Veteran (2015 film)

Veteran is a 2015 South Korean action comedy film written and directed by Ryoo Seung-wan. It drew 13.4 million admissions, making it the 5th all-time highest-grossing film in South Korean cinema history. Veteran also won the Casa Asia Award at the Sitges Film Festival.

A sequel titled I, the Executioner premiered in 2024, with the main cast returning.

Plot
Seo Do-cheol is a merciless police detective, who investigates the suicide of a truck driver named Bae, where he learns from Bae's son that Jo Tae-oh, the sadistic third-generation heir to powerful conglomerate Sinjin Group has assaulted Bae as the latter protested against the conglomerate for back-payment. Do-cheol personally begins the investigation, which enrages Tae-oh. Later, Tae-oh uses his influence to make Do-cheol handle another case. He also tries to bribe Do-cheol's wife with the help of his conglomerate's SVP Choi Dae-woong, but she refuses, where Do-cheol threatens Tae-oh after learning this.

Do-cheol takes the help from a reporter to publish the news, but to no avail. Tae-oh hires a logistics contractor named Jeon to finish Do-cheol and also makes the Internal affairs to interrogate him, but is timely saved by his team leader Oh. Do-cheol escapes from a murder attempt by Jeon, where a detective gets stabbed. Using the opportunity, Do-cheol and his team discover evidences and gets approval for the investigation against Tae-oh, but Tae-oh's father and the conglomerate chairman Jo makes Dae-woong to take the blame. With his team's help, Do-cheol learns that Bae was killed after he tried to seek revenge for assaulting him, and was made it as a suicide.

After inquiring Dae-woong, Do-cheol learns that Tae-oh is planning to escape to Singapore. Before leaving, Tae-oh throws a party where he meets his former girlfriend Jeong Da-hye (who is pregnant with his child) and tries to kill her when she abuses him. Do-cheol forms a plan where they plant a false case against Tae-oh for assaulting his girlfriend, and the cops fight with the bodyguards to arrest him. After an intense car chase, Do-cheol and Tae-oh engage in a hand-to-hand combat where despite brutal injuries, Do-cheol manages to arrest Tae-oh, who is later produced for a trial at the Supreme Court along with Dae-woong, and are sentenced to prison. In the hospital, Do-cheol recovers from his injuries and soon returns back to duty.

Cast

 * Hwang Jung-min as Seo Do-cheol
 * Yoo Ah-in as Jo Tae-oh
 * Yoo Hae-jin as Choi Dae-woong
 * Oh Dal-su as Team leader Oh
 * Jang Yoon-ju as Miss Bong
 * Kim Shi-hoo as Detective Yoon
 * Oh Dae-hwan as Detective Wang
 * Jung Woong-in as Driver Bae
 * Jung Man-sik as Chief Jeon
 * Song Young-chang as Chairman Jo
 * Jin Kyung as Joo-yeon
 * Yoo In-young as Jeong Da-hye
 * Park So-dam as "the youngest"
 * Lee Dong-hwi as Yoon Hong-ryeol
 * Bae Sung-woo as Used cars business owner
 * Chun Ho-jin as Regional investigation unit senior superintendent
 * Jang So-yeon as Driver Bae's wife
 * Kim Jae-hyeon as Driver Bae's son
 * Park Jong-hwan as Team leader Yang
 * Uhm Tae-goo as Jo Tae-oh's bodyguard
 * Park Ji-hoon as Security manager
 * Jo Yeon-hee as Contract worker
 * Shin Seung-hwan as Reporter Park
 * Yeo Ho-min as Director Kim
 * Lee Ye-won as Jo Tae-oh's hair stylist 2
 * Park Ji-yoon as News reporter (voice)
 * Ahn Gil-kang as Jurisdiction police chief (cameo)
 * Ma Dong-seok as Big guy with sportswear (cameo)
 * Kim Eung-soo as Adviser Jeong (cameo)

Box office
Veteran opened in South Korea on August 5, 2015. It grossed (US$18.6 million) from 2.75 million admissions over its first five days of release. By November 6, it had grossed US$92,077,504 from 13,411,343 admissions and is currently the 5th all-time highest-grossing film in Korean cinema history.

Sequel
Ryoo Seung-wan and production company Filmmaker R&K confirmed that they agreed to make a sequel, which was supposed to hit theaters within two to three years of announcement. It was reported that Hwang Jung-min and Oh Dal-su will reprise their roles, and actor Jung Hae-in is also being considered to succeed Yoo Ah-in as the antagonist. It began filming as Veteran 2 in December 2022 with the cast of Hwang Jung-min, Oh Dal-su, Jang Yoon-ju, Oh Dae-hwan, and Kim Si-hoo. Titled I, the Executioner, it premiered as a midnight screening at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Remake
A Chinese remake starring Sun Honglei was scheduled for release in China in 2017. Eventually, the remake The Big Shot was released in 2019 and starred Wang Qianyuan.