New World tries to expand the genre with nods to The Godfather but can't escape the over-the-top acting, expansive violence and overdone story typical of Seoul-made crime dramas.

"New World" is both less bloody and more thoughtful than most of its genre, the shifting-alliances plot becoming more engrossing as it progresses.

No one in American movies has made a crime opera this good in years.

There's the nagging feeling that there's nothing innately new and fresh about where [director Park Hoon-jung] takes the narrative.