Heo Sung-tae and Jo Bok-rae form an unlikely team in ‘Informant.’
Heo Sung-tae plays detective Nam-hyeok in the Korean action comedy Informant. Nam-hyeong hasn’t made any arrests lately. He relies on an informant played by Jo Bok-rae to give him inside info on various criminal activities. Jo’s character Tae-bong is a master of disguise. He slips into dangerous situations that could potentially lead to Nam-hyeok making big arrests and earning a promotion. However, Nam-hyeok manages to mishandle every lead he’s given. He just keeps getting demoted.
The criminals in this film are obviously not trustworthy, but neither are the police. Some are out for glory and promotions. Some have been corrupted by money and power, betraying each other as readily as the criminals do. At least Nam-hyeok’s heart is in the right place, even if he keeps making mistakes.
Heo’s detective character Nam-hyeok somehow bungles every opportunity he finds to make a big arrest.
However, Nam-hyeong can’t face disappointment forever. He starts to think about robbing the robbers he’s pursuing so he can retire. Bok-rae has been working on his retirement plan all along, hoarding some of the profits during every one of Nam-hyeok’s failed busts.
The film debuts this week at the opening night of the New York Asian Film Festival and is a good example of the festival’s theme “Cinema as Disruption.” While introducing a range of endearingly unreliable characters, the action rolls out a succession of comically absurd situations that provide laughs from the film’s beginning to its end. It’s a funny game of cops and robbers in which neither side can exist without the other. There’s plenty of bungling to go around.
Heo Sung-tae is best known for his role in the original season of the Netflix hit Squid Game and can currently be seen in the Korean TV drama Good Boy, in which he also plays a detective at odds with the system. Nam-hyeok is the kind of character who might finally get a break if he only stepped out of his own way. Or perhaps if he made better use of his very smart informant.
Jo Bok-rae, who appeared in the films Josée and Coin Locker Girl and dramas such as Moving and Park’s Marriage Contract, makes Tae-bong a character to root for. His mad impersonation skills should really land him a job on the right side of the law.
Seo Min-ju, a 2013 Miss Korea beauty pageant winner, appeared in the 2024 film Firefighters and in this film plays a tough cop that Nam-hyeok has a crush on.
Informant is directed and written by Kim Seok, who made his debut with the award-winning short film Humanist at the CJ Young Festival in 2008 and also directed There Is a Bug in 2009.
Informant will have its world premiere on July 11, the opening night of the New York Asian Film Festival. The premiere takes place at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, with director Kim Seok, Heo Sung-tae, Jo Bok-rae and Seo Min-ju attending the opening screening and participating in various events, including a Q&A session following the screening. It’s one of several Korean films that will be shown at NYAFF, which runs from July 11 to 27. The roster also includes Forbidden Fairytale with Choi Si-won and Park Ji-hyun, Girl With Closed Eyes, starring Kim Min-ha.
