Thanks for the insights Andrew in terms of how this one stands up to the original! I know you’ve been recommending it for a while, so this review should be dedicated to you. Regarding the ‘Insomnia’ comparison, I’ve only seen the US remake so it may be that Jeong-ho saw the original Norwegian production, but either way I definitely felt like the bullet replacement scene must have been inspired by one or the other! It’s just a shame that the same tension which was kept simmering between the detectives for much of the runtime couldn’t carry over into the final reel, otherwise this would be up there with the best of them.

This certainly is an uncompromising film. And while there are similarities between The Beast and 36th Precinct, they managed to change a lot to where It’s hard to call it a straight up remake.

In the original, Sung-Min’s counterpart, Daniel Auteuil is a corrupt cop, but never goes to the extremes of Sung-Min. Meanwhile it’s Jae Myung’s counterpart, Gerard Depardieu who’s more of a underhanded scoundrel and who’s responsible for his rival’s misery.

36th Precinct put equal focus on the two leads, so it’s interesting how Sung-Min gets the majority of the focus in The Beast, and gone is the rivalry that could be compared to Pacino and De Niro in Heat.

It’s interesting that the shooting of a dead dog would be inspired by the American Insomnia. In the Norwegian version, the lead killed a dog to extract the replacement bullet.

It was also interesting to see that Jae Myung had a sense of remorse at the end of the movie, and would seemingly be haunted by everything he experienced. He definitely didn’t go unscathed in that regard.