Going By The Book

What happens when you take a cop that does everything by the book, even when it means that doing so gets him busted from detective down to traffic cop, and task him with doing his absolute best to play the robber in a training exercise? You get a movie with a plot that could have been a film noir tragedy and turn it into an excellent low key comedy.

That film is Going by the Book, a 2007 Korean remake of a 1991 Japanese film called Asobi-No-Jikan-Wa-Owara-Nai.

Warning:  minor spoilers ahead.  Skip the next two paragraphs if you want to avoid them.

Faced with a string of unsolved bank robberies, a newly arrived police chief decides to carry out a realistic training exercise to restore public confidence in the police force.  He chooses Officer Jeong Do-man to play the role of the robber.  Officer Do-man objects stating that the chief may regret his choice, but accepts the role when the chief insists.

Of course, the chief soon wishes he had listened to Officer Do-man's objections as what was supposed to be a quickly resolved training exercise turns into a lengthy standoff due to Do-man's extensive planning and improvisation.

To go into any further detail would risk spoiling the gags or other elements of the plot.  I'll just say that if you think you might enjoy a mix of comedy and a caper movie like Ocean's 11, and don't mind watching subtitled films, then you should look this one up.  It's currently on Netflix.