‘Officer Black Belt’ Review: Karate Cop Kicks The Crap Out Of Child Predators…The Movie

Jacob Smith |

Jan 14, 2025

Kim Woo-bin in Officer Black Belt (2024)

Here’s a pitch for a movie Hollywood won’t make in 2025: A karate champion decides to make a difference in his community by joining the police force and becoming a probation officer who hunts down and kicks the everloving crap out of child predators in his area.

A talented martial artist who can’t walk past a person in need unites with a probation officer to fight and prevent crime as a martial arts officer.

Imagine if someone pitched this movie, but it was set in the Laurel Cayon neighborhood of Los Angeles. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that this is a film that did not come out of the traditional Hollywood studios but from the country of South Korea, which recently came out of martial law for all of two hours.

Credit: Lee Sang-woo (Lee Hae-young) and Lee Jeong-do (Kim Woo-bin) in Officer Black Belt (2024), Netflix

When it comes to black comedy, the way that Hollywood presents the genre is by making light of horrific situations such as death and sexual assault. In Hollywood’s eyes, comedy comes from making light of serious situations to the point where it feels like they are going out of their way to either belittle them or reveal their own evil nature.

That is not the case with the latest Netflix film, Officer Black Belt, a film that labels itself a black action comedy yet does the complete opposite of what American screenwriters do with their subject matter. Instead of belittling the gravity of the situation, Officer Black Belt showcases it in a way that’s far more gripping for the viewing audience.

Officer Black Belt is the story of a young man named Lee Jung-do, a skilled martial artist with several black belts in taekwondo, kendo, and judo. Instead of becoming the greatest mixed martial artist that South Korea has ever seen, Lee spends most of his time playing online games with his small group of friends as he passes the days along.

One day Lee helps a probation officer named Kim Sun-min capture a violent sex offender in the neighborhood, and Kim decides to recommend Lee for a job within the force. Lee is put on a task force that tracks sex offenders to the proximity of their ankle bracelets. This allows them to hunt down the violent sex criminals whenever they step out of line with their probation terms, making Lee a hero in his community.

However, when a well-known sex offender is released back onto the streets, Lee finds himself biting off far more than he can chew when the criminal underbelly seeks to teach him a lesson about stepping into other people’s businesses when those businesses evolve child trafficking and prostitution.

Officer Black Belt is a brilliant film that is part buddy cop comedy movie, with the laughs being at the expense of the perverted members of the city. On the flip side, the film excels at being a gripping drama without stepping on the toes of either genre.

Lee’s nonchalant attitude towards the criminals gives him the ability to diffuse a serious situation until it’s time for the film to get serious. Lee shows off his intelligence as well as his ability to strategize a dicey situation to where he is always one step ahead of the perp.

In his personal life, Lee spends his time with his friends, either playing online games or eating at restaurants. This gives the film a strong sense of humanity that many dark comedies removed from their films. The film also doesn’t belittle our protagonist for being a gamer nor does it mock his friends who show off their usefulness in tough scenarios later in the movie.

Kim Woo-bin in *Officer Black Belt* (2024), Netflix

When it’s time to get serious, Lee shifts gears and relies on his established skills, proving he is as great of a hand-to-hand threat as his adversaries. The shift change in the film also allows our character to realize the magnitude of the job that he has.

Lee is forced to reckon with the gravity of the situation more as those close to him begin to get hurt. When this realization hits, his position becomes a reality, and the character shifts gears — which makes the film feel more real than other movies that opt for an absurdist approach that tends to undercut and destroy the tone of the film.

With the high praise the film’s writing deserves, Officer Black Belt is highly entertaining while addressing sexual crimes against children along with abuse of women and girls. It is a film that gives hope for justice, law, and order, which is why it was made in South Korea and not America.

Officer Black Belt is one of 2024’s best films.