In The Roundup: Punishment Ma Dong-seok strikes again… and again, and again in this rip-roaring action thriller that’ll have everyone’s hearts pumping.

The fourth film in the franchise, Punishment sees detective Ma Seok-do (Ma) try to deliver just that after young Korean man Jo Sung-jae is killed in the Philippines and his mother begs the police to find out who did it. This will not be an easy case for detective Ma and his team to crack though. Before his death, tech engineer Sung-jae was involved with a ruthless gang operating an underground gambling ring and their leader Chang-ki (Kim Mu-yeol) is a dangerous man.

Fourth time’s the charm for Ma Dong-seok, who continues to prove his star power through The Roundup series. He’s an actor who can suit a variety of roles, but is particularly powerful in a part like Detective Ma. The character is stoic, moral, and oftentimes unintentionally funny, and Ma Dong-seok thrives in a role that lets him generate laughs but also lets his fists fly. Now in his fourth film as Detective Ma one can’t help but notice how comfortable he is in the part and that he’s made the part his own —  it’s clear that slipping into the role is as easy as pie for him now.

To keep things new and fresh for audience members familiar with the series, The Roundup needed to up the ante with its villain, and Kim Mu-yeol certainly delivers on that front. As Chang-ki, the actor is terrifying because his character is so unpredictable and quick to anger. There is a quiet menace to him, whenever he walks into a room the air changes and it is hard not to feel as intimidated and unsettled by him as the people in the scene with him. It is a testament to Kim Mu-yeol’s talents as an actor that he can create such an atmosphere just by his presence alone.

It feels like Chang-ki is coiled and ready to strike, like a snake, and when the violence comes it is relentless and brutal. The Roundup: Punishment certainly delivers on the promise of its moniker, there is a lot of punishment dolled out in the series either by Detective Ma or by Chang-ki. The latter is, unsurprisingly, the most brutal in his methods by opting to use knives to get his way and he spills a lot of blood on screen as a result. Detective Ma prefers to use his fists, and the audience can feel each punch as it lands, but even then his fight scenes provide a lot of the humour. 

Punishment may be the most violent of the Roundup films, but it never forgets that it is supposed to entertain viewers as much as possible too. This movie definitely does that, giving the audience a fun and, at times, unexpected film that they can happily watch to while away a few hours. But that shouldn’t be such a surprise; you can never go wrong with Ma Dong-seok

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Written by Roxy Simons

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