Quick

Released by: Shout! Factory
Released on: September 4, 2012.
Director: Jo Bum-gu
Cast: Lee Min-ki, Kang Ye-won, Kim In-kwon, Ko Chang-seok
Year: 2011
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The Movie:

Directed by Jo Bum-Gu, 2011's Quick is a Korean take on the traditional chase film done right. The story follows a young man named Gi-su (Lee Min-ki) who is an ace on his motorcycle. He's the hottest thing on two wheels, something that is not lost on the beautiful Ah-rom (Kang Ye-won), who is crushing on him pretty hard. Unfortunately a rival biker named Myeong-sik (Kim In-kwon) has got his eyes on Ah-rom and isn't really keen on her exploring her options with Gi-su and the fact that all three of them are part of the same motorcycle gang makes things complicated for all involved.

From here, we skip a few years into the future. All three have grown apart as they've gotten older with Gi-su doing just fine for himself as a courier, Ah-rom the frontwomen of a pop group and Myeong-sik working for the police. When Gi-su makes what seems like a normal delivery to a large office building, he and everyone else around him are shocked to see the building blow up shortly after. From here he has to deliver a singer to a big ticket concert being held later that night - and wouldn't you know it? That singer is Ah-rom. Normally this reunion would be cause for celebration but once she puts her helmet on he gets a call from an unknown man who informs them that if she takes it off, it will explode. If this weren't bad enough in and of itself, Detective Seo (Ko Chang-seok) figures that Gi-su must have something to do with that explosion at the office building earlier in the day, and puts out an APB on him. Maybe not so surprisingly the first cop to spot him is Myeong-sik…

Quick is pretty much an exercise in style over substance but there's no denying it delivers some genuinely thrilling action set pieces. The motorcycle stunts in the film are as impressive as they are constant and the cinematography does an excellent job of capturing all of the mayhem with some slick camera moves. There is some very obvious CGI used in certain sections of the film that might irk purists but if you can't look past that, you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. The good absolutely outweighs the bad in this department, and fans of action and chase films would be foolish to look this title over.

As far as the cast and crew are concerned, it's hard not to like Lee Min-ki. He's not only the coolest cat around but he's a pretty nice guy too. We want he and Kang Ye-won, who is absolutely gorgeous and just as cute as you can get, to make it as a couple and so it's easy for us to get behind them as they do what they have to do to survive. Kim In-kwon is also very good as the third wheel here while Ko Chang-seok is fine as the city's top cop out to figure out just why everything keeps blowing up when our hero is involved.

This isn't a deep movie, it isn't a movie that will make you think very much and it's not one that will touch your soul but it's incredibly well paced and a whole lot of fun - you can't really argue with that.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Quick looks excellent on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 2.35.1 widescreen. A remarkably colorful film, Quick shows excellent fine object detail throughout the duration of the movie as well as very strong textures. Color reproduction is excellent even if it is occasionally (and intentionally) filtered for artistic effect, while skin tones look lifelike and very natural. There's a lot of depth to the picture and solid contrast throughout, with black levels remaining stable and deep from start to finish. There are moments where the CGI effects are obvious and not as sharp as the live action footage but you can't really fault the disc for that. The movie looks beautiful.

Audio options are provided in Korean and English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio and in Korean Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with optional subtitles offered p in English only. That Korean DTS-HD mix? That's the one to go for, it's pretty much flawless. Engines roar and zip past us loudly while the low end provided by those engines rumbles perfectly out of the subwoofer. Dialogue somehow manages to stay clear through all of the chaos thanks to some careful balancing of the levels. There are no issues at all with anything even remotely resembling hiss or distortion and the rear channels are used just as effectively as the front channels to heighten the action and spread out the score.

The main extras on this disc come in the form of three worthwhile featurettes, the first of which is simply a Making Of documentary that clocks in at sixty one minutes and is a pretty in-depth look at how all of this was put together. There are plenty of cast and crew interviews here as well as loads of behind the scenes footage, a fair bit of which is quite interesting as it showcases some of the stunt work seen in the feature. The twenty-five minute CG featurette shows us how computer graphics were used to 'enhance' some of the scenes, primarily the main highway chase sequence. Even if you're not a fan of CGI work as opposed to traditional stunt work and effects, this is interesting from a technological standpoint as we get to see just how things are created this way. The third featurette is the seventeen minute long Action and it spends some time with the stuntmen who worked on the film and discusses what all they were involved in and shows us how some of the more insane bits we see in the movie were choreographed.

Rounding out the extras are a theatrical trailer for the film, a four minute look at the creation of the movie's promotional poster, animated menus and chapter stops. All of the extras on the disc are in high definition.

The Final Word:

Quick isn't complicated and Quick isn't deep. It won't make you think and it won't change your life - but damn, it will entertain you for an hour and a half and it will impress you with some great action and stunt work. Shout! Factory's Blu-ray looks beautiful and sounds perfect and manages to throw in quite a few extras that are more than just fluff pieces and which actually round out the package quite nicely. This one was a pleasant surprise, and all in all, this is a great release.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!