Master

Tens of thousands of South Koreans lost their savings to Cho Hee-pal, a fraudster who ran a vast pyramid scheme and then fled the country. Director Cho Ui-seok, who'd made 'Cold Eyes', took that case as his starting point for 'Master', and gave it three of Korea's biggest stars: Lee Byung-hun, Gang Dong-won and Kim Woo-bin. It was the most watched film in the country over Christmas 2016 and went on to sell more than seven million tickets.

Chairman Jin runs One Network, a company that promises ordinary people they'll get rich and is really one giant pyramid. His speeches fill stadiums and his bribes buy him friends in politics. Kim Jae-myung, who heads a financial crimes unit, has been after him for months and thinks he's found the weak link: Park Jang-gun, the computer whiz who moves the company's money around.

Kim leans on Park to hand over Jin's ledger of bribes and tell him where the servers are. Park agrees, though all he really cares about is saving his own skin and keeping his cut. And Jin, who's always a step ahead, already suspects there's a traitor in his inner circle.

Gang Dong-won plays the cop and Kim Woo-bin the hacker, with Uhm Ji-won as Kim's partner and Jin Kyung as Mama Kim, one of One Network's managers. Oh Dal-su rounds out the main cast, and Park Hae-soo turns up in a small part, years before he and Lee met up again in the cast of 'Squid Game'. Shooting began in April 2016 and spent around two months in the Philippines, in Manila and Cebu.

It reached American cinemas in January 2017, where reviews were mostly positive, if rarely enthusiastic. The cast got the praise, Lee's villain above all (he also had 'The Magnificent Seven' out that year). The complaints were about a plot that gets too convoluted and 143 minutes that plenty of critics found hard going. One reviewer reckoned there was a tight thriller of about 100 minutes buried in there.

• Crime
• Action