Despite the toughened social distancing rules, Korean action film “The Policeman’s Lineage,” directed by Lee Kyu-man, is set to be released Wednesday, with hopes of becoming a hit akin to “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”

Marvel ‘s latest Spider-Man film, which was released Dec. 15 here, has sold more than 5 million tickets, according to box office figures released by the Korean Film Council, setting a high mark for a film since the pandemic began.

The charm of Lee’s new film lies in the chemistry between two police officers -- Kang-yoon (Cho Jin-woong) and Min-jae (Choi Woo-shik).

Lee’s film introduces Kang-yoon, a cop who does not shy away from conducting illegal investigations or working with crime groups to score an arrest. Min-jae, on the other hand, does not have much experience and with his strict ethical beliefs is secretly tasked with keeping an eye on Kang-yoon.

When Cho was asked what it was like to perform in the film with Choi during a press conference at CGV Yongsan in Seoul on Wednesday, he started his answer by lightening the mood.
 

“I don’t want to do a movie that shows bromance anymore. I don’t know why I keep getting a role that involves bromance,” he joked.

Cho then spoke about what it was like to work with one of the stars of the Oscar-winning “Parasite.”

“I thought of him as a cute chirping chick, but if you have seen the movie you would know that he has grown. You can find out what masculine charm really is through Choi Woo-shik,” he said. “I was glad to see our synergy through our movie.”

Choi responded to Cho’s praise by saying he had not done so much.

“All I had to do was react to Cho Jin-woong’s lines. I learned a lot from working with him.”

During the press conference, the director emphasized that he targeted creating a movie for a theater release.

“I imagined what it would look like in theaters and worked on it. How big the screen will be and how loud the sound will be. I considered these factors when writing the script. Also during the postproduction process, I focused on making the audience follow the emotion of the characters instead of incidents,” the director said.

However, despite the director’s intention, the film shows a few directorial flaws that made the movie look disorganized.

In some close-up scenes it is hard to figure out the director’s intention, while other scenes are out of focus, leaving viewers puzzled about what is going on. The unnecessary background music that pervades the film hinders the viewer’s full immersion as well.