Extreme Job ~ Who Knew a Narc Squad Made Great Fried Chicken

“Extreme Job” is a 2019 Korean movie, categorized as Action, Family, Crime and Comedy; and streaming on Viki.

SUMMARY: A narcotics squad buys a failing fried chicken restaurant to use as a front for their undercover work. But they get distracted from their mission when the restaurant business starts booming. They even get an offer to establish a franchise. Hello! We’re supposed to be catching bad guys.

♦ A Chicken Joint Is Perfect for Undercover Work

In “Extreme Job”, a squad of five (5) narcotics detectives is about to be disbanded because they just can’t produce results. It’s not that they lack skills. They are very good at their job. They have the experience, knowledge, and understanding of how undercover work is done, along with special fighting abilities that come in handy when they have to take down an army of bad guys.

• Squad Chief Go is called “zombie” because he just won’t die!
• Jang is a Muay Thai Asian Champion, nicknamed “Jang Bak” after Ong Bak.
• Ma is an ex-judo national athlete.
• Young-Ho is an ex-UDT. (UDTs were called the Underwater Demolition Team or UDT, known today as Navy SEALs.)
• Jae-Hoon was in the high school baseball league; he’s resilient to blows, i.e. he can take a lot of hits.

Squad Chief Go and the rest of the squad have been after a really bad guy for a long time, and he always seems to get away. Meanwhile, the chief of another narcotics unit got a promotion to captain. It doesn’t seem fair, but Chief Go isn’t bitter about it. He is a little bit upset that the top boss told him that if his unit doesn’t produce results soon, the squad will be disbanded.

The group gathered together at a chicken restaurant to do a stake-out. They were sure that the high-profile criminal they were after ran his operation right next to the restaurant. The owner of the restaurant gave them free chicken. When asked why, he said he was selling the place because he never get any customers. Squad Chief Go decided to buy the place. WHAT?? WHY??? Think about it. A chicken restaurant with no customers is the perfect front for an undercover operation. The plan was foolproof. Except …

Except Detective Ma makes really good fried chicken, and all of a sudden, there were lots of customers. Instead of focusing on their undercover work they were literally running a very profitable fried chicken restaurant. That was not the plan! Are they ever going to catch the bad guy?

Main Characters:

• Squad Chief Go (played by Ryu Seung-Ryong, “Chicken Nugget”, “Psychokinesis”, “The Sound of a Flower”, “Moving”, “Kingdom 1 and 2”)

• Jang (played by Lee Ha-Nee or Lee Honey, “Phantom”, “The Rebel”, “Fiery Priest”, “Knight Flower”, “One the Woman”, “Alienoid 1 and 2”, “Immortal Classic”, “Shine or Go Crazy”, “The Bros”, “Come Back Mister (aka ‘Come Back Alive’)”)

• Ma (played by Jin Sun-Kyu, “Uprising”, “Space Sweepers”, “Svaha: The Sixth Finger”, “The Uncanny Counter 2”, “Through the Darkness”)

• Young-Ho (played by Lee Dong-Hwi, “Dr. Cheon and The Lost Talisman”, “Glitch”, “Chief Detective 1958”, “Big Bet 1 and 2”, “Gunman in Joseon”)

• Jae-Hoon (played by Gong Myung, “Citizen of a Kind”, “Lovers of the Red Sky”, “The Bride of Habaek”)

Where to Watch

Viewership and Rating:

• IMDb: 7.1 out of 10 stars
• My Drama List: 8.4 out of 10 stars
• Viki viewers rated this movie: 9.6 out of 10 stars
• Letterboxd: 3.6 out of 5 stars
• Amazon customers rated the film 4.6 out of 5 stars

My personal rating is the same as Letterboxd.

The movie “Extreme Job” is PLAIN OLD FUN! When it was over, I wanted to eat a bucket of fried chicken. LOL.

Per ABS-CBN (leading media and entertainment company in the Philippines): “Extreme Job” is in fact the highest-grossing Korean comedy film of all time, overtaking “Miracle in Cell No. 7” which held the record since 2013.

LINKS OF INTEREST:

EXTREME JOB – Movieguide | Movie Reviews for Families

[Film Review] Extreme Job (2019) – Cinema Omnivore

Extreme Job Review: A Contender for Feel-Good Movie of the Year | Collider

14th London Korean Film Festival: Extreme Job Review | VIEW OF THE ARTS

‘Extreme Job’ Review: South Korea’s Smash Hit Cop Comedy Is A Blast [Fantasia Film Festival 2019] | slashfilm

TRAILER/TEASER:

Rotten Tomatoes Indie. “Extreme Job Trailer #1 (2019).” YouTube, 17 Jan. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Hu3Xocc-g.

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