Another really enjoyable outing for Song Kang-ho, the Korean star who can do no wrong in my eyes. This makes a good companion piece to A TAXI DRIVER and PARASITE, one again looking at issues surrounding Korean politics and society, this time around the country's right-wing authoritarian dictatorship in the 1980s and a series of witch hunts that make even McCarthy look tame by comparison. The actor is in his element, transferring from light comedy early on to intense courtroom drama at the climax, and he's true to his character throughout. As usual, exemplary production values and writing make this a classic slice of contemporary Korean cinema, and if I had to criticise it would only to be to mention a couple of steps into melodrama at times. Otherwise, top stuff!

For this kind of movie it's totally involving from beginning to end. Song Kang Ho shows a huge range from down and out to successful attorney to human rights lawyer full of indignation. Powerful performance without overacting. The torture is quite heartbreaking for the needlessness of inflicting this on their own citizens in a so called democracy not that long ago.

THE ATTORNEY is must-see for anyone interested in what's happening in THIS country even as I write. The torture of suspected "communists" in THE ATTORNEY will no doubt bring to mind the very recent revelations regarding the "black site" discovered in Chicago (a place where suspected drug dealers/religious extremists/etc. were taken and tortured),as well as the facts uncovered and made known in MURDER AT CAMP DELTA, by Joseph Hickman. Song as Song THE ATTORNEY rivals Al Pacino as the idealistic lawyer in ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL; the major delineation between the two being Song's very low-key approach (one often finds oneself, watching better-made foreign films, feeling as though one is watching a documentary) (and, in fact, this movie I found in the DOCUMENTARY section of the local library and it's listed on HULU as a documentary). The plot is vintage Kafka: members of a book club gather to read and discuss what they've read- until a government goon gets wind of it and decides to go witch-hunting; no good reason, he just does it because he's a government goon and that's what government goons DO... It's the same the world over. From MURDER AT CAMP DELTA by Joseph Hickman: "It disturbed me that I had been caught up in a system that didn't seem to follow any rules and appeared to cover its actions with misinformation and lies." The often (at first) ridiculed Song has the same outlook in THE ATTORNEY. "I believe in American justice," Hickman writes. Says Song, when it looks like he might cave in to incredible pressure: "I will never give up!" THE ATTORNEY is an affirmation of The Human Spirit, nothing less.