An All-Star Cast Leads A Fun, High-Stakes Heist Film

Smugglers has something for everyone — friendship, family, betrayal, and a kick-ass female cast. The tone of the film is hilarious and brutal and director Seung-wan Ryu (Veteran), who co-wrote the film with Cha-won Choi, Seung-wan Ryu, and Kim Jung Youn, is in full control of both. Smugglers plays like a heist film but the character development brings so much more to the table than the average caper. By the time the fight choreography begins, the film is exploding with energy. Everyone from the leads to the friend who barely gets a line is spectacular and Smugglers boasts a cast without a single weak link. Ryu and the film’s co-writers have crafted a very fun adventure with high stakes and slick action scenes.

1970s Korea has a booming smuggling trade but in the small town of Guncheon people are struggling to make a living. However, one crew decides to take a risk and join the world of smuggling vis-à-vis a family fishing boat. The boat belongs to Jin Sook’s (Yum Jung-ah) father. Along with the crew and her best friend Chun-Ja (Kim Hye-Su) they decide to take this risk since the nearby chemical plant is poisoning all the seafood they would usually fish. They begin picking up illegal packages left for them by their new illegal employer. At first, everything is fine, and the money is flowing, but eventually they are tasked with a job too dangerous for their experience level. When things go wrong the nuclear family is blown apart and years go by before they reunite. Upon that reunion, the wealthy but dangerous Supervisor Kwon (Zo In-sung) joins the fray, and it’s up to the crew and the town to decide how they are going to handle themselves in the face of a new crime wave.

The central conflict of Smugglers is the rift between friends close enough to call each other sisters. But their relationship is not as simple as being a good or bad friend. The tension drawn out over the course of the film leaves room for some fun and drama. The quick cutting makes the editing feel brisk, and two hours go by in a flash. That being said, Smugglers does toe the line between giving every character enough time to come into their own and lingering too long on the less exciting parts of the script. But when the film is truly cooking, it’s exceptional.

Most of the cast of Smugglers is very well known in Korea, and it shows in the way they bounce off each other. Among the veteran cast is the suave yet terrifying Zo In-sung (The King). He plays a familiar type of villain, but the screenwriters bring a level of caring to his character that makes him more interesting than your average James Bond villain. During the biggest action scene of the film, he truly shines. American audiences, in particular, will be surprised when he goes from acting like a crooked cop to doing his own stunts.

Smugglers has the capacity to be many different films and succeeds at being a healthy dose of many genres. The two leads have incredible chemistry even when they are at each other’s throats and the supporting cast provides both context and comedy to every scene. The crime/heist aspect is also a joy and doesn’t play out in a typical manner. Though there is one climactic heist the film rests on, there are a couple of mini crime sprees that come in the first act that set the tone for the finale. Combined with an absolute masterclass of an action set piece, Smugglers is a movie with a lot on its mind and expresses it in a very entertaining way.

Smugglers screened at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. The film is 129 minutes long and currently unrated.