New World · reception & legacy
2013 · Park Hoon-jung
How New World has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
A solid hit in Korea in 2013, it spent the next decade climbing from genre-fan favourite to consensus classic abroad — with a fresh wave of discovery after Squid Game sent viewers hunting down Lee Jung-jae's back catalogue.
What's debated
The perennial fight: is it just Korea's answer to Infernal Affairs and The Departed, or does it flat-out beat both of them?
Its footprint
Hwang Jung-min's swaggering, endlessly-quoted 'brother~' greeting and the parking-garage elevator knife fight are the film's calling cards — the latter routinely shows up on lists of the great modern action set pieces.
Where it stands
A pillar of the modern Korean gangster canon and a Letterboxd word-of-mouth staple — the 'if you liked Oldboy, now watch this' recommendation.