General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Revolver (리볼버) (2024 film)

Revolver (리볼버) is a 2024 South Korean crime thriller directed by Oh Seung-uk, starring Jeon Do-yeon as a former police officer who serves a two-year prison sentence for a corruption case and, on her release, finds that the compensation she was promised has vanished.¹^•² It opened in South Korean theaters on August 7, 2024, runs 114 minutes, and is rated 15.¹

Key fact	Detail
Korean title / director	리볼버 (Revolver), directed by Oh Seung-uk, his first feature in nine years after The Shameless (2015)¹^•³
Release	August 7, 2024 (South Korea), distributed by Plus M Entertainment; 114 minutes, rated 15¹^•⁴
Lead cast	Jeon Do-yeon as Ha Su-yeong, Ji Chang-wook as Andy, Lim Ji-yeon as Jung Yun-seon⁴
Screenplay	Original screenplay credited to Oh Seung-uk and Joo Byeol; cinematography by Kang Kook-hyeon⁴
Production	Sanai Pictures with Plus M Entertainment and Story Rooftop⁵
Korea box office	249,440 admissions and $1,705,699 gross on 861 screens, per the KOFIC database¹
Major awards	Best Director and Best Actress at the 61st Baeksang Arts Awards (2025)⁴

Spoilers

Plot

Police officer Ha Su-yeong (Jeon Do-yeon) is caught up in a corruption scandal and agrees to take the blame for everyone involved in exchange for a large promised reward.⁶ After serving two years in prison, she steps out to find that no one has come for her except Yoon-seon (Lim Ji-yeon), a woman she has never met, and that the money has disappeared.²^•⁶ Armed with a revolver, she sets out to collect what she was promised from Andy (Ji Chang-wook), the man behind the arrangement, and confronts the larger, more dangerous forces behind him.⁶^•⁷ Yoon-seon travels with her, an ambiguous figure whom Su-yeong cannot tell is a helper or a watcher.⁷

The Busan International Film Festival's program note frames the film against simple revenge noir: rather than spectacle, it concentrates on the straight line of one person's movement, a woman trying not to suffer needless sacrifice while collecting a debt.⁸

Production

The film was shot in 2023, with principal photography from June to October 2023.⁹ It was produced by Sanai Pictures, the company behind crime films including New World (2013), Asura (2016), and Hunt (2022), in its second collaboration with Oh Seung-uk after The Shameless (2015); Plus M Entertainment and Story Rooftop also joined production.⁵^•¹⁰ Jeon Do-yeon and Oh had previously worked together on The Shameless, which played in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2015, and Jeon won the Cannes Best Actress award in 2007 for Secret Sunshine.⁵

Ji Chang-wook plays Andy, described in Korean press materials as a "perfume-spraying mad dog" who heightens the tension of Su-yeong's journey.⁷ Lee Jung-jae and Jung Jae-young appear in supporting and friendship-cameo roles.¹¹ The music director was Cho Young-wuk.¹

Release and box office

Before its Korean opening, Plus M sold distribution rights worldwide: North America (Well Go USA), Latin America (Impacto Cine), the Middle East and North Africa (The Plot Pictures), Hong Kong and Macau (Neofilms), Poland (Media4Fun), Mongolia (The Filmbridge), SAARC territories (Premiere 9), and CIS (Provzglyad), with France (Bac Films), Germany (Plaion Pictures), Taiwan (Moviecloud), Vietnam (Runup Vietnam), and Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei (Purple Plan) secured earlier.⁵ The distributor later announced the film had paved the way for release in 172 countries.³

In Korea the film opened on August 7, 2024 and finished fourth in its opening weekend, behind Pilot, Heartsping: Teenieping of Love, and Despicable Me 4; by August 12 it had drawn about 190,000 cumulative admissions.¹² Final Korean totals in the KOFIC database record 249,440 admissions and $1,705,699 gross across 861 screens.¹ Overseas releases included Russia and the CIS on September 5, 2024, Japan on February 28, 2025 (distributed by Twin), and North America, where Well Go USA released it in limited theaters on August 23, 2024 and on digital platforms on April 8, 2025.¹³^•¹⁴^•¹⁵

Reception and awards

The film premiered in the Korean Cinema Today Panorama section of the Busan International Film Festival in 2024 and screened at the London East Asia Film Festival (2024) and the Florence Korea Film Fest (2025, K-orizzonti section).¹ At the 2024 Buil Film Awards it took home Best Film, and it earned the Grand Prize from the 2024 Busan Film Critics Awards, while at the Blue Dragon Awards it secured a single win alongside six nominations.¹¹^•¹⁶ At the 61st Baeksang Arts Awards on May 5, 2025, Oh Seung-uk won Best Director and Jeon Do-yeon won Best Actress.⁴

Critical response was mixed. Reviewers praised Jeon Do-yeon's performance while faulting the film's pacing: The Straits Times gave it 2/5, calling monotony the killer of the crime drama, and another reviewer called it a "lumbering slow-burn crime thriller, despite Jeon Do-Yeon's committed performance."¹⁵ Cine21's aggregate expert score was 6.29 out of 10, with an audience score of 6.40.⁶

References

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