Just feel all that heat cooking in the first stills alone from the upcoming Korea movie God’s Trick (God’s One Move). Short of Jung Woo Sung doing another movie with his best friend Lee Jung Jae, seeing him going mano-a-mano with Lee Bum Soo is just as good for me. Jung Woo Sung did one movie in 2013 and it was being the baddie in the box office winning thriller Cold Eyes with Han Hyo Joo and Sol Kyung Gu. In 2014 alone he’s got three movies lined up and the first is God’s Trick which is tricked out with a huge and fantastic supporting cast. Lee Bum Soo goes for the antagonist role this time and it’s going to be tantalizing to watch two leading men I love to pieces butt heads onscreen. This is the movie Lee Bum Soo was filming when he injured his left hand, a sad turn of events but one that still leaves me perplexed as to how he got injured since this is a movie about baduk (Korean for the board game Go) which is as inert an activity as any. Jung Woo Sung plays a blind man who enters a baduk tournament in his brother’s place and loses everything thanks to a seasoned grifter played by Lee Bum Soo. He goes to prison and vows to get back those who took everything from him.

With the help of veteran baduk player Ahn Sung Ki and polishing his baduk skills in prison, Jung Woo Sung comes out ready for a rematch with Lee Bum Soo. Recently red hot Choi Jin Hyuk will be playing Lee Bum Soo’s right hand man so will also be a resident baddie. Joining team good guys is Kim In Kwon as the attention diverter while Ahn Kil Kang is a woodcutter and reformed former baduk swindler. In this testosterone haven is Lee Shi Young as the lone female character and a sympathetic figure who supports Jung Woo Sung’s quest for revenge. Directing is the PD who helmed Lee Min Ki‘s movie Quick back in 2011. I find it hilarious that baduk can become an intense noir action thriller of a movie since its a very slow and methodical game with the objective of surrounding more territory than one’s opponent. The last time I saw baduk as a plot device was watching the King of the Heavens and the King of the Underworld play baduk in Arang and the Magistrate as a way to pass time and discuss the foibles of mankind vis-a-vis choice and destiny. Let’s just say even with the King of the Heavens played by my baby Yoo Seung Ho, watching all that baduk onscreen was genuinely sleep inducing. With this packed cast I’ll be watching God’s Trick no matter what but I’ll be impressed if the PD and screenwriter manages to make the matches tense and thrilling. Continue reading →