Does anyone know the background to all the non-fatal knife wounds in this film? It was full of people getting their thighs and calves slashed, presumably incapacitating them but not killing them. It seemed to be a major faux-pas when one of the bosses killed a rival gang member by stabbing him in the belly.
Is this some sort of custom in Korean gangs? Why bring the knives at all if that's the case?
Yeah--
It's not so much a custom as it is the punishment that gangsters fear if they are caught for killing somebody. It's not like the US where gangsters don't give a *beep* about killing people. Korea's a very small society--and they brawl--but they don't usually go over the line and actually kill somebody. Taking somebody out... maiming them... almost killing them is another story.
This is partially also due to the fact that the police in Korea come down really hard on homicide--SOMEBODY has to go down when there is a killing. While serious injuries are overlooked more easily--or not handled as harshly.
A murder in Korea is usually gang related. Quite often, a gang related murder investigation leads to death/life/extended sentences of every person in a gang who assisted or had knowledge of. A polygraph test is a legal evidence in Korea, and a gang member failing to pass a polygraph test might be charged with murder. However, permanently maiming someone is still considered as aggravated assault (shorter sentence), and is not investigated deeply as a murder. Murder is usually committed in a manner of premeditated assassination to avoid such havoc.
Guns are also extremely controlled in Korea. Although almost all Korean males aged 20 and above have gone through military and have experiences in firearms, almost all civilians ever get in contact with firearms after military service.
Fighting to maim, rather than to kill is not a custom. It is merely a result of harsh punishment with easy conviction. S.Korea having a low murder rate also allows a vast number of law enforcements focusing on a single case.
I would imagine it's purely down to the fact that if just injure a rival there will be no police involvement whereas a murder will always be investigated.
It makes good business sense to not attract the attention of the police.
Every film should have Nicholas Cage as Fu Manchu
S.Korea having a low murder rate also allows a vast number of law enforcements focusing on a single case.
Well Korean gangs don't kill people in daylight in the middle of a visible place so the knives in the fighting scene weren't meant to necessarily kill but to injure them badly that they can't fight anymore. Also in Korea, if gangsters do get caught it's different from America because in Korea it's a shame to the family's name if you do something bad, especially if you kill someone.
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