(Feature) ‘Jopok’ Through the Lens of Three Iconic K-Films

Italy has the mafia, Japan has the yakuza and South Korea has “jopok”.

As in Italy and Japan, Korean gangsters are also fascinated by filmmakers and storytellers in this country, and even have their own genre.

Of the many films and TV dramas inspired by gang culture, three stand out not only for their box office success but also for their depiction of jopok at key stages of their historical development. They are: the trilogy “The General’s Son” directed by Im Kwon-taek, “Friend” by director Kwak Kyung-taek, and the “Roundup” series by Heo Myeong-haeng.

‘The General’s Son’: Jopok as a vigilante against the tyranny of the Japanese yakuza

In the early history of jopok, one name stands out: Kim Du-han, the son of a legendary commander of the Korean rebel army. He grew up on the streets as a beggar and eventually rose to prominence in the emerging Korean gang scene.

The stranger-than-fiction story of Kim (1918-1972) was made into a mega-hit trilogy in the 1990s: “The General’s Son”, directed by Im Kwon-taek.

A 2002 television drama based on his life, “Rustic Period,” was also a success, deepening the country’s fascination with Kim and the historical era in which he lived.

Released annually from 1990 to 1992, The General’s Son films are set in the 1930s and focus primarily on the dark alleys of Jongno in central Seoul.

The film follows the story of young Kim, known for his strong fists (played by actor Park Sang-min), who becomes increasingly popular in the street fights of Jongno, culminating in a confrontation with a Japanese yakuza leader named Hayashi, played by Shin Hyun-joon.

The film was the first major attempt at an action film in the Korean film industry, which had until then been dominated by love stories and dramas.

In the films, Kim is depicted as driven by patriotism, seeking to protect his fellow Korean merchants from the intimidation of Japanese colonists. And in doing so, he unwittingly continues the legacy of his father, General Kim Chwa-chin of Korea’s Independence Army.

In real life, Kim was a more complex figure. He is known as the first Korean gang to rival yakuza groups that were trying to take over the commercial districts of Jongno and Myeong-dong. While there was a patriotic aspect to his group, Kim himself acknowledged in his memoirs that he and the Hiyashi group sometimes worked together.

After Korea was liberated from Japan in 1945, chaos gripped South Korea. Ideological battles ensued between socialists, liberals, the far right, nationalists and anarchists.

In this turbulent time, the fate of gangsters depended largely on their ability to join political factions. Kim Du-han initially associated with the left, but soon switched to the pro-American liberal camp. He also entered politics and took the lead in the suppression of the left, including communists.

Another notorious political gangster, Lee Jeong-jae, came to prominence during this time. He participated in an anti-communist youth group and led the suppression of Korea University students protesting the rule of President Syngman Rhee in 1960.

The collaboration between politicians and gangsters continued until Park Chung-hee, the iron-fisted leader of a military junta, came to power and began a crackdown on political gangsters. With many, including Lee, sentenced to death, the reign of political thugs came to an end.

However, Kim managed to transform himself into a politician and was elected to the National Assembly twice. He died in 1972 from a long illness.

‘Friend’: Rise of regional gangs, their ruthless power struggle

“Stop. I’ve had enough,” Dong-soo, played by Jang Dong-gun, says to Jun-seok’s henchman in a heavy Busan dialect as his assailant continues to stab him in the stomach. Dong-soo says the line, resigned to his fate — dying at the hands of his childhood friend-turned-rival Jun-seok, played by actor Yu Oh-seong.

This, the most famous scene from the 2001 neo-noir film “Friend,” marks the climax of a dramatic conflict between the two protagonists: childhood friends who became arch-rivals and gang leaders as adults. Dong-soo first attacked Jun-seok’s men, and in retaliation, Jun-seok sent a man to kill Dong-soo.

“Friend” became the most successful Korean film to date at the time, with over 8 million viewers.

Director Kwak Kyung-taek said it was based on true events between Busan’s two rival jopok groups: “Chilsung-pa” and “20th-century-pa.”

In a broader context, the film highlights an era of regional gangs in South Korea.

Under the Park Chung-hee government’s crackdown, the early jopok gangs were crushed, creating an opportunity for smaller, regional gangs to rise and expand. By the 1980s, three gangs had grown to be the largest in the country, each with thousands of members. They are: “Beomseobang-pa,” founded in the 1980s by Kim Tae-chon; “Yangeuni-pa,” founded in the 1970s by Cho Yang-eun; and “OB-pa,” led by Lee Dong-jae. Originally rooted in the Jeolla region, these groups expanded their influence to other regions and eventually to Seoul.

This period was characterized by violent power struggles between large gangs, with weapons such as sashimi knives being widely used, replacing the fist fights of the gangsters of the first generation.

The gangs covered their backs with tattoos, wore black suits, and extorted money from adult entertainment venues such as “room salons” (bars with private rooms for hostesses and often prostitutes) under the guise of protecting the venues. They used violence to “maintain” their territories or expand their gang membership.

One of the most notable incidents demonstrating their brutality occurred at the Savoy Hotel in Myeong-dong in 1975. Cho’s Yangeuni-pa stormed a New Year’s party for senior leaders of Seoul’s “Shinsangsapa,” armed with baseball bats and sashimi knives. The bloodshed sent shock waves through the crowd and left many terrified.

The 1980s were a boom time for gangsters, but the horrific violence of the warring jopok gangs prompted the Roh Tae-woo government to launch a “war on gangs” in 1990.

‘The Roundup: Punishment’: Gangsters Adapt to the Digital Age

Directed by Heo Myeong-haeng and starring actor Ma Dong-seok (Don Lee) as the rugged police officer of the same name, “The Roundup” series is Korean cinema’s latest box office fascination. From the first to the most recent fourth film, each film has sold 10 million tickets.

In the fourth installment, “Punishment,” released in April, Ma tracks down a drug trafficking ring, which then leads him to a large-scale illegal online gambling operation based in the Philippines. The mastermind behind the operation is IT genius Jang Dong-cheol.

The entire “The Roundup” franchise is about Detective Ma taking on various gangs. “Punishment” focuses on online gambling and cybercrime, which law enforcement agencies say are prevalent among today’s jopok groups.

In the 2000s, gang membership declined and it became increasingly difficult to maintain their traditional sources of income, namely openly extorting money, due to the rise of advanced digital technologies for reporting to the police and recording evidence.

They began to diversify their activities into other lucrative, but more secretive areas, such as online gambling, stock trading and adult arcades.

The concept of “nawabari”, or gang territory, also faded. The number of small gangs increased, some with only 10 members. By 2024, there were 208 gang groups with 5,622 members under police surveillance.

Smaller gangs survive through voice phishing and financial scams involving stocks, loans and cryptocurrencies.

Police said that while their means of profit have evolved into more corporate and sophisticated types, violence is their core activity as their name “jopok” implies. “Jopok” means “organized violence” in Korean.

Their crimes are becoming increasingly difficult to track as they become smaller and more cunning in luring people into stealing their money, and they hire legal experts and operate on the border between legal and illegal to avoid arrest, said Yeom Gun-woong, a professor at U1 University’s department of police science. As for online gambling, it’s difficult to track them as their servers are mostly located overseas.

“Although the types of gangsters have changed over the past 100 years, gangsters are all criminals and are a cancer to society,” Yeom said.

“They create income through illegal means and when that fails, they use violence as a last resort to get what they want,” he said.