by this world and the very real sense of pain and loneliness that was felt throughout.

It's hard out here for a killer.

Actor/rapper So Ji-sub plays our lead Ji Hyeong-Do. With 20 years of acting experience under his belt he's no slouch and he does a fantastic job portraying Hyeong-Do. When we first meet Hyeong-Do he appears to be a ruthless assassin, even going so far as to kill an underling with no remorse despite the fact said underling has a family. Orders are orders after all. He is both feared and respected in his organization and his boss likens him to a perfect killer. He's almost mechanical in nature. However this is only on the surface. Beneath that Hyeong-Do is a very lonely man who feels isolated even when he's surrounded by other human beings and it seems his only human contact involves the people he's sent to kill. As time goes on and his missions become more and more complex, we see and understand why he's had enough of this life and wants to move on. He's a quiet character, but the nuances in his body language speak volumes about what he's thinking. Verbally or non-verbally, So Ji-sub commands these scenes.

Learning to be human.

Actress Lee Mi-Yeon plays Su-Yeon a single mother struggling to raise two children on a tailor's salary. Caught between a rebellious, teenage daughter who'd rather make a career out of running the streets and a son whose super secret job happens to be contract killing similar to our main character and Su-Yeon has a lot on her plate. When she meets Hyeong-Do, his support and quiet understanding eases her financial hardships, but more importantly the emotional weight she's carrying. He helps her rediscover what it means to dream again and even brings her closer to fulfilling said dreams. Su-Yeon in-turn helps Hyeong-Do rediscover his humanity and live for something other than killing.

 

Don't cross the boss.

Any corporate structure is bound to have a completed hierarchy and this one is no different. A Company Man has a large assortment of characters connected with the organization - some good, some bad. Jeon Guk-hwan (above right) plays Representative Jeon, the leader of the organization. He's easy-going and friendly, but don't let that fool you. It takes a special kind of crazy to operate a business where the main product is murder. He's the mastermind behind everything and there's no line he won't cross to keep the organization's existence a secret. Serving directly under him is his stooge Kwon Jong-tae played by Kwak Do-won. Do-won does a great job portraying Jong-tae as this character you love to hate. He's scheming, double-crossing, woefully inept, and is basically an amalgam of every bad boss you've ever had. Yoo Ha-bok plays Jin Chae-gook, who was Hyeong-Do's handler before tragic events force him to turn rogue and place him into direct conflict with our lead. There are other characters including Ban Ji-hoon (played by Lee Geung-young) who is a washed-up, old assassin who has nothing in his life but money with no one to spend it on and a fancy car with no one to drive around in. Ban Ji-hoon is particularly interesting because he is in many ways an uncomfortable picture of Hyeong-Do's future. The lives of these characters all intertwine to create a compelling crime drama told through tears, bullets, and bloodshed.

 

Giving one HELL of a two weeks notice!

Any Korean crime drama worth its salt better have some good action and 'A Company Man' is no slouch. The film does an excellent job of having fights play out in very close quarters which makes the action more visceral. Hyeong-Do knows how to throwdown and whether he's up against multiple opponents or people older and more experienced than himself he knows how to bring them down all the same. The fight scenes also have an emotional weight because many of Hyeong-Do's enemies are people he's known for years and in some cases decades. There are times when he asks them to stop fighting for their own sake and when they don't he has to put them down. In addition, there's an office shootout that will make fans of Max Payne 3 proud.

The film's impressive score is composed by Mowg whose resume consists of films from east and west including The Last Stand, I Saw the Devil, Memories of the Sword, The Fatal Encounter, and more than a dozen others. His music perfectly captures the tone of each scene and the ending track carries with it this real sense of finality.

What lay at the end of his road?

A Company Man weaves a powerful tale, but it's certainly not a light-hearted one. This isn't your typical bang, shoot em up action movie. It's a gritty romp through the dark world of contract killing where innocent lives are lost in a war between men who can only find peace at the end of a gun. From the opening hit to the final moment when the last shell casing drops, A Company Man gripped me from beginning to end and I highly recommend it.

Veritas (2005)

And you thought Crows was BADASS!!

Set in a near future in Seoul, Korea, Veritas is centered on a delinquent named Ma Gangryong. One day when Gangryong let's his mouth and bad attitude get the better of him, he finds himself facing down a gang and a serious beating. Just when things look hopeless a mysterious man known only as Lightning Tiger shows up and defeats the gang in seconds. Gangryong learns that Lightning Tiger practices an ancient art known as Enlightenment of Thunder and Lightning (EOTL). Having witnessed these incredible feats, Gangryong jumps at the opportunity to learn such a powerful art and after much convincing, eventually persuades Lightning Tiger to take him on as his apprentice.

Badass Bookworm? Close enough.

After training for some months and becoming a proficient EOTL user himself, Gangryong is entering a high school called Reunion which is named after the mega conglomerate which owns the school and pretty much everything else in Seoul. However, before Gangryong can even pass the front gate, suits from Reunion approach Gangryong and delivers to him the charred arm of his master and inform him that Lightning Tiger is dead. Who could have killed one of the most powerful martial arts masters in the world? Is Reunion connected? And why is Reunion using a high school to gather the most skilled martial artists of this generation? Gangryong enters the school with the resolve the beat the answers out of everyone he comes across.

The gauntlet is thrown!

Veritas is set in a world of badasses where the rule of cool is definitely on display. On its own, this approach isn't all that unique but Veritas is able to shine because it constantly defies conventions when it comes to dialogue, narrative, fight scenes, and even character development. When reading the manhwa the first thing one notices about Gangryong is how dissimilar he is to shonen heroes. He has a bad attitude, he's unapologetic, he's not altruistic, and he is more of a anti-hero than anything else. Another aspect of Gangryong I found interesting is either in whole or in part, often times his character traits play on conventional virtues. For example, Gangryong believes men and women are equal  and because they're equal he's fully justified in fighting a woman with the same ferocity and ruthlessness with which he'd fight a man. While this might offend some people I found it a very interesting character trait and I thought it was very creative how these traits carried over in the story and fight scenes.

Think Gangryong won't hit a girl? I'm afraid I've got some bad news.

One of the best fight scenes in the manhwa takes places between Ma Gangryong and Eunhwa Lee and without spoiling anything it is a fierce battle to behold with Lee not trying to play on her gender and Gangryong really not caring either way. It's quite telling because not only are both fighters highly skilled, but Gangryong shows another aspect of his character through his commitment to being the Dirtiest Player in the Game. If he had powder in his track pants you can rest assured he would have used it.

When Vera ties her hair back people die.

It's a good thing our protagonist isn't afraid to Ric Flair it up if it gets him the victory because he has to contend with a student body composed of fighters just as good if not better than himself. One student in particular, Vera Linus not only stands at the apex but also serves as our primary antagonist.

Told you.

In addition to serving as the student council president, Vera is also the leader of Reunion - the group responsible for the death of Gangryong's master. Vera is quite the chessmaster, she has influence inside and outside Reunion, and is always calm in the most cold, almost mechanical fashion I've seen from an antagonist in quite some-time. Not only that but in a school full of martial arts masters from around the world no one has even attempted to challenge her supremacy in years. Yes. She is That. Damn. Bad. However, she isn't evil in a traditional sense so much as she is Machiavellian and I felt that this was a unique way to characterize Vera in lieu of making her a megalomaniac or "the victim" as we've seen in far too many titles already. It's scenarios like this and many others where Veritas makes the reader think it's going to stick to convention and then makes a left turn.

Boy meets girl? Not quite.

There is a refreshing sense of unpredictability here because there's less of a reliance on tropes and more of an emphasis on organic story telling where the narrative is driven by believable characters. Further still, it challenges our views on these characters as well. Not every pretty face is a good girl and a few of the females in this manga are outright monsters. Likewise, not everyone who looks like a bully or a jock actually is one. "Don't judge a book by its cover", while not a blatant theme in this manhwa, definitely comes across because the characters are so different from what you might expect especially if you aim to compare Veritas with other comics out there.

Boy meets drunk girl? Not on Gangryong's watch!

Because Veritas doesn't stick to convention there is a lot of suspense in many of the scenes - more so than many titles in the marital arts genre where tension is usually only present in fight scenes. Sometimes two characters might share verbal jabs and things erupt into a violent fist fight. Other times characters who have had as much as they can stand of each other just come to blows and level the parking lot. Then there are those times where characters only exchange thinly veiled threats and you just know things are going to get dire in the very near future.

That one-time the call should've gone to voicemail.

Veritas's commitment to defying convention also comes across in its intense martial arts battles. This isn't one of those comics where the main character is always going to win because he's the MC. Veritas is a little more complicated than that partially because while many of the martial feats in the manhwa are outlandish there is some believable logic behind the ebb and flow of many battles. Ma Gangryong picks up on techniques quickly, he's a combat genius, and he's a really dirty fighter, but a guy who just started practicing martial arts a short time ago isn't going to best fighters who have been training since they were children simply because he's the protagonist.

Fire Dragon vs Ma Gangryong! Hypefest 2005!

Unlike other titles, winners and losers aren't a foregone conclusion in Veritas and that is what makes the fights intensely satisfying no matter who wins or loses because you simply don't know. Maybe Gangryong enters a battle with a clear cut advantage and takes an L out of nowhere. Maybe he goes up against someone who completely outclasses him and pulls out a win. You never know until the battle is over and that is what's so refreshing about the fights in this manhwa. Other pros of these battles is that while Gangryong is the main character he's not the only student who has a bone to pick with Reunion.

Stand Alone Complex pose.

Other characters have their own issues with Reunion, Vera, the other students on the council, or the school system as a whole. I won't go into everyone's back story but for some the reasons involve bringing down the entire conglomerate while for others revenge is motivation enough. And then there are those characters who keep their cards to the chest and no one knows what their true motives are. Just as these characters have their own motivations for entering Reunion, and fighting against Reunion, they also have their own fighting styles to boot. Sure you have your fragile speedsters, your powerhouses, and so on but there are also fighters who use techniques you wouldn't expect judging from their appearance. The outcome of many battles in Veritas are decided based on factors such as experience, real-time strategy, and unpredictability, and rarely does one move guarantee a victory.

"Let's watch this city burn, from the skylines on top of the world".

For the negative aspects of the manga, some demographics might be put-off by some of the suggestive themes. Fanservice consists of some female characters wearing really short skirts or shirts with low necklines which for me wasn't a big deal as there are many shonen titles which show off a lot more skin than you see in Veritas, but I felt I should mention it for certain audiences.

"We'll show those punks from Cromartie what happens when you mess with Bass High".

Veritas is a martial arts manhwa filled to the brim with BADASSITUDE. From the fight scenes, to the dialogue, and character interaction it's a title overflowing with style but it also has a great deal of substance too. The plot gets deeper and deeper as the chapter progresses but it never crosses that line where a comic can go from believable to absurd. It has a large cast of characters and while not everyone gets as much development as Gangryong, you do learn a lot about them. The art style is very eye-catching, the battles are surprising and even unconventional at times, and while the manga is fairly serious there's some comedy involved too - usually when Gangryong is doing what he does best. This is definitely one of the best martial arts comics I've ever read and it was Veritas that got me into The Breaker. This manhwa gets a very high recommendation. Fun stuff.

Immortal Regis (2006)

Immortal Regis tells the story of Jae Hyuk, a high school student struggling to take care of himself and his ailing brother. One night when Jae Hyuk's brother falls ill, our hero tries to take him to the hospital when he encounters demoness Serin, a resident of Chaos. Jae Hyuk gets killed in the battle between Serin and a random demon. This would be a short story for sure but Serin resurrects Jae Hyuk with the powers of her clan. Now an Undead, Jae Hyuk can no longer remain in the human world and is forced to travel to Chaos. While there, Jae Hyuk learns that if he can acquire the fire spirit he may be able to return home to watch over his little brother. But he'll have to contend with vicious monsters, a corrupt political system, and even the very laws of Chaos itself which are all tied to the apocalypse.

Immortal Regis is an intensely satisfying read for many reasons. The manga has layer upon layer of narrative including: myths, lineages, relationships between clans, and even science. It's difficult to discuss the finer details of the plot without spoiling some of the numerous plot twists, a few of which left this reader stunned. What starts as a simple shonen-esque tale of heroism quickly turns into something darker and more mature. Immortal Regis doesn't immediately seem like it's aiming for a piece of popularity pie, rather it emulates ancient myths to create its own and expand upon the themes and tropes therein. On top of that, the manga does a great job in leading the reader on and making one think it's going in a particular direction when a plot twist or new development within the narrative makes a hard right into something amazing.

Immortal Regis is remarkably refreshing because despite it's imaginative story and fantasy setting, the developments within this world are grounded in reality. Power dominates Chaos and it's the common end of whatever means our characters might employ. The cast is considerably more mature than what you find in other titles and they're fully aware that the tropes you see hammered in other manga such as friendship and hugs doesn't actually get things done. We see characters cutting deals, stabbing each other in the back (literally), and trying to take control of ancient powers and prophecies to fulfill their own ambition, while the people of Chaos are largely ignorant of what is actually going on behind the scenes. There is social commentary here in a way.

The characters in Immortal Regis are deep and varied. In a way it seems as though they're not characters but people placed in fantastic situations. What this means is that you have your Machiavellian types, agents of chaos, and pawns in political chess games which includes innocent people like Jae Hyuk and Serin who become guilty by associating with the wrong clans or worse yet, happening upon ancient powers which are the key to someone else's grand conspiracy. Speaking of our main characters, Immortal Regis does an amazing job of centering its plot around a pair of protagonists whereas most manga have trouble dealing with one. In a sense, Immortal Regis serves up helpings of tragedy, drama, and political intrigue in fashions Shakespeare himself would applaud.

Serin is our heroine in this story. She has all the earmarks that you'd expect of a badass. She's powerful, cunning, knowledgeable about the social and political structure of Chaos and the field of battle, but she also has a compassionate side and a very strong sense of duty. After Jae Hyuk is killed when Serin's fight with a demon got out of control, she takes it upon herself to save Jae Hyuk's life and watch over him even though she has no obligation to do so except that which she placed upon herself via her moral code.

Jae Hyuk is a complex character as well. He has the tragic flaw that you'd expect from a tragic hero but this isn't a spoiler per se. It is true that Jae Hyuk's loyalty and devotion to his younger brother is his driving force. The crux of loyalty in the world of Chaos is that it may very well get you killed, but as Jae Hyuk becomes more and more driven to return home he becomes the beneficiary of great and in some ways terrible power - power which appears to be driving him insane at certain points with his madness only being quelled by Serin's compassion. Not only that but as Jae Hyuk becomes more and more involved with the world of Chaos, he does recognize that the duty to save this world may be more important than returning home. It is that recognition of duty, how it conflicts with loyalty, and the influence of power which complicates Jae Hyuk's character and the events that stem from his decisions.

The environments of Chaos blend ancient structures sporting a mix of European and East Asian architecture alongside futuristic laboratories. Modes of transportation include dragons, horses, and carriages. There are large satellites, meticulously detailed holograms, and beautiful hanging gardens. Usually when creators try to mash so many anachronisms together it comes off as garish but in Immortal Regis the artist makes it work. From the standpoint of the character design, the characters do look oddly proportioned for the first volume but that's par for the course where manga is concerned. There is a gradual but very noticeable evolution of art which sees our characters transition from odd to being artistically breathtaking - even more so in the sequel manga Cavalier of the Abyss.

Immortal Regis is epic, beautiful, and incredibly well put together. To say it is unlike any manga out there would be a very good approximation of how different and how good it truly is. It doesn't aim to be like the big three or fit the needs of one particular audience. The aim of Immortal Regis is to weave an epic tale of complex characters set in a world of paradoxical aesthetics and it succeeds. Immortal Regis delivers in dividends and somehow, it's sequel piece actually improves upon the groundwork laid down by this manga. To say Immortal Regis is a must read is something of an understatement as it is absolutely amazing. If you've never read this title you're missing out.