Welcome back to Movie Recap. Today I'm gonna show you a 2012 South Korean heist film called,
The Thieves. Spoiler's ahead. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the video.
The movie begins with Chewing Gum and Yenicall, one half of a group of small-time criminals,
walking into the Leesung Gallery in South Korea. The group are currently working
together for an art heist. Their target is a valuable rare piece of art that is currently
locked up in a high-security vault that is only accessible to the Gallery Director.
The group is led by Popie, an expert cable guy. He is positioned outside
the art gallery building, and is assisted by Zampano. Inside, their other partners,
Chewing Gum and Yenicall are working on tricking the Gallery Director to gain access to the vault.
For the past five months, Yenicall has been seducing the gallery director.
Posing as his adoring girlfriend on the day of the heist, she introduces him to Chewing Gum,
who in turn is acting as her mother.
The team executes their elaborate ruse to get to their target artifact. Chewing Gum
leads the Gallery Director to the vault and disarms its security system from the inside.
Then Yenicall discreetly gains access to the vault through the building's exhaust system.
Popie and Zampano lower her through the roof using cable wires. Everything goes according
to the plan and the team successfully steals the art piece and casually walks away from the scene.
Celebrating their triumph, the team discusses their next project at Popie's place of business.
However, when the police arrive to question Popie about the recent robbery in the art gallery,
Popie decides it is unsafe for the team to continue their operations in South Korea.
They instead decide to accept a larger-scale
project led by a South Korean master thief living overseas named Macau Park.
Before Popie's team sets off to meet Macau Park in Hong Kong for their next operation,
he asks Yenicall to pick-up another team member who is just getting released from prison.
The latest member to join the team is called Pepsee, an experienced safe-cracker. Unbeknownst
to the rest of Popie's team, he, Pepsee, and Macau Park used to work together in the past.
In Hong Kong, Popie's team meets another Chinese heist team. Both the South Korean team and the
Chinese team discover they are going to be working together for Macau Park on their next mission.
The Chinese team consists of weapons experts Chen, Jonny, and Andrew,
and a Chinese safe-cracker Julie. In the beginning, tensions were high between the South
Korean and Chinese teams as neither trusted the other, for they are thieves afte rall.
Macau Park briefs the team about their target, a diamond necklace called the Tear of the Sun.
He further explains that the highly valuable piece of jewelry belongs to the ultra-rich Tiffany,
the mistress of a powerful crime lord that goes by the name Wei Hong.
The Chinese team expresses doubt about their upcoming mission upon hearing the
name Wei Hong. According to legend, no one knows what Wei Hong even looks like,
and he is known for murdering whoever offends him. Macau Park dangles the estimated value of
the Tear of the Sun, a whopping USD 20 million, to persuade them to agree to be part of his plan.
With everyone finally on board, the team starts planning the mission in the following days.
They talk to an anonymous informant who introduced herself as Tiffany's step-sister.
From her, the team learns that Tiffany stays in a high-security suite in the casino.
She assures the team that their target, the Tear of the Sun,
will be kept in one of the two safes located inside the private suite.
Over the next few days, the team does a complete reconnaissance of the casino
where the next mission will be held. Popie is in charge of observing the casino floor. Yenicall
and Zampano are working on gaining security access to the inside of the casino operations,
while Andrew makes contact with a casino worker to smuggle the team's weapons into the casino floor.
Macau Park gives a final briefing to the team's plan on the day of the heist after
the team's research and preparations has been completed. Chen and Chewing Gum will pose as
a Japanese couple that will keep Tiffany busy and occupied at the casino's gambling table.
Yenicall and Zampano will then infiltrate Tiffany's private suite through a window
to be able to safely open the door from the inside. After which, Popie, Pepsee,
and Julie will enter the suite, open the two safes and finally take the diamond.
While all this happens, Jonny and Andrew must infiltrate the casino's security room
and hold the guards hostage. From that point on,
the team will have exactly 10 minutes to pull everything off before the police arrive.
While Macau Park's plan is relatively straightforward, organizing two teams of
criminals to work together and carry out a single plan is much more complicated.
Both the Chinese and South Korean teams harbor mistrust of Macau Park. The Chinese team devise
an alternative plan to ignore the diamond target altogether, and instead focus on robbing
Tiffany at the casino floor after observing she carries large sums of cash whenever she gambles.
Meanwhile, it is further revealed that Macau Park's old teammates,
Popie and Pepsee have been fostering resentment towards him since their failed heist in the past.
They believe Macau Park betrayed them and ran off with the gold they all worked together to steal.
This time, Popie and Pepsee plan to betray Macau Park as a retaliation. Before the start of their
current mission, they procure a replica of the Tear of the Sun and intend to swap it
out for the real thing and run away together leaving Macau Park and everyone else behind.
Right before setting their plan in motion, through a series of flashbacks,
Julie is revealed to be an undercover police officer. Her own mission is to arrest and capture
the elusive crime lord Wei Hong. She infiltrated Macau Park's team to get closer to Wei Hong,
her training for safe-cracking in the police force has come in handy for her undercover mission.
In the evening, the team finally puts their plan in action. First up to the plate are Chen and
Chewing Gum. While posing as a Japanese couple to keep Tiffany playing at their casino table,
the two grow closer. They end up falling in love and spend the rest of the night together.
Next up to task are Zampano and Yenicall. Before parting ways, Zampano finally confesses
his feelings for Yenicall. She rebuffs his confession and focuses on the mission instead.
When Chen and Andrew successfully shuts off the casino's main powerline for a few moments,
Yenicall proceeds to break into Tiffany's private suite through the window.
She scales the side of the entire casino building supported by rapel cables devised by Zampano.
Once inside the suite, Yenicall overrides the door's sophisticated locking mechanism to let
Popie, Pepsee, and Julie in. Popie and Pepsee work on one safe while Julie works on the other.
The safe-cracking team work delicately to carefully open the safes without activating
the emergency lock to gain access to its contents, thinking the Tear of the Sun diamond is inside.
In the 10 minutes that the team is fulfilling their roles, Chen executes his alternative plan.
With the rest of the teams in their assigned places, the private suite and security rooms,
he declares a robbery on the casino floor and seizes Tiffany's cash.
When time finally runs out and the police start to arrive, the safe-cracking team is dismayed to
discover that neither of the safes in Tiffany's private suite contains the valuable diamond.
Needing to quickly escape, Popie instead grabs the cash in one of the safes before running off.
Back at the casino floor, Chen and Chewing Gum attempt to escape through the parking garage.
They are pursued by both the casino security and the police as they try
to flee with Tiffany's cash in hand. In the ensuing pursuit and gun battle,
Chen is shot by the police right as the couple drive away in a getaway car.
As Chen loses consciousness from driving, the car crashes, killing Chewing Gum in the wreckage.
In the commotion that ensues in the casino while the remaining team members try to escape, Zampano
does the ultimate sacrifice to save Yenicall from being caught by the police. He reveals
himself as part of the heist, and runs away leaving Yenicall free to escape the other way.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, Macau Park, disguised as an old janitor, steals the diamond from a safety
deposit box deep in the casino underground treasury. His entire plan is revealed to be a
mere distraction to keep the security and police off his trail as he, alone, steals the diamond.
Jonny and Yenicall are able to escape into the night, however, Popie, Pepsee, and Andrew are
caught by the police. While in the police van, a fight ensues that leads to the van crashing
into the pier. Popie and Andrew were able to jump off the vehicle before it plunges to the water,
but Popee is left trapped inside. Surprisingly, Macau Park shows up to rescue her from the water.
The next morning, Pepsee regroups with Popie, Yenicall, and Andrew.
The remaining team members agree to create a new alliance and take revenge on Macau Park's deceit.
They retrace their steps and figure out that their anonymous informant from before must
have been hired by Macau Park to trick them, too. They track her down and interrogate her.
The team finds out that Macau Park is back in South Korea,
and has arranged to sell the Tear of the Sun diamond back to Wei Hong. Through the informant,
they were able to track the safehouse where Macau Park is hiding the diamond.
While the team tries to recover the diamond, Macau Park addresses the team through the phone
and reveals that it was Popie who betrayed him and Pepsee four years
ago because he was in love with Pepsee. He adds that Popie's jealousy of Pepsee
and Macau Park's blossoming romance in the past soured their partnership.
The revelation from Macau Park drives a wedge among the remaining team members.
Pepsee walks away from the plan, feeling betrayed yet again. Yenicall successfully
locates the diamond and replaces it with a fake before leaving Macau Park's apartment.
When Macau Park finally meets with the elusive Wei Hong to sell the Tear of the Sun, he confesses
his real motive to lure the crime lord to his house is revenge. Through another flashback,
it is revealed that Wei Hong killed Macau Park's father. But since Popie's team has sabotaged Macau
Park's plan he is forced to flee when Wei Hong's men discover the diamond to be fake.
When the SWAT and the police raid Wei Hong and Macau Park's meeting place,
several gun-fights ensue. In the chaos, Yenicall and Popie attempt to escape while also trying to
outwit each other. Popie tries to run away with the diamond, but Yenicall has swindled him, too.
As a true thief, Yenicall gave Popie another fake diamond before escaping with the real one herself.
Pepsee, finally acknowledging that she still has feelings for Macau Park,
waits for him at the Busan Pier. When she finally spots him from across the room,
the lovers appear to finally be able to reunite. But as it turns out,
Wei Hong also arrives at the pier at the same time, intending to kill Macau Park.
Luckily, Julie has also followed the two wanted criminals to the pier.
As Wei Hong fires multiple shots at Macau Park, Julie finally discovers his identity
and is able to subdue him. In the mayhem of the gunfight at the pier,
Macau Park was able to surreptitiously escape, leaving Pepsee alone once again.
Feeling dejected, Pepsee is determined to give it all up and start a new life somewhere else.
She returns to Popie's old office one last time to pick up the last of her things.
When she finally opens the trunk of her old car, she discovers Macau Park's parting gift,
all the gold from their heist four years ago.
Before Pepsee could leave, she learns that Yenicall is in Hong Kong trying
to find a buyer for the Tear of the Sun diamond. Pepsee resolves to take
back the diamond one last time, it will be her only connection to Macau Park.
Pepsee finds Yenicall in Hong Kong and tries to make contact. While waiting for Yenicall, Pepsee
receives an anonymous call. Recognizing Macau Park's voice on the other end, Pepsee smiles.
The movie ends with Macau Park promising Pepsee that they will reunite again.
As the call ends, Pepsee discovers Macau Park has succeeded in
infiltrating Yenicall's hotel room and has recovered the diamond for himself.