The City of Violence () is a 2006 South Korean action film directed by Ryoo Seung-wan, who stars in the film, alongside Jung Doo-hong and Lee Beom-soo.
Wang-jae, an ex-gangster, chases a gang of punks into an alley and gets fatally stabbed to death. His four childhood friends reunite in nearly 20 years at Wang-jae's funeral. Up to then, each person has gone their own way: Tae-su became a Seoul police detective. Pil-ho has taken over his brother-in-law Wang-jae's business. Seok-hwan works as a debt collector while his older brother Dong-hwan struggles as a maths professor. After the funeral, Tae-su decides to investigate the murder within a week before he would return to his job in Seoul.
Meanwhile, Seok-hwan decides to find and kill Wang-jae's murderers. While investigating, Tae-su is attacked by youth gangs, where he barely escapes with his life after Seok-hwan's unexpected arrival. They decide to work together. After hunting the gangs, they discover Wang-jae's death was not a random mindless attack, but a planned murder. The revelation leads them to Dong-hwan, who confesses that Pil-ho was behind the plan after Wang-jae disapproved Pil-ho's plans to turn their city into a tourist district. After strangers tried to kill him as part of tying up Pil-ho's loose ends, Wang-jae's young murderer agrees to testify against Pil-ho.
A killer douses the young murderer in gasoline and sets him on fire. Later, Pil-ho badly thrashes Tae-su and also targets to finish Seok-hwan, Dong-hwan and their mother in an accident, but Seok-wan survives. After Dong-hwan and his mother's funeral, Seok-hwan and Wang-jae's widow leave the funeral house and sees Tae-su waiting outside. Tae-su persuades Wang-jae's widow into revealing information on her brother Pil-ho's whereabouts. Tae-su and Seok-hwan storm Pil-ho's fortress, where they fight their way through swarms of armed cooks until the banquet room.
Meanwhile, Pil-ho kills the Seoul president, which prompts all guests to leave. Tae-su and Seok-hwan confronts Pil-ho, who is along with his four elite guards in the room. A fight ensues where Tae-su and Seok-hwan manages to defeat Pil-ho's elite guards and sets to take on Pil-ho, who takes them by surprise by attacking Seok-hwan. Pil-ho turns and stabs Tae-su, but Seok-hwan later finishes Pil-ho with a katana. As Tae-su bleeds to death, an exhausted Seok-hwan notices the carnage that he and Tae-su had created and sighs heavily.
2006 Busan Film Critics Awards
2006 Korean Film Awards