THIS film can be summarised as being all about cops, cooks and crooks.
And yes, the plot is downright ridiculous and silly.
But somehow director Lee manages to make the plot work and make us laugh in the process.
The story revolves around Capt Ko (Ryu), the head of a Seoul narcotics unit, and his team of skilful and hard-working detectives.
Unfortunately, a constant stream of bad luck keeps ruining their chances to shine – and to improve their career chances.
Ko is humiliated when his younger colleagues are promoted over him.
Even his wife loses respect for him.
So when he learns that a known meth importer, Mubae (Shin), has bought an empty building in a run-down neighbourhood, Ko sees a chance to finally redeem himself.
He takes over a rundown fried chicken joint so that he and his team can stake out Mubae, and catch him red-handed.
Ko then assigns detective Ma (Jin) to pose as the cook for their ‘new’ fried chicken shop, since Ma’s parents run a barbecue ribs restaurant.
As Ma does not know how to make a sauce for chicken, he decides to use his parents’ barbecue rib sauce recipe for the chicken restaurant.
To everyone’s surprise, his recipe becomes a huge hit among the customers, and suddenly their chicken joint is the hottest eatery in town.
As the detectives battle to keep food critics away and try to raise prices to deter customers, soon they begin to enjoy their success at the food business, and slowly forget about the real reason they are there.
The whole story hinges on the cast’s performances – and they all deliver. The chemistry between them is electrifying, and their comic timing is right on the dot.
But the show stealers have to be Ryu, and Lee Hanee who plays the only female detective on the team.
Extreme Job is currently the highest-grossing film of all time in South Korea.
I would admit the film has some funny moments, but still, it is not the kind of film I will go and watch twice.
