Absurd on its surface and dark hearted to say the least, “Officer Black Belt” is a violent thriller that flirts with being a Korean action comedy.

If you can get by the murderers, rapists and many child molesters brought to rough (almost) justice in between the entertaining brawls and “cool” moments, this might have lived up to it comical title and set-up.

Model-turned-actor Kim Woo-bin plays Lee Jung-do, a young adrenalin junky who throws himself into judo, taekwondo and kendo when he isn’t making deliveries for his dad’s chicken restaurant and hanging with his gaming and gadget obsessed nerd pals — Moisture, Earthworm and Screenwriter.

No, lady friends don’t fit into their picture.

His voiced-over credo about life choices is “Is it something I’ll have fun doing?”

He has fun intervening when a body armored but unarmed “martial arts officer” for the parole department is nearly killed by an ankle-braceleted ex-con. That’s how that department and Director Kim (Lee Hae-Young) come to recruit him.

Can he fill in while that injured parole officer is recovering? No police training, no department vetting. His assorted black belts are all the qualification he needs to be put on the street rounding up miscreants who are violating their parole.

He might be warned “He’s got a knife” about this convicted killer or child rapist. Lee’s quick to quip “Don’t you worry about that,” in Korean with English subtitles.

The idea is that the parole dept. wants to round up violators in non-violent, or at least non-lethal ways.

There are moments of “solid police work” and scenes where we see a seemingly overly-compassionate system (The “agenda” of the script?) at work as Director Kim de-escalates confrontations that Lee Jong-do would rather finish with a foot to the crotch.

But mainly this is a seriously violent, semi-serious treatment of assorted serious subjects.

A “tell” comes early on, when a violent parolee is interrupted, mid-rape, and beaten into submission. He is cuffed…and charged with “resisting” an officer and breaking parole. The woman he was RAPING? The screenwriter forgets all about her, as do the parole officers.

Lee Jung-do comes to see himself as a defender of children as he battles bigger and bigger offenders (Kim Sung Kyun plays the most hulking of these) in bigger and bigger mobs.

Grim, organized child sex conspiracies are detected, but the nerd trio will play a part in Officer Black Belt’s rise to the challenge.

Kim Woo-bin is a charismatic lead and Kim Sung Kyun an equally charismatic foe. But the clashing tones and slipshod plotting between the fights does Jason Kim’s thriller in. A couple of early laughs and a few brutally “cool” brawls are all there is to recommend it.

Rating: TV-MA, violence, child sexual assault subject matter

Cast: Kim Woo-bin, Kim Sung Kyun and Lee Hae Young

Credits: Scripted and directed by Kim Joo-hwan (Jason Kim). A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:48