One of the most anticipated movies of the year 2012, with an all-star cast, filmed in Macao, Hongkong, Pusan and Seoul. Great expectations and great success. Sold nearly 13 million tickets making it the second most popular Korean movie, and the third overall in Korea (the first is the Avatar - 13.3 million , the second is The Host (2006) - 13mln). Because of that it grossed over 91 billion won (~ 85 million dollars) making it the best earning movie in the history of Korean cinema. This is the fourth and the most ambitious movie of director Choi Dong-Hun (The Big Swindle (2004), Tazza: The High Rollers (2006), Woochi: The Taoist Wizard (2009)). This is the essence of cinema presented earlier by Choi, plenty of twists and turns, with characters trying to outwit each other. Everything reminds a bit of Polish movie Vinci (2004) directed by Machulski . What is this movie about? As you can guess it tells the story of group of thieves, and more surprisingly the main characters are Korean thieves. Popeye (Lee Jung-Jae) and his accomplices together with recently released from prison Pepsee (Kim Hye-Soo), go to Macau and join forces with Hong Kong's group of thieves led by Chen (Simon Yam), to steal a diamond called "Tear of the Sun" worth $20bn, from a man named Wei Hong (Ki Guk-Seo) just to to sell it to him later, and all this at the request of the former partner of Popeye, Macau Park (Kim Yun-Seok). Everything seems to be perfectly planned, but as usually, something goes wrong. As in a typical heist movie there are plenty of unstable alliances, betrayals... This movie is one of the best in the genre, not because it is somehow revolutionary, but because it almost perfectly meets all the requirements of the genre. Let clarify something, Choi Dong-Hun has never done an ambitious/brilliant movie. What he did is a solid entertaining cinema. His productions never pretend to be more ambitious than they are and that makes them so popular. The director leads a confusing story with remarkable certainty so there are no boring moments and entire plot in a nice fast pace heads towards the final. What is somewhat surprising is the "internationality" of the movie. Earlier Korean cinema hits such as Silmido (2003), Taegugki (2004) and The Host (2006) were heavily immersed in Korean history and culture, The Thieves with its international locations and stars is a nice change. In addition to well-realized storyline, excellent cast is highly responsible for the success of the movie. The most important character in the movie is Macao Park, played excellently by Kim Yun-Seok. Just like other notable Korean actors (among others Ahn Sung-Ki, Park Joong-Hoon, or Song Kang-Ho) does not have the looks of a movie star. Instead, he has an great charisma and talent. Together with him, Kim Hye-Soo, plays veteran Pepsee with great class and accompanying her Lee Jung-Jae thanks to excellent body language perfectly played insecure thieve Popeye. At the premiere of the movie everyone expected return Jeon Ji-Hyeon to Korean cinema after 5 years break caused by highly unsuccessful attempt to rise in Hollywood. The star which has gained popularity thanks to the movie My Sassy Girl (2001) returned to roots and once again played the role which is somewhat goody, yet beautiful. Apart from the main stars we have Hong Kong superstar Simon Yam, who portrayed Chen. In the usual comedic role we have Oh Dal-Su, and as Zampano, rising to fame Kim Soo-Hyun . In the movie appeared even Shin Ha-Kyun. All the stars perfectly fit the characters and everyone gets a fair portion of screen time, because of that movie lasts 135min, which for some may be a downside, but it is worth it. The Thieves is a very good action movie with a really good story, there is no moment that is getting boring. The perfect movie for a lazy afternoon, full of action, funny dialogues, with very good characters. Nearly 13 million viewers in Korea, proves that Choi knows how to make a good action movie that will appeal to virtually anyone. It is a movie that I can honestly recommend .