Cleaving closely to the contours shaped by De Palma, Scorcese and Mann, "Bloody Tie" operates on a level rarely seen in Korean cinema. It transposes old-school Western ideals to the sinful port city of Busan and essentially becomes a hodgepodge of the gritty American crime potboilers replete with corruption in the ranks, perversely bankrupt codes of honour and lots of drug-fuelled thrusts into viciously muscular confrontations. Developing upon the similar tropes of buddy movies such as "48 Hrs." sans the forced male bonding, it pairs up two reprobates at opposite ends of the law who approach their line of work in the same, unconscionable way. Conducting itself with a bit of frantic, icily droll dick-swagger, the film still dares to stare deeper into the abyss than its thematic peers. Tunnelling under the shiny pastel surface of its pulsating city lights, a darkly poetic significance filters through the slithering hand-held camera-work, revealing the tenebrous tongue shared between its agents.