General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Master (2016 film)

Master (마스터; Ma-seu-teo) is a 2016 South Korean crime-action film directed by Cho Ui-seok, in which an intellectual crime investigation unit pursues the chairman of a multi-level marketing company implicated in a massive fraud case.¹ It stars Lee Byung-hun as Chairman Jin, Gang Dong-won as investigator Kim Jae-myung, and Kim Woo-bin as Park Jang-gun, the company's technical brain, with Uhm Ji-won, Oh Dal-su, and Jin Kyung in supporting roles.² Released on December 21, 2016, the film drew about 7.15 million admissions in South Korea, making it one of the year's top domestic releases despite lukewarm reviews from critics.¹^•³

Key fact	Detail
Director and writer	Cho Ui-seok, his fourth feature after Make It Big (2002), The World of Silence (2006), and Cold Eyes (2013)⁴
Release	December 21, 2016, South Korea; 143-minute running time; rated 15 and over²
Lead cast	Lee Byung-hun (Chairman Jin), Gang Dong-won (Kim Jae-myung), Kim Woo-bin (Park Jang-gun)²
Budget	13 billion won (US$10.9 million), against a Korean average production cost of about 2 billion won including marketing⁵
Admissions	7,150,586 in South Korea, on 1,501 screens¹
Box office	US$50,282,744 in South Korea; US$51,007,693 worldwide per The Numbers⁶
Pre-sales	Sold to 31 countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines, before its Korean release⁷^•⁸
Real-world basis	Inspired by the Cho Hee-pal fraud case, in which a pyramid-scheme operator stole over US$34 billion from around 50,000 people and fled abroad⁴

Spoilers

Plot

Chairman Jin (Lee Byung-hun) runs One Network Inc., a multi-level marketing company whose reach covers South Korea. He draws in tens of thousands of members with eloquent speeches and powerful connections in politics and government.⁹^•² Kim Jae-myung (Gang Dong-won), chief of the intellectual crime investigation team, has tracked him for more than six months, suspecting that One Network is tied to business leaders, politicians, and bureaucrats.⁹

To close the net, Kim pressures Park Jang-gun (Kim Woo-bin), the company's IT architect and Jin's closest aide, to hand over the location of One Network's computer room and Jin's secret lobbying ledger, offering a plea bargain.²^•¹⁰ Park pretends to cooperate while making his own plans to turn in his boss and take the company's secret fund for himself.¹⁰ Sensing that a traitor sits among his executives, Jin shuts down his Korean operation and flees abroad with his partner, hiring assassins to eliminate Park.²^•¹⁰ Kim continues the pursuit overseas, and six months later news of Jin's death stirs the country again.¹¹

Production

Cho Ui-seok developed the film from a news story he had noted down years earlier. He had two ideas, a hard-boiled police movie and a fraudster story, and combined them around the figure of Cho Hee-pal, a real pyramid-scheme operator who took more than US$34 billion from roughly 50,000 people and flew abroad; he has been reported dead, but the director did not believe it.⁴ Cho wanted a detective who confronts corruption inside an intelligence operation rather than through action, and he deliberately avoided the knife fights and bloodshed common in Korean crime films, modifying cruel scenes with computer graphics.⁴

Casting and roles. The film was announced at the European Film Market in February 2016 with Lee Byung-hun as the president of the fraudulent company, Kim Woo-bin as his right-hand man, and Gang Dong-won as the crime-unit leader, alongside Uhm Ji-won, Oh Dal-su, and Jin Kyung; ZIP Cinema produced and CJ Entertainment financed and distributed.¹² Filming was scheduled to begin in April 2016.¹² Gang Dong-won said the role of Kim Jae-myung, his first detective character, required him to sustain the narrative rather than deliver a single striking impact, a contrast with his lighter role in A Violent Prosecutor earlier that year.¹³^•⁴

The 13 billion won budget was unusually large for Korean cinema at the time; director Cho said he was afraid of the audience response and only relaxed after acquaintances texted him that the film was thrilling.⁵

Box office

Master opened in South Korea on December 21, 2016 and passed the 5 million viewer mark early in January 2017.¹^•⁵ It finished with 7,150,586 admissions and a gross of about US$43 million by the Korean Film Council database's count.¹ The Numbers records US$50,282,744 for the South Korean territory and US$51,007,693 worldwide, with small additional releases in Australia (US$129,292) and New Zealand (US$11,359); its limited North American release by CJ Entertainment began January 6, 2017 and earned US$584,298.⁶ A BIFAN industry report lists Master among the top ten domestic films of 2016 with US$34,297,139 in revenue and 4,935,325 admissions as counted by that report.¹⁴

Reception

Critics and audiences diverged. On Cine21 the film scored 5.70 from ten professional critics against 6.50 from audiences; critics complained about its length, with one calling it "the essence of 100 minutes plus 42 minutes of filler," while audience comments praised the performances of the three leads and the film's pacing.²^•³ On Rotten Tomatoes it holds an 80% Tomatometer from 10 reviews and a 50% audience score; Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave it 2.5 of 4, noting solid to great performances and a satisfying final twenty minutes that took two hours to reach, while the New York Times called it a routine South Korean crime thriller whose bloat magnifies its generic qualities.¹⁵ IMDb users rated it 6.6 out of 10.¹⁶

At the 2017 Baeksang Arts Awards the film received nominations for Best Actor, Best New Actor, and the Popularity Award.¹⁰ It also screened at the Udine Far East Film Festival 2017 in competition, the London Korean Film Festival 2017 in the Cinema Now section, the Jeonju International Film Festival 2017, the HIFF Spring Showcase 2017, and the Asian Film Festival of Dallas 2017.¹

Context in Korean cinema

KoFi places Master in the Korean financial-thriller line that runs from The Scam (2009) to Default (2018) and Money (2019), noting that although it is not strictly a financial thriller, since it also belongs to the con-artist and action genres, it ended 2016 with an enormous 7.15 million spectators.¹⁷ The feature argues that the film plays on the ability of charismatic figures, embodied by one of Korea's most trusted stars, to convince the public to act against their own interests.¹⁷ Cho Ui-seok grouped the film with Korean crime movies that expose hidden corners of society, such as Veteran (2015), Inside Men (2015), Train to Busan (2016), and Pandora (2016), and observed that by the time of release, Korean society had changed so much that the film's fiction felt less shocking than reality.⁴

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 2015–2019 films › Thriller and mystery films › Titles F to N

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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