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Another Public Enemy (공공의 적 2)

Another Public Enemy (공공의 적 2; revised romanization Gonggongui Jeok 2) is a 2005 South Korean action drama directed by Kang Woo-suk, in which an unorthodox Seoul public prosecutor, Kang Chul-joong, investigates his former high school classmate Han Sang-woo, a foundation chairman suspected of crimes connected to a suspicious death1. It was produced and distributed by Cinema Service and opened in South Korea on January 27, 20051.

Key factDetail
ReleaseJanuary 27, 2005 (South Korea); 148 minutes; rated 15 and over1 • 2
Director and writerKang Woo-suk (director and producer); screenplay by Kim Hee-jae1
Lead castSol Kyung-gu as prosecutor Kang Chul-joong; Jung Joon-ho as Han Sang-woo; Kang Shin-il, Park Geun-hyung, and Byun Hee-bong in supporting roles1 • 3
Relation to 2002 filmA thematic sequel or reworking of Public Enemy (2002), with Sol Kyung-gu playing a different character who shares the name Kang Chul-joong4
Box office3,911,356 admissions and 4th place for 2005 by the KOBIS year-end tally; KOFIC records 3,131,774 total admissions and a gross of $13,881,8915 • 6
RecognitionGrand Prize at the Korea Gold Awards Festival (2005); screenings at the Fukuoka Asian Film Festival and Fantasia International Film Festival6
SeriesSecond entry in the Kang Chul-joong series, followed by Public Enemy Returns (2008)7

Spoilers

Plot and characters

Kang Chul-joong (Sol Kyung-gu) is a prosecutor with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office who prefers going to crime scenes over reading case files, trusts intuition over procedure, and does not hesitate to use force when pursuing wrongdoers1 • 2. A case lands on his desk involving Han Sang-woo (Jung Joon-ho), who has become chairman of the Myung-sun Foundation after the foundation's heir apparent, its chairman's eldest son, died in a suspicious accident8. Han was Kang's high school classmate, and the two attended the same school, Myung-sun High School, for three years in the same class2. Kang senses something wrong, begins investigating a case that is not assigned to him, and declares open war on Han1 • 2.

Han, as written, is a figure designed to provoke public outrage: Kang Woo-suk described him as not merely a wicked unfilial son like the villain of the first film but a two-faced character whose conduct would anger any observer9. Western reviewers noted the character's extremes, including embezzlement from his father's educational trust and a plan to launder the money through a golf academy in the United States10.

Production

Kang Woo-suk made the film at Cinema Service, the studio he ran, about a year after Silmido, which had drawn more than 10 million viewers in 200411 • 9. He described the film as, in one phrase, a movie about money, showing how people are corrupted and buried by it, while asserting that money ultimately cannot defeat justice11. He revised the screenplay roughly ten times, and shot the confrontations between the two leads with two cameras in long scenes and long takes to heighten dramatic tension9.

Casting Jung Joon-ho, known for upright roles, as the villain met internal resistance, which Kang overrode after seeing what he described as a devilish quality in Jung's performance in Marrying the Mafia11. Sol Kyung-gu struggled early in the shoot, forgetting lines and avoiding the camera, which Kang attributed to aftereffects of excessive weight loss; Sol recovered after about two weeks11.

Some action set pieces were delegated: the early gang fight and the mid-film motorcycle action were handled by directors Kim Sang-jin and Jang Yoon-hyun, who had built experience in such sequences on earlier films9 • 12.

A January 2005 report in the Kyunghyang Shinmun identified prosecutor Kim Hee-jun of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's crime information planning division as a real-life model for Kang Chul-joong. Kim said the film was not made with a specific prosecutor in mind; Kang had asked the prosecution in late 2003, after finishing Silmido, to recommend a suitable prosecutor, and Kim was chosen largely for his long record in violent-crime units13.

Release and box office

The film opened nationwide on January 27, 2005, drawing about 180,000 admissions on its first day and passing one million cumulative admissions (1,017,000) in its first weekend, the first film to do so since Spider-Man 2 and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban the previous summer14. It played on a wide release of 408 screens nationwide, including 93 in Seoul, the first release in Cine21's box-office records to exceed 400 screens14. It opened alongside Marathon, which also premiered on January 2715.

Final tallies differ by source. The KOBIS-based year-end figure is 3,911,356 admissions, ranking 4th among 2005 Korean releases5, while the Korean Film Council's English-language film page records 3,131,774 total admissions and a gross of $13,881,891 on 299 screens6. Kang had predicted around 5 million admissions before release11.

Reception

Critical response was mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a Tomatometer score of 40% from three reviews16. Reviewers repeatedly made two points: that the film is less a sequel to Public Enemy than a reworking with the same star and character name in a different role, and that at 148 minutes it runs longer than its story supports4 • 17. Empire called it overlong and formulaic but noted that its cat-and-mouse structure between prosecutor and tycoon still works and that it is more interested in exposing Korean corruption than in delivering action4. The Guardian judged that this entry blends the first film's mix of serious crime story and slapstick more successfully, though it goes on longer than it needs to10. Eye For Film criticized the heavy-handed social commentary and Jung Joon-ho's broadly sneering villain, while crediting Sol Kyung-gu with a more nuanced performance than in the first film17.

Korean commentary engaged with the film's politics. A Cine21 critic wrote that it targets its subject accurately but repeats itself too often2, and an Etnews column argued that the film's repeated moral slogans and heroic portrayal of prosecutors fighting political pressure made it read like a prosecution service publicity film and risked alienating general audiences18. A later academic survey of 2000s Korean comedy noted that Kang Chul-joong's variation into a prosecutor generates humor through excessive zeal for his job, though with somewhat reduced intensity compared with the first film19.

Home media and series

Cinema Service released a two-disc DVD on May 17, 2005, with 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen video and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, audio commentary from Kang Woo-suk, Sol Kyung-gu, Jung Joon-ho, and Kang Shin-il, making-of footage, interviews, footage of the film's unusual preview screening for National Assembly members and prosecutors, and a fan survey feature titled "Who is the public enemy of our era?"12 • 20.

The character returned in Public Enemy Returns (Kang Cheol-joong: Gonggongui jeog 1-1), released in 2008, again with Sol Kyung-gu and Kang Shin-il7 • 1.

References

  1. Another Public Enemy, AsianWiki
  2. 공공의 적2 (Another Public Enemy) 상세정보, Cine21
  3. 공공의 적 2, Netflix
  4. Another Public Enemy Review, Empire
  5. 〈공공의 적 2〉, 그시절 보관소 (KOBIS year-end data)
  6. Another Public Enemy (2005), Korean Film Council
  7. Another Public Enemy, Cinegraph
  8. 공공의 적 2, Apple TV
  9. '공공의 적2'로 흥행몰이 강우석 감독, 경향신문 (2005-01-31)
  10. Another Public Enemy, The Guardian (2005-09-29)
  11. '공공의적2' 강우석 "웃기기는 커녕 심각한 영화죠", 조선일보 (2005-01-25)
  12. 〈공공의 적 2〉 DVD 사양 공개, Cine21 (2005-05-10)
  13. [[피플] 영화 '공공의 적2' 실제모델 김희준 검사, 경향신문 (2005-01-24)](https://www.khan.co.kr/article/200501241555311)
  14. 보여주지! 한국영화가 쎄다는걸, Cine21 (2005-01-31)
  15. Korean Film List 2005, Koreanfilm.org
  16. Another Public Enemy, Rotten Tomatoes
  17. Another Public Enemy (2005) Film Review, Eye For Film
  18. [[하재봉의 영화사냥] 공공의 적2, 전자신문 (2005-02-05)](https://www.etnews.com/200502050020?m=1)
  19. 2000년대 한국 코미디 영화의 정동-정치, KCI journal
  20. 〈공공의 적 2〉, Cine21 DVD Topic (2005-05-10)

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Action, thriller, and crime series film entries › Entries released in the 2000s › Released 2005 to 2009

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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