Citizen of a Kind

Story: Deok-hee (Ra Mi-ran) is a single mother with two children and loses her apartment in a fire. Her insurance does not pay and in her search for a loan she is repeatedly rejected by the banks because of her poorly paid job in a laundry shop. One day, however, she gets a call that they want to grant her a loan. In her desperation, she borrows money from some loan sharks to pay the fee for the credit accommodation. Soon she finds out that she has fallen victim to a scam. Her entire existence is threatened, and she even cannot pay the kindergarten fee anymore, which is why her children have to play at her workplace. Deok-hee reports everything to the police, and Detective Park (Park Byung-eun) takes on the case. However, the chances for success are slim and so he soon closes the case. Then, Deok-hee is suddenly called back by the man who ripped her off. He introduces himself as Jae-min (Gong Myung) and explains that he needs her help. He, along with many others in China, is forced to engage in voice phishing and has no chance of escaping. He therefore offers to be an informant and hopes that the police are able to bring down the well-organized criminal organization. But Detective Park doesn't believe Deok-hee and explains that he can only reopen the case if he has an address. So Deok-hee goes to Qingdao to find out the address herself based on the little information she has...

Review: Voice phishing and scams of various kinds are constantly on the rise. Especially in Korea this problem seems to be rather big because, compared to other countries, this topic is marginally dealt with quite often in movies. Sometimes the whole premise revolves around the topic as in "On the Line". In that thriller as well as in "Citizen of a Kind" the scammers are based in China. There, Koreans, who cannot find a job in their home country under normal circumstances, are forced by a gangster organization to con money out of people by assuming the identity of bank employees in a very professional manner and by taking advantage of their victims' desperation. There are surprisingly many parallels between "On the Line" and this movie by director Park Yong-ju, but even though "Citizen of a Kind" also has its problems, it is a bit more rounded. Moreover, the movie is loosely based on a true story, even though it's completely obvious at which points some liberties were taken in order to make the events a bit more exciting.

"Citizen of a Kind" has its very own style, because there is an "ahjumma" at the center of the story. For those who are not familiar with the term: A very rough definition of the word would be a middle-aged woman who is rather mouthy, who does not take any crap from anybody, and who is eager to start a fight with everyone. As we can see in this story, however, women like that are not necessarily particularly educated or well-read. Deok-hee gets herself into this unpleasant situation in the first place because she is desperate and quite naïve. At the police station, the detective asks her all the questions that you would have liked to ask her as well. We therefore quickly accept the fact that people like that actually exist (after all, the movie is based on true events), and it's the same naivety that makes Deok-hee take matters into her own hands without really being aware of the extent of danger she is putting herself in - even though it is pointed out to her several times. Nevertheless, Deok-hee is not the only person you occasionally get upset about. Detective Park might even be worse as he doesn't take the whole thing seriously and doesn't believe Deok-hee when she tells him about the informant.

So while you get annoyed at Detective Park and his incompetence, especially since he always seems to be one step behind, you shouldn't forget that the police often have to deal with those ahjummas who usually waste their time with banalities. So, the movie also creates suspense by using the fact that both sides act extremely stupid, but all the while their motivations being coherent with their characters and understandable as well. Conflicts and dangerous situations therefore also arise because the two parties do not work together. Special praise goes to Ra Mi-ran ("Miss and Mrs. Cops"), whose character turns out to be surprisingly three-dimensional, especially when you consider that she easily could have turned into an ahjumma cliché. But this is not the case. Her friends also all have their own character and are therefore not just replicas of a hard-hitting housewife (although they are all working in the movie anyway). This way, humor and drama/suspense do not get in each other's way but rather manage to create a coherent tone. All this could easily have turned into an over-the-top comedy with the women in the story's center, and you have to be thankful that this is not the case.

Nevertheless, the scenes with the ahjumma friends are of course a lot more lighthearted than the ones with Jae-min, portrayed by Gong Myung ("Extreme Job"), who is effectively a slave to a gangster organization and desperately tries to escape. This is why he also gets the most suspense-driven scenes. After all, his life is at stake. But Deok-hee's desperation also grows when her children are taken away from her because she puts them in danger by taking them to work with her. Thus, all of this creates a certain level of suspense, but towards the end it becomes clear that it cannot be kept up over 114 minutes of running time. The ending drags on quite a bit and it seems as if the director really pushed for Deok-hee and the gangster boss to come face to face with each other, even though it doesn't really make any sense at all. The result is a rather disappointing finale that feels more like an epilogue, and it doesn't fit stylistically with the rest of the movie either. Of course, if you want to turn a true story into a movie, certain cinematic rules have to be followed. Without good pacing and a last act including a showdown, it's hard to make a good movie. But in this case, less would have been more.

In the end, thanks to the unusual heroine, there are enough positive things that manage to keep you glued to the screen. Deok-hee isn't the brightest person, she is completely overwhelmed, but grimly determined. While this can sometimes be quite annoying, the detective is even worse. In contrast to the overpowering opponent, this undoubtedly creates suspense. The characters work better than seems possible on paper and that's also thanks to the actors. And for long stretches of time, all this works wonderfully. But the problems reveal themselves towards the end. If "Citizen of a Kind" had been a little shorter, the end result might have looked a bit more satisfying. In the end, thanks to an interesting premise and good actors, you can't go all too wrong with the movie if you're looking for a special mixture of thriller and comedy.

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