Veteran
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Ryoo Seung-wan
Written by	Ryoo Seung-wan
Produced by	Kang Hye-jung Kim Jung-min
Starring	Hwang Jung-min Yoo Ah-in Yoo Hae-jin Oh Dal-su
Cinematography	Choi Young-hwan
Edited by	Kim Sang-bum Kim Jae-bum
Music by	Bang Jun-seok
Distributed by	CJ Entertainment
Release date	August 5, 2015 (2015-08-05)
Running time	123 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean
Budget	US$5.1 million
Box office	US$92 million

Veteran (Korean: 베테랑; RR: Beterang) is a 2015 South Korean action comedy film written and directed by Ryoo Seung-wan.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} 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.^[9]

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

Box office

Veteran opened in South Korea on August 5, 2015. It grossed ₩21.7 billion (US$18.6 million) from 2.75 million admissions over its first five days of release.^[15][16][17] 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.^{[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]}

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.^[26][27][28] 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.^[29] 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.^[30]

Remake

A Chinese remake starring Sun Honglei was scheduled for release in China in 2017.^[31] Eventually, the remake The Big Shot was released in 2019 and starred Wang Qianyuan.^[32]

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Official website (in Korean)
• Veteran at the Korean Movie Database
• Veteran at IMDb
• Veteran at HanCinema