Furthermore, the real ending—where the gangster goes back to his life of crime—is unsatisfying. The film’s ending, where the detective arrests the gangster even after they won, asks a powerful question: Does the end justify the means?
The film captures the feel of early 2000s South Korea, a time of rising, often untraced, violent crime in urban areas.
Yoo Young-chul, the "Devil," was executed by hanging in Seoul Detention Centre in 2018. He remains one of the most reviled figures in modern Korean history.
While the backdrop of a terrifying serial killer is entirely real, the film introduces significant creative liberties to make the plot more gripping. Here is how the movie's central pillars compare to reality. 1. The Devil (The Killer)
He intentionally rear-ended his victims' cars to force them to step outside. is the gangster the cop the devil based on true story
The film is set in , a year that mirrors the tail end of several notorious serial murder sprees in South Korea. Critics and viewers often point to the following real-life parallels:
The "true story" aspect relies more on the that a serial killer creates in a densely populated city, rather than a factual account of one man's arrest. Why The Gangster and The Cop Team Up
The core inciting event—the killer stabbing a gangster who subsequently survives—is the primary "true" element the filmmakers utilized to launch the plot.
The character "K" is widely believed to be inspired by Yoo Young-chul , known as the "Raincoat Killer." Yoo murdered at least 20 people between 2003 and 2004. According to discussions on Reddit , the killer's habit of staging car accidents to lure victims mirrors real criminal tactics from that era. Furthermore, the real ending—where the gangster goes back
In the film, a ruthless mafia boss named Jang Dong-su (Ma Dong-seok) is randomly targeted and stabbed by an enigmatic serial killer known as "K" (Kim Sung-kyu). Surviving the attack, the gangster forms an unlikely, uneasy alliance with a hot-headed police detective, Jung Tae-seok (Kim Mu-yeol), to hunt down the murderer.
The key to understanding the film's origins lies in the real-life figure who haunted the streets of Seoul in the early 2000s.
This line is a direct nod to South Korea's actual legal system. South Korea has maintained a . While courts still sentence the country's most heinous criminals to death, the state does not carry them out, effectively turning a death sentence into permanent life imprisonment. Real-life serial killer Yoo Young-chul was convicted in 2004 and remains alive on death row to this day, knowing his execution will likely never be ordered. Fact vs. Fiction: How Much Was Changed?
The movie is set in 2005 , a period when South Korea was gripped by several high-profile serial murder cases. Yoo Young-chul, the "Devil," was executed by hanging
This is the real-life origin of the film’s premise.
To understand the factual background of the film, one must look back to the mid-2000s, an era when South Korea was plagued by a terrifying wave of real-life serial killers.
The "inspired by" aspect stems from the chaotic, often violent, and sometimes cooperative dynamics that can exist between organized crime figures and the police in South Korea, particularly when faced with a common, terrifying adversary like a serial killer. The film captures the tense atmosphere of a "lawless" chase where traditional boundaries of justice are blurred. Key Aspects of the True Story Inspiration
The premise of the film—a serial killer targeting random victims through staged highway accidents—closely mirrors the operations of real South Korean serial killers from the mid-2000s. Director Lee Won-tae synthesized elements from notable criminal investigations of that era to create the chilling antagonist, Kang Kyung-ho (played by Kim Sung-kyu). The Yoo Young-chul Connection