In the real 2004 case, the police were already several steps ahead. When Kim Tae-chon was beating up Yoo Young-chul in the street, police were already investigating a series of murders that Yoo had committed. In fact, Yoo was already on their radar via a separate investigation into stolen golf clubs.
The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil succeeds because it uses the skeleton of a true crime story to build a muscular action epic. The film asks us to imagine a world where a gangster is the lesser of two evils, and a cop must become a devil to catch a devil. While that specific scenario never happened in a Korean police station, the fact that it almost did—the fact that a real mob boss beat a real serial killer to a pulp—is exactly why the movie feels so terrifyingly plausible.
In reality, Kim Tae-chon just beat the guy and let him go. That makes for a funny anecdote, but not a two-hour thriller. is the gangster the cop the devil based on true story
Here is the detailed breakdown of the true story that inspired the film, and where Hollywood-style fiction takes over. To understand the film’s roots, you have to look at a real person: Yoo Young-chul . He is one of South Korea’s most notorious serial killers, active between September 2003 and July 2004. Known as the "Raincoat Killer" (due to demanding his victims wear a raincoat during the murders) or the "Happy Day" killer (after a message he carved on a victim), Yoo Young-chul confessed to murdering 20 people—mostly wealthy elderly people and female masseuses.
The police report (and Yoo’s later testimony) states that Kim looked at the bleeding man on the ground, realized the police were coming, and fled the scene. He did not alert the authorities. Why would a gangster call the cops? Instead, Kim mobilized his entire criminal network. In the real 2004 case, the police were
When the credits roll on Lee Won-tae’s blistering 2019 action thriller The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil , viewers are often left with one burning question: Could that really have happened?
Furthermore, the "mob boss" Kim Tae-chon never entered into a formal alliance with the police. Kim was arrested shortly thereafter for his own crimes (including violence, blackmail, and running gambling dens). He only told the story about beating up the serial killer to the press after he was in prison, likely to boost his reputation. The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil succeeds because
Given the gritty realism of Korean cinema (think Memories of Murder or The Chaser ), it is a natural instinct to ask if this shocking narrative was ripped from the headlines. The short answer is