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Yadang: The Snitch

야당

  • Status: Released
  • 16-04-2025
  • Runtime: 123 min
  • Score: 7.4
  • Vote count: 12

Navigating both the criminal underworld and law enforcement agencies, professional snitches called "yadang" provide covert information about the drug world to prosecutors and police. When a drug bust at a party attended by high-profile second-generation VIPs entangles those involved into a dangerous conspiracy, a seasoned yadang must do everything in his power not just to make it out on top, but alive.

Kang Ha-neul

Kang-soo

Yoo Hai-jin

Koo Gwan-hee

Park Hae-joon

Oh Sang-jae

Ryu Kyung-soo

Cho Hoon

Chae Won-been

Uhm Su-jin

You Seong-joo

Yeom Tae-soo

Kim Keum-soon

Kim Hak-nam

Lim Sung-kyun

Chang-rak

Cho Wan-ki

Manager Oh

Kwak Ja-hyung

Detective Park

Yoon Tae-soo

Jong-soo

Yoon Hyun-gil

Park Hyun-sook

Park Ji-hong

Reporter Song

Woo Ji-hyeon

Oh Jae-cheol

Hong Seo-jun

Cho Sang-taek

Kwon Hyuk

Manager Nam

Jeong Do-won

Geok-hyun

Kang Ji-woon

Investigator

Sung Tae-joon

Investigator

Choe Min

Sponsor

Kim Jung-pal

Drunken

Seo Gwang-jae

Prosecutor General

Park Wan-kyu

Ko Heung-sik

Lee Seo-hwan

Mr. Kim

Park Hyeok-min

Seo Jong-hae

Gong Jae-min

Yamamoto

Jang Yong-chul

Kang Myeong-cheol

Park Yoon-hee

Chief of Central District Prosecutors' Office

Kim Ye-ji

Jung Jung-ok

Han Dong-won

Fujino

Seo Mun-ho

Detective

CinemaSerf

I must admit I didn’t quite understand just what was going on at the start of this. “Lee Kang-su” (Kang Ha-neul) is a brash and confident young man who manages to get information on drug dealers which he then passes on to the police and/or the public prosecutors in return for a cut and them getting a reduced sentence if they turn state’s evidence. Thing is, the further up the food chain they get the more political “interference” the investigators encounter and pretty swiftly that causes problems for this young “Yadang” as he ends up a victim of his erstwhile protector, ambitious prosecutor “Ku Gwen-hee” (Yoo Hae-jin) and pumped full of blue methadone to the point where he doesn’t know day from night. Once released, though, he unites with similarly manipulated former police captain “Oh Sang-jae” (Park Hae-joon) and an young actor (Chae Won-bin) whose career was wrecked after she, too, was exposed to this highly addictive substance and ultimately used as a glorified hooker by someone extremely close to the presidency - and the election is looming. Once the story gets up and running, this proves to be quite an entertaining, if not always entirely plausible, analysis of lucrative drug running and politicking in a South Korea that seems determined to stamp out criminality however perilous that path might be. It’s a gritty, sometimes seedy film that sees both men and Chae Win-bin deliver strongly and in the case of Kang Hae-neul enthusiastically too. There is plenty of action across the two hours and the denouement has something of “The Sting” (1973) to it as vengeance knows few bounds. Worth a watch.