The plot points, characters and situations of the Korean thriller “A Man of Reason” are so familiar that I had to check many times to ensure I haven’t reviewed this before.

Seems to me I’ve seen versions of this ex-con tries to live “a peaceful life” after prison story in multiple languages, from several different gang cultures. The Korean ex-con/boxer thriller “The Wild” is a recent example.

Over-familiarity is probably the chief shortcoming of director, star and co-writer Jung Woo-sung‘s simple push-a-violent-man-to-vengeance thriller. The action beats are superb, the supporting cast properly colorful and mostly hateful. It’s the story and the drab archetypal lead character which let it down.

Jung, of “Hunt,” “Beasts Clawing at Straws” and the “Steel Rain” movies, makes his directing debut an Eastwood-ish star vehicle, playing a man-of-violence and very few words.

But all Choi Soo-hyeok wants, on getting out of the joint, is his old BMW M5 and to be left in peace to maybe re-connect with an old flame (Elijah Lee). Fat chance.

First, the punk aide to the big boss, Kang (Kim Jun-han) gives him grief, and threats. And when Choi finally talks to The Chairman himself (Park Sung-woong), a payoff and brusque dismissal is all his soft-spoken “You won’t have to worry about me any more” assurances (in Korean with subtitles) earn him.

The mob is now Kaiser Development Group. As they’re still a tad rough with the folks whose land they want to redevelop, the last thing they need is an ex-con, on the loose and loosely affiliated with their doings, a big crooked part of their history.

Choi has just enough time to try and renew things with Min-seo (Lee), who is raising their daughter, when we figure out she’s sick and he can’t save her or their child from Kang’s minions.

Here’s a place where this formulaic “Why won’t you DIE already?” tale goes very right. Kim Nam-gi and Park Yoo-na are perfect as a loving couple of punkish hired killers, pitiless — deranged bomb-throwing, nailgun-shooting motorcycle sociopaths, determined to collect that bounty on Choi.

They end up holding his daughter hostage, so you can almost guess the rest.

There’s chase or two, some parkour, a beast of a mob minion who must be bested, savage brawls and a bit of business involving one 2001 BMW and a lot of gangsters masquerading as businessmen and thus having no gun to stop the car that trashes their business HQ’s lobby and kills or injures most of their ranks doing donuts.

Jung stoically-underplays his anti-hero, but doesn’t wholly make the sale as a man of violence reluctant to return to it. The character’s world-weariness and cynicism about the business he left has to be simply accepted at face value.

But the violence is cleverly-staged and brutally-played, with Kim landing laughs with his Joker-like cackle.

If this script had found just one surprise to serve up as a plot twist, it’d be a better or at least different movie, which is all one can reasonably hope for when the story’s as timeworn as “A Man of Reason.”

Rating: unrated, violence, profanity

Cast: Jung Woo-sung, Kim Nam-gil, Elijah Lee, Park Yoo-na, Park Sung-woong and Kim Jun-han

Credits: Directed by Jung Woo-sung, scripted by Jung Hae-sin and Jung Woo-sung. An Epic release.

Running time: 1:39