Review | Netflix movie review – The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure sees Han Hyo-joo and Kang Ha-neul search for gold in a chaotic high-seas adventure
- Swarthy pirates join a gang of vicious bandits to find a cache of gold in director Kim Jeong-hoon’s high-seas adventure starring Han Hyo-joo and Kang Ha-neul
- A melee of introductions, betrayals, flashbacks and dream sequences make for a disorienting first half, but it builds to an entertaining, if ludicrous climax
2.5/5 stars
A band of swarthy pirates must collude with a gang of vicious bandits to find a cache of gold in Kim Jeong-hoon’s high-seas adventure The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure.
The biggest domestic box office hit of 2022 in South Korea so far, the film debuted in cinemas over the Lunar New Year holiday, and launches this month on Netflix.
Originally planned as a direct sequel to 2014’s The Pirates, the project ran aground after original stars Son Ye-jin and Kim Nam-gil jumped ship. The script was hastily rewritten and the movie subsequently recast to tell a brand new story, and filming finally began in the summer of 2020.
The film’s release also suffered a pandemic-induced setback, and was delayed from autumn 2021’s Chuseok festival.
The scars of such a tumultuous production are evident on screen, particularly in the film’s chaotic and sometimes disorienting first half. The scene is set through a melee of introductions, betrayals, flashbacks and dream sequences, unleashed at breakneck speed in poorly annotated fashion.
