The VIP Premiere of Faster Than the Law
"Oh! There's my Foal!"
"Yes, sunbaenim. It's been a while. Have you been well?"
"Never better. And I've been watching Strange Tales! Hell yeah. Guess running that action academy paid off after all."
This was Cheongdam GCV, and I had come over to greet Gwak Cheol-sik, who'd arrived ahead of me. Today marked the VIP press screening of Faster Than the Law, and for the occasion I had dressed up for the first time in ages.
After living every day in men's clothes, sprinting and tumbling across set, putting on an actual dress felt almost foreign….
Truly… I look like a leading lady straight out of a painting….
The truth is, I'd been dying to be the star of a premiere like this. It would be no exaggeration to say I'd waited for this very day. I even wanted to shoot one of those little "campaign pledge" videos, the kind A-listers do.
"Hello there. It's been a while, Yeo-reum."
"Sunbaenim! You made it!"
Yoon Hyun-jo, crisp in his signature sharp-pressed shirt, walked into the waiting room as well. With that composed, sharp-featured face of his topped off by a pair of glasses, he was the very image of the elite Detective Yoon himself.
The two of them, veterans of countless premieres, seemed noticeably less nervous than I was.
Someday, I'm going to pull that kind of nonchalance off too.
A movie premiere? Oh, I've been to so many they're practically part of my daily routine now…. I would have to practice saying that. I was still quietly steadying my nerves when—
Knock, knock. A rap sounded at the waiting room door.
"Actors, your media day pre-interview is coming up shortly! Please get ready—"
At last, the long day's schedule was underway.
Reporter Wi had never once been this glad to see her press badge hanging around her neck.
Yeo-reum… your unnie is here….
Media day. The event where reporters and press outlets gathered before a film's release to interview the lead actors and the director. That Yeo-reum existed in this space at all was, to her, genuinely moving.
You've grown up so beautifully….
It was a modest role, but you could feel it plainly—her fellow actors and the director all viewed Yeo-reum in the best possible light.
Word had it that Yeo-reum would be appearing in Faster Than the Law 2 as well.
She was still pressing down her hammering heart and gripping her camera tight when—click! click! click!—flashes began erupting around her.
Director Gong of Faster Than the Law was walking in.
Yeo-reum…!
Today's Yeo-reum was so adorably, tear-jerkingly pretty.
The pale yellow mini dress she wore looked effortlessly casual, and yet—she was a plump little chick, a zesty lemon, a sweet ripe banana…. In any case, she was that kind of lovely.
"Good afternoon, everyone! Today we'll be conducting interviews with the director and stars of the film everyone's talking about—no, the film destined to become a masterpiece—Faster Than the Law!"
Director Gong took the microphone and offered a slightly awkward bow.
"Hello, I'm Gong Mu-jin, director of Faster Than the Law. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here."
"Hello! I'm Gwak Cheol-sik, playing Detective Gwak! It's been absolutely sweltering lately, hasn't it? Got your temper boiling over? Come watch our crisp, refreshing movie and sweat the stress right out of you!"
"Hello. I'm Yoon Hyun-jo, playing Detective Yoon. Thank you for sparing us your valuable time."
Each of them had a pitch-perfect handle on their public persona. And then, right after the actor playing the villain, Yeo-reum's turn finally arrived.
"Hello, I'm Han Yeo-reum, playing Influencer 1. Thank you all so much for coming today."
As the hottest rising actress of the moment, the shutter sounds around her swelled just a little louder.
Strange Tales episode 3 had pulled in a whopping twelve percent in viewership ratings.
"What do you think is the one thing audiences should look forward to most while watching the film?"
"With all those action scenes, you must have picked up plenty of bumps and bruises. Could you share a behind-the-scenes story with us—?"
"If you had to put a number on it, what percentage of your on-screen character matches your real personality?"
A handful of questions went back and forth, until at last a light one landed on Yeo-reum.
"If something like Faster Than the Law happened to you in real life—what would you do?"
Yeo-reum pondered the question for a moment before answering.
"I would absolutely! Positively! shed the pounds. Never making that mistake twice."
A ripple of laughter broke out among the staff. Reporter Wi could already see the headlines forming in her head.
It was an answer that dovetailed perfectly with Strange Tales, currently airing to popular acclaim.
And so, wrapped in that warm atmosphere, media day drew to a close, followed by the official press conference. Once the round of one-on-one interviews with each outlet wrapped as well, evening had finally arrived.
Click—! Click—! Click—!
The ceaseless burst of shutters rang out like applause as the photo wall began.
From rookie celebrities pushed to attend by their agencies, to actors with ties to the cast, to performers in dramas and films currently airing or about to premiere, all the way down to the hottest idol groups of the moment—
celebrities filed in one after another to stamp their faces onto the VIP premiere of Faster Than the Law.
It would be no exaggeration to say that every celebrity enjoying popularity these days had gathered in this one place.
The shutters showed no mercy, raining down hardest on the celebrities who made for the juiciest copy.
The moment Myeong Je-ha—fresh off War on the Rule of Law breaking the ten-million mark, now playing the newly appointed detective—stepped out, every ounce of the reporters' attention swung his way.
"Mr. Myeong Je-ha! Over here! To the right!"
At the photo wall, Myeong Je-ha accepted a microphone and even fielded a brief interview.
"You've already become the star of the 'double 10-million' club. As a double 10-million actor yourself—do you think Faster Than the Law can reach ten million admissions?"
When the reporter asked playfully, Myeong Je-ha answered with an easy smile.
"Thank you for the flattering title—it's a little embarrassing, haha. But if any film is going to record a double 10-million, I believe it will be Faster Than the Law."
The reporters' expressions warmed at his gracious deference—praising the film as destined to outperform even his own record-setting work.
Myeong Je-ha dipped his head in a light bow and headed inside. And then—
"Do Gyeo-ul!"
Click, click, clickclickclick—!
In walked the actress currently commanding the highest stock price in all of Korea. Only recently, she had enjoyed unprecedented popularity in Japan, even holding a fan meeting at NHK Hall.
No one present failed to grasp what it meant for a twenty-one-year-old actress to sell out thirty-five hundred seats entirely on her own name.
Do Gyeo-ul was a cheat code—a name that generated clicks all by itself. And so, naturally, a microphone found its way into her hand.
"You must be terribly busy with your activities in Japan these days, yet we understand you came straight here the moment you landed, just for Faster Than the Law. Are you and actress Han Yeo-reum close in private as well?"
Same school, same department, and the same age. The reporters, and the public beyond them, had long assumed a friendship between Gyeo-ul and Yeo-reum, so the question came as naturally as breathing.
Gyeo-ul answered with a radiant smile.
"Of course. I'm a fan of Yeo-reum's."
The reporters, believing that today's most beloved actress was warmly encouraging a rookie junior, smiled in deep satisfaction.
The articles went up in a flash.
Escorted by a ring of bodyguards, Gyeo-ul made her way toward where Yeo-reum would be waiting.
The plush carpet unique to a cinema, the corridor where the acoustics rang faintly in the ears, the subtle scent of caramel popcorn brushing the tip of the nose.
And soon—the Han Yeo-reum who would appear before her.
All of it mingled together and set Gyeo-ul's heart racing. The moment she stepped into the theater proper, she spotted the Han Yeo-reum who had been waiting for her.
"Hello."
When Gyeo-ul offered her greeting, Yeo-reum managed her expression with practiced ease—somehow looking as though she had grown yet another level overnight.
"Thank you for coming."
Not fearing her in the slightest—as if under the delusion that the two of them now stood on equal footing.
"Ahaha! Yeah. I'm looking forward to your acting."
Gyeo-ul simply could not understand it. The girl was still leagues behind her, so where had she learned to carry that insolent glint in her eyes?
And yet that very thing was what kept Han Yeo-reum from ever growing stale—what made her so endlessly entertaining.
Gyeo-ul took her seat in the theater and waited for the Han Yeo-reum who would soon rise across the screen.
At last, Faster Than the Law—
the VIP premiere had begun.
The violent crimes unit office at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency. The furious footsteps of an enraged man crashed through the room, and the instant everyone caught sight of his face they averted their eyes or ducked their heads in embarrassment.
SLAM!
"Where the hell is Gwak Cheol-sik?"
The man who'd flung open the office door in a single motion barked the question. The screen cut at once—to a sleek, immaculate office utterly unlike the violent crimes unit.
….
Crisp white shirt, hair swept neatly back, a straight tie. Yoon Hyun-jo, looking every inch the elite police officer, stood with his hands clasped behind his back, listening to the police chief.
His posture was flawless, but his eyes—fixed downward on the chief—burned with a rebellious light that said he understood nothing and accepted less.
"You know as well as anyone. This job isn't done alone."
At the chief's words, Yoon Hyun-jo's fist clenched hard at his back. As if he could not possibly disagree more.
The screen cut again, back to the detectives' bullpen.
"Detective Gwak is out in the field right now, sir…."
The furious squad captain was roaring at the top of his lungs. Red-faced, he bellowed:
"Pull up the address of Gwak Cheol-sik's last scene! Right now! You're all exactly the same—nothing but trouble, every last one of you bastards!"
He hurled the documents in his hand. Files went flying, photographs inside scattering and fluttering through the air.
"Is this bastard Gwak Cheol-sik a cop or a gangster?!"
The screen shifted to Detective Gwak at the crime scene.
"Phew…."
Clamped between his teeth was a white stick. What looked for all the world like a cigarette was, in fact, a piece of candy.
Gwak Cheol-sik gazed down at the criminal-turned-bloody-pulp before him, exactly as he appeared in the photographs.
"Try living a decent life for once…. Like I do…."
"Y-you… are you a cop… or a gangster…."
"Look at this guy. Quit the dramatics—I went real easy on you, pal."
The fearsome Gwak Cheol-sik smiled and nudged the groaning gangster with the tip of his shoe. That was the moment—
"Hey, you crazy bastard! You're the one living the worst of all!"
The squad captain came sprinting from far off and, from two steps away, launched himself into a flying kick.
"Oh dear me."
Gwak Cheol-sik sidestepped with practiced ease. The captain sprawled flat across the ground and let out another bellow.
A quiet wave of laughter rippled through the audience. Reporter Wi laughed along even as she analyzed the film.
This is perfect snack culture. Light, breezy, and every character crisp and satisfying.
As the trailers had made clear from the start, the message this film wanted to deliver was unmistakable.
True to his nickname, the Chungmuro Civil Servant, Gong Mu-jin was a director who knew exactly how to season a film to taste.
The instinct behind every scene transition, the placement of every sound effect—it was all textbook-perfect, straight out of the manual.
The pairing of the hopeless Detective Gwak and the even-more-hopeless Inspector Yoon unfolded in classic slapstick fashion, and if one had to sum it up in a single phrase, it was the taste you know and love.
Just as in the teaser trailer, the two men were placed on the same team. From the very beginning, the ways they clashed were beyond counting.
Their dress, their personalities, their speech, down to how they handled a case.
"Does that even make sense? Ah, look at him—dripping with the stink of a man who's never actually run a field case in his life."
"If it doesn't work, you make it work. Isn't that what we're paid to be here for? And you—kindly stop advertising that you've never once used your head."
What they needed to catch was not the distributor of the Funny Series. It was the supplier. Only by hunting down the supplier and shutting it all down would this absurd epidemic end.
"You done talking now?"
"Nope. Haven't said a single thing I actually wanted to say. Go ahead—keep going?"
"You little—!"
"What, you bastard?"
"I'll just take this and—!"
Detective Gwak seized Inspector Yoon by the collar. Inspector Yoon, refusing to yield, seized Detective Gwak's collar right back.
They were one breath away from a full-on, ugly brawl.
RRRIP—!
….
….
Inspector Yoon's shirt tore apart of its own accord, leaving him dressed like an idol headlining a stage show—every last button pinging off in all directions.
Detective Gwak, stunned for a moment, then had the sheer gall to act shameless about the shirt he had just shredded.
"You—eating government rice dressed like that? Are public servants flaunting themselves in indecent clothes these days? I ought to toss you in a holding cell!"
At those words, Inspector Yoon's eyes rolled back, and he clamped down on Gwak's collar with equal force. But Detective Gwak's shirt did not tear.
His pride stung, Inspector Yoon grabbed and pulled again with everything he had—and still, not a seam gave way.
"What the hell are you wearing that refuses to rip?!"
Inspector Yoon, still clad in his shredded shirt, raged.
"Don't you dare disrespect Pyonghwa Market! This is what happens when you walk around in imported junk every damn day! Made in Korea! Show some patriotism, you bastard!"
Shaking as his collar was gripped and wrenched, Detective Gwak cried out like some guardian deity of the Dongdaemun markets.
And the very instant the words left his mouth—
RRRIP.
At long last, the khaki T-shirt Detective Gwak wore like a second skin—a tattoo, practically—tore clean apart.
A junior detective standing nearby murmured quietly.
"Must have been Made in China, sir…."
And so, meeting after meeting disguised as a brawl went back and forth between Detective Gwak and Inspector Yoon.
On the projector screen appeared the face of the suspect—a man with a mole beneath his right eye. K.
"He's operating a nightclub in Gangnam called 'D.K.'—a hostess bar. Nominally the owner, but someone else is bankrolling him as the money backer. For now, assume K is handling the supply and distribution lines simultaneously."
But no matter how they turned it over, they could not reach any conclusion on how to infiltrate.
A few days later, Detective Gwak—walking toward Inspector Yoon on the street—called him and threw out a proposal so absurd it defied belief.
"…And how, exactly, do you plan to sneak into the influencer party?"
Inspector Yoon asked in a perfectly level voice, and—
"I hand you the answer on a plate and you can't even eat it! Figuring that part out is your job from here on!"
Detective Gwak bulldozed right over him without an ounce of logic.
"Where in the world would we even find an influencer? And what guarantee is there that word won't leak out?"
Inspector Yoon exhaled, hands still gripping the steering wheel.
And then the scene shifted, generous as a helpful footnote, to make perfectly clear just who this "influencer" Inspector Yoon spoke of would be.
"I'm telling you—it's real!"
At last, Yeo-reum filled the screen.