“The Match” Theatrical Poster

Director: Kim Hyung-Joo
Cast: Lee Byung-Hun, Yoo Ah-In, Ko Chang-Seok, Hyun Bong-Sik, Moon Jeong-Hee, Jo Woo-Jin, Kim Kang-Hoon
Running Time: 115 min.

By Paul Bramhall

More than 10 years ago I reviewed a Korean movie called The Divine Move, which at one point I described as consisting of “an abundance of scenes with characters playing Go, and then beating the living daylights out of each other”, the implication being that the latter made the former scenes more palatable. While I’m now slightly older, it’s debatable if I’m any wiser, so when I heard there was going to be a movie about 2 of Koreas most famous Go players – Cho Hun-hyun, and his student turned rival Lee Chang-ho – it didn’t necessarily spark that much interest.

The movie in question was The Match, and my lack of interest quickly changed when it was revealed that Lee Byung-hun (The Man Standing Next, Ashfall) had been cast as Hun-hyun, an actor who’s remained someone I’ve religiously watched anything they appear in since the early 2000’s. The casting announcement was followed by Yoo Ah-in (Burning, Veteran) being attached to play Chang-ho, and suddenly my curiosity was piqued. As it was, it would stay piqued for a while, since its original release date of 2023 was ultimately pushed out to 2025, the result of Ah-in being charged with illegal drug usage in October 2023.

While similar activity in Hollywood would be frowned upon, in Korea it’s a whole other level, with such offences usually resulting in permanent banishment from the entertainment industry. Ah-in was recast for the 2^nd season of Hellbound, his scenes in the drama Goodbye Earth were practically all removed, and both of the completed movies he starred in – Hi-Five and The Match – were placed indefinitely on the shelf. Thankfully, after being released from prison following completion of a five month sentence in February 2025, it seems like the studios are feeling a little more at ease to put the movies out there that have Ah-in’s name attached to them, with both Hi.5 and The Match finally given a release in May (albeit with a noticeable lack of any publicity). Of course if you’re reading this in 2035 rather than 2025 all of this will be completely superfluous, but reviews aren’t anything if not products of the time they’re written.

Indeed there’s a certain feeling of being displaced in time watching Ah-in on the screen in 2025. His last role was in 2022’s Seoul Vibe, one of the worst Korean movies of the 21^st century, so to go back to a role that really left an impression you have to look to 2020’s Voice of Silence, a whole 5 years ago. Thankfully The Match is a production that knows how to utilize his talents, and if it does turn out to be his last role, it’s at least a worthy one. The plot is, by its nature, more compelling due to the fact it’s based on a true story. Cho Hun-hyun spent the 1970’s dominating the sport of Go, and in 1984 he took the 9-year-old Lee Chang-ho under his wing as a live-in student. The opportunity to learn from the best saw him become professional only a couple of years later, and in 1989 the then 14-year-old Chang-ho met his teacher in the final of the 29^th Chaegowi, coming out the victor and launching a year’s long teacher-student rivalry.

The plot focuses on Byung-hun’s meeting with his to-be student when he’s still a boisterous and boastful kid growing up in Jeonju, played by Kim Kang-hoon (Metamorphosis, Exit), who the locals believe to be a Go prodigy. When Byun-hun sits down with Kang-hoon for a game he ultimately walks away unimpressed, but when the latter solves a question Byung-hun had posed before leaving, it leads him to rethink his decision. It’s a nuance in the world of Go that would be lost on those unfamiliar with the culture surrounding the game, but what made the decision for Hun-hyun to start teaching Chang-ho such an unusual one was that Hun-hyun was still at the top of his game, whereas normally a teacher would take on a student when they’ve already retired. Of course it’s also that same decision that led to one of the most unique rivalries in any sport, with teacher and student going head-to-head for close to 15 years.

The Match is the sophomore directorial feature of Kim Hyeong-joo, who debuted as a director with 2017’s The Sherrif in Town, and he already shows an assured hand through his ability to make the games of Go (and there’s a lot of them!) compelling enough for audiences to be invested. CGI is occasionally used to effectively present the stones being placed on the board one by one in quick succession, accelerating the outcome of the game, but without compromising the performance of the actors. Other times the camera finds unique ways to frame the players, such as filming from underneath a transparent board, so that it’s possible to see the players face between the stones. At the heart of it though, we’re still watching 2 people play a game of Go, and there are no acid spraying tables that douse the loser like in The Divine Move 2: The Wrathful to liven things up, so to that end audience mileage may well vary.

More than the game itself though, The Match feels like it belongs to Lee Byung-hun, his character being one who goes from having his world shattered, to one who’s able to pick himself back up and get back in the game. Like all of the best sporting dramas, it’s the story of human resilience, and even if a game of Go may not get the adrenaline pumping like a game of soccer (Dream), table tennis (As One), or even baseball (YMCA Baseball Team), the principle remains the same. Where Hyeong-joo gets it right is the mix of drama between the 2 leads, and the way it’s framed in such a way that allows for the games of Go to become extensions of that drama. There’s a tangible sense of awkwardness when Ah-in first beats Byung-hun, then they have to return to living under the same roof together, the live-in student having now beaten the very person who’s provided for them since they were a kid. The change in dynamic is tangible.

The plot structure isn’t flawless though, admittedly suffering from a common trait in Korean cinema, in which if it’s known a character is going to face adversity later on, the time spent portraying life prior comes across as overly saccharine. In the early scenes it feels like everyone is a little too cheerful and amicable, creating a somewhat detached feeling from reality, almost as if the future hardships are being foreshadowed with a sledgehammer because, really, can life feel this breezy and pleasant!? I’m not sure I have the answer of how to do it better (and I guess if I did, I’d be directing movies rather than reviewing them), but when the emotions don’t feel authentic, it makes it difficult to relate to the characters beyond two dimensional caricatures. I distinctly remember Lee Chung-hyun’s 2020 horror The Call suffering from the same issue when it had to portray scenes where essentially ‘life is good’.

Overall though this is a minor gripe in what feels like one of the most distinctively Korean movies to grace the screen for a while. From the smoke-filled Go rooms to the plastic tent pocha snack stalls, it’s perhaps by virtue of it being about the game of Go that The Match refuses to rush itself, instead adamantly sticking to its own good-natured lane. The supporting cast are also stellar, with Moon Jeong-hee (Hide and Seek, Deranged) as Byung-hun’s wife who finds herself in a tricky situation under her own roof, and Jo Woo-jin (Harbin, Kingmaker) as a fellow Go competitor who befriends both Byung-hun and Ah-in at different moments in their journeys.

The closing scenes reveal that both Cho Hun-hyun and Lee Chang-ho remain active in Go competitions to this day (as well as showing photos that reflect just how much the casting of Byung-hun and Ah-in nailed their appearances), a reassuring coda to know they’re still doing what they love. Quietly unassuming, The Match is one of those movies that gradually pulls you in without you even realising, but by the time the end credits roll, you’re glad it did.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7.5/10

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“Concrete Utopia” Theatrical Poster

Directed: Uhm Tae-Hwa
Cast: Lee Byung-Hun, Park Seo-Jun, Park Bo-Young, Kim Sun-Young, Kim Do-Yoon, Park Ji-Hu, Lee Seo-Hwan, Kang Ae-Shim, Lee Hyo-Je, Lee Sun-Hee
Running Time: 129 min.

By Will McGuire

Concrete Utopia, South Korea’s nomination for Best Foreign Feature at the upcoming Academy Awards, is a tense thriller, a particularly honest class commentary, a leap forward for special effects work in the Korean cinema, and twenty minutes too long. It feels extremely reminiscent of two previous Korean crossover hits: Parasite and Snowpiercer. While the film doesn’t quite come up to the level of excellence of those two films, it is eminently worth watching and discussing in this space.

Concrete Utopia is a post-apocalyptic thriller where an unexplained cataclysm hollows out and destroys Seoul except for a single apartment complex in the city center. As is common in films like this, the survivors form a society of their own until the tensions within the new society outpace the struggles from outside. This is not a unique premise: several beloved George Romero films and HBO’s The Last of Us are working much the same ground, but the narrative advantage this film has over most works of its type is that while those stories often depict new societies that have evolved out of the enforced cruelty and prejudice of the world we live in, Concrete Utopia depicts the road to Hell being paved by the best intentions, one seemingly reasonable decision at a time.

Director Um Tae-hwa combines delicious suspense with slow burning rage as issues of immigration, resource scarcity, geopolitical conflict, and sustainability all find analogues in the claustrophobic outpost of Hwang Gung Apartments. Ordinary salarymen become increasingly cruel as conditions worsen and options narrow, but what’s subversive and interesting about the piece is that we can understand the callousness as a defense mechanism: the early days of the catastrophe hardened these people as generosity became a complication to survival.

Lee Byung-hun (I Saw the Devil, A Bittersweet Life) is excellent as Yeong-Tak, the man elected leader of the residents in the early days of the crisis. What begins as put upon stoicism in the face of constant catastrophe gradually morphs into silent menace as we learn more about what Yeong-Tak was doing before the crisis. He serves as an interesting mirror to Min-seong played by Park Seo-jun (Parasite): as we watch seemingly ordinary people reduced to their basic instincts he’s a man comfortable with violence and used to the world stepping on him, suddenly thrust into a role of adoration and leadership and secretly waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under him.

Where Concrete Utopia gets extremely interesting is its commentary of the relationship between religion, totalistic politics, and violence. The third act of the film depicts the Apartments’ descent into political violence against outsiders, designated “cockroaches”, with strong Judeo-Christian visual allegory: one of the Beatitudes is depicted as a family is led out for execution, doomed apartments are marked for raid with red paint in a visual callback to the Tenth Plague of Egypt from Exodus. This is mixed with public penance rituals for residents that are taken directly from Maoism, and political strategy that feels like an analogue for Stalinism.

I still keep coming back to the film’s final moments of cold comfort where a stained glass window and a moment of respite offer us a little hope that we can escape the cycle of resentment and violence that scarcity imposes upon us. That through faith in ourselves and our fellow man, we might be able to build a habitat of sanity for ourselves and our loved ones. Concrete Utopia is thunderous in its diagnosis of the problem, but merely whispers its prescription and all the while it denies the audience the solace of easy rationalizations and condemnations.

Will McGuire’s Rating: 7.5/10

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“Emergency Declaration” Theatrical Poster

Director: Han Jae-Rim
Cast: Song Kang-Ho, Lee Byung-Hun, Jeon Do-Yeon, Kim Nam-Gil, Im Si-Wan, Kim So-Jin, Park Hae-Joon, Kim Bo-Min, Hyun Bong-Sik, Seol In-A, Lee Yeol-Eum
Running Time: 141 min.

By Paul Bramhall 

The disaster movie has become something of a regular fixture in Korean cinema over the last 15 years. We’ve had colossal tidal waves in 2009’s Haeundae, towering infernos in 2012’s The Tower, nuclear meltdowns in 2016’s Pandora, and most recently the threat of unthinkable volcanic destruction in 2019’s Ashfall. Understandably, the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged 2020 and 2021 has seen film goers appetite for the disaster genre on the wane, so 2022’s Emergency Declaration hopes to recapture audiences fondness for big budget chaos by taking it to the skies.

How much sense that makes will likely depend on audiences willingness to separate fiction from reality. With a story that involves a disgruntled lab worker releasing a highly contagious virus on a packed flight to Hawaii, with so much talk of how easy a virus can spread in the confined environment, it may not exactly be what everyone wants to see as the world begins to re-open to travel. Of course everything is relative, so ultimately such concerns will likely only apply to those watching Emergency Declaration at the time of its release. What can’t be argued though is that director Han Jae-rim (The King, The Face Reader) has brought onboard an all-star heavyweight cast, and chances are many will likely check out Emergency Declaration just to see some of the biggest names in Korean cinema onscreen together.

Lee Byung-hun (A Single Rider, Inside Men) and Kim Bo-min (Miss Baek, The Negotiation) play a father and daughter immigrating to the U.S. Kim Nam-gil (The Shameless, Memoir of a Murderer) plays the pilot, and Kim So-jin (The Man Standing Next, The Divine Move) the head of the cabin crew. We get Song Kang-ho (Broker, Parasite) on the ground as the chief of police, Jeon Do-yeon (Beasts Clawing at Straws, Memories of the Sword) as the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Park Hae-joon (The 8^th Night, Bring Me Home) as one of her aides. The cast is so stacked that an actress like Moon Sook (Svaha: The Sixth Finger, Keys to the Heart) plays a passenger who doesn’t get a single line. If one thing Korean cinema has proven through the years though, it’s that even the most talented actors in front of the camera can’t make a movie work if the talent behind it is lacking.

Surprisingly, Emergency Declaration initially subverts expectations of the kind of movie audiences will have in mind. With a tone that more closely resembles a dark thriller than a disaster flick, we first meet Im Si-wan (The Merciless, The Attorney) as the mentally disturbed antagonist pacing the departures hall of Incheon Airport. Smartly dressed and carrying himself with a deceptively calm demeanour, he makes for a compelling presence, and the idea of him actually boarding a plane instils a fitting sense of dread. When the investigation on the ground uncovers a grizzly murder involving a virus that causes “burst veins and internal bleeding”, proceedings dramatically escalate when a passenger’s eyeball graphically bursts in the inflight toilet, followed by him vomiting blood all over the aisle. Combined with the muted soundtrack, the scenes almost create a horror movie atmosphere as panic begins to creep in amongst those onboard.

Director Jae-rim continues to resist the traditional bombastic nature we’ve come to associate with the disaster genre, using the soundtrack to create dread rather than excitement, with a highlight being a sequence when the flight goes into freefall. A technically outstanding sequence that sees the camera remain in the cabin as the plane spins out of control, the chaos of what plays out onscreen is captured against a foreboding bass heavy drone, making the sight of bodies being mercilessly flung around feel legitimately terrifying. To go into any further detail involving Si-wan’s character would be going into spoiler territory, but I can only theorise that after showing the first hour of footage to the studio executives, Jae-rim’s mix of inflight thriller and grounded police procedural wasn’t well received. Where are the histrionics, the tear inducing death scenes, the blatant tugs at the heartstrings!?

So it is, the next 80+ minutes (yes, it’s over 140 minutes long) becomes a completely different movie all together, comprising of some of the most relentlessly contrived melodrama, blatantly obvious attempts at emotional manipulation, and fatigue inducing heroic speeches I’ve ever bore witness to. All of the good will earned from the initial hour becomes a distant memory long before the end credits, as Emergency Declaration turns itself into one of the most unconvincing attempts to appeal to a mass audience you’re likely to see this year. The first sign of trouble comes when we learn Lee Byung-hun’s character was once a “famous pilot”, one who now has a fear of flying after some unknown traumatic incident, an incident that somehow has a connection to Kim Nam-gil’s pilot. What are the chances!? What could it be!? If you’ve ever watched even the laziest Korean daytime TV drama, chances are you’re going to guess correctly.

All of that restrained bombast that initially worked so well is likewise thrown out of the window, and if anything goes to such an opposite extreme that it becomes impossible to take seriously. Things get so absurd that at one point the plane is being shot at by fighter jets from the Japan Defence Force, part of a sequence that in one scene its hilariously implied that those pesky Japs could still be willing to adopt kamikaze tactics. I honestly laughed. Just to make sure real-world relations don’t deteriorate any further, we then have to watch a news broadcast immediately after in which the Japanese government explains their actions and wishes the Koreans well.

The bloated runtime is padded out further by a meaningless political subplot that see protestors not wanting the plane to land (in case the virus gets into the community), and there’s a whole ‘humble public servants just doing their job vs. big pharma’ plot thread that’s handled with all the subtlety of a brick. Quite how the likes of Jeon Do-yeon got roped into this is beyond me, as her character suffers from some of the scripts most unintentionally laughable lines. At one point the evil western foreigner who owns the pharmaceutical company demands to know who she is, to which she answers in English in what’s supposed to be a moment of defiance – “I’m the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport.” Right, that kind of line may work for Batman, but it doesn’t really have the same impact for overly long government job titles.

Even the always reliable Song Kang-ho isn’t able to escape the silliness, hatching a plan to allow the plane to land that has to be one of the stupidest plot devices to grace any disaster movie. Without going into detail, the only plus side is that it allows a final scene that pays homage to the final scene of Drunken Master 2, only in Emergency Declaration the amusement isn’t intentional. Needless to say, by the end of the punishing runtime I was left equal parts exhausted and exasperated, and even now I feel unsure of just how a movie that started off so promisingly could descend into what I’d have to say is one of the worst Korean movies I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a lot).

If there’s any highlight from the latter part of Emergency Declaration, then it actually comes in the form of a brief car chase that’s shot entirely through the unique perspective of the pursuing vehicles windshield, ending in said vehicle involved in a crash that flips it upside down. Clearly done for real by stuntmen, it’s an all too brief highlight that ironically has nothing to do with character moments or the actual plot. Surrounding it is a mess of a movie that feels like it sabotages itself in the worst possible way. With melodramatic scenes that are so self-serious they border on satire, needlessly protracted speeches that feel like they’ll never end, and even a montage of final video calls to loved ones, Emergency Declaration is an important lesson on just how disastrous commercial filmmaking can be in the wrong hands. Do yourself a favour, and just watch Liam Neeson in Non-Stop instead.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 2.5/10

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“Ashfall” Theatrical Poster

Director: Lee Hae-Jun
Co-director: Kim Byung-Seo
Cast: Lee Byung-Hun, Ha Jung-Woo, Ma Dong-Seok, Jeon Hye-Jin, Bae Suzy, Lee Sang-Won
Running Time: 130 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Korean cinema went for the disaster movie double in 2019, with the low-key Exit offering up a brisk comedic take on the genre, one that saw the residents of Seoul looking to escape a steadily rising cloud of poisonous gas. On the other hand, Ashfall opted for the more traditional approach to the disaster epic, complete with the bombast of having the entire Korean peninsula threatened by the eruption of the long dormant Baekdu Mountain (which is notably the literal translation of the Korean title) in North Korea. If anything, the volcano disaster movie is certainly ripe to be re-visited, coming more than 20 years since Hollywood dabbled with the same volcanic threats in 1997’s double whammy of Dante’s Peak and Volcano.

Almost as if to say that such an impending disaster wouldn’t be enough for one director to handle, Ashfall comes with two. Sharing directorial duties are Kim Byeong-seo and Lee Hae-joon, and while neither are known primarily as directors, they’re also no strangers to the film industry. Byeong-seo is an established cinematographer, in recent years lensing the likes of Take Point and the Along With the Gods flicks. Ashfall marks his sophomore feature in the director’s chair, after also co-helming 2013’s Korean remake of Hong Kong’s Eye in the Sky – Cold Eyes – alongside Cho Ui-seok. Hae-joon is mainly known as a scriptwriter, having contributed his talents to everything from Arahan to the Korean remake of Japan’s Golden Slumber. Ashfall marks his 4^th outing as a director, having helmed 2006’s Like a Virgin (which he co-directed with Lee Hae-yeong), 2009’s Castaway on the Moon, and 2014’s My Dictator.

Perhaps most importantly though, both have worked together before, with Byeong-seo being the cinematographer on both of Hae-joon’s solo directorial outings, Castaway on the Moon and My Dictator. Backed by Korea’s leading visual effects house, Dexter, Ashfall gets straight down to business as we meet a bomb disposal expert, played by Ha Jung-woo (Tunnel, The Handmaiden), partaking in a scene that will feel familiar to anyone who’s seen Hong Kong’s Shockwave from a couple of years prior. The initial few minutes play almost like a checklist of every disaster movie character cliché in the book – it’s Jung-woo’s last job and he’s due to be discharged that same day, plus his wife is heavily pregnant (and just to top it off, he’s forgotten about their latest check-up at the hospital). Thankfully before any broader cinema cliches can be heaped on, Jung-woo’s drive to the hospital is disturbed by a powerful earthquake that hits Seoul.

It’s a kinetic sequence that has Jung-woo both out-driving and out-running a cityscape that begins to literally crumble all around him (it turns out Seoul doesn’t have too many structurally sound buildings if an earthquake hits), only undone by some variable visual effects that sometimes don’t look fully rendered. As the title indicates, it’s soon identified that the earthquake was caused by Baekdu Mountain erupting, and the government are forced to turn to an American-Korean geologist for help, one whose theories about a potential eruption have never been taken seriously. 

Played by a cast against type Ma Dong-seok (he doesn’t throw a single punch!), he brings a likeable bumbling charm to his character, one who just wants to head back to the U.S. His theory which has been shunned for so long involves the fact that the first eruption is just a small one, with an even bigger one on the way, and the only way to mitigate it is to set off a nuclear-powered bomb in one of the underground mines close to the mountain. The idea is that the bomb would blow up the largest volcanic chamber before it causes a mega eruption, dissipating the pressure inside, and averting disaster. But with the first eruption already done, the clock is ticking, so the main focus becomes about a reluctant Ha Jung-woo leading his team into North Korea to sneakily acquire a nuclear-powered bomb, set it off in a mine, and attempt to get back to the South in one piece. The Dirty Dozen had it easy! 

It’s when Ashfall turns into a ‘men on a mission’ movie, which it doesn’t take long to do, that it begins to truly entertain. The South Korean government have a double agent in the North played by Lee Byung-hun (The Man Standing Next, A Single Rider) who knows all of the key locations, however his cover has been blown and he’s being kept in a prison, the fact he’s still alive after being exposed indicating that he may no longer be able to be trusted. But with no other choice than to work with him, Jung-woo and his teams first job is to break Byung-hun out and convince him to help them on their mission. More so than any of the special effects, the greatest strength Ashfall has going for it is the chemistry between Jung-woo and Byung-hun. As 2 of Korea’s biggest stars when it comes to leading men, and the first time for them to share the screen together, the constantly simmering tension between the pair is never less than entertaining. 

It also results in Ashfall feeling more like an action movie than a disaster flick for most of its runtime, with only the occasional cutaway to Dong-seok’s character typing away in front of a monitor, attempting to increase his plan’s chance of success to be more than 3%, acting as a reminder of what’s at stake. What it does have in common with the disaster genre though is an impressive cast. Outside of the key trio of Jung-woo, Byung-hun, and Dong-seok, it’s Bae Suzy (The Sound of a Flower, Architecture 101) who has the most to do as Jung-woo’s pregnant wife. Although her range is rather limited, luckily her role here is largely relegated to one of damsel in distress – whether it’s staying afloat after a tsunami engulfs the Han River, or attempting to evacuate in a surging crowd – the sense of danger remains palpable due to circumstance rather than her performance.

If anything I only wish we saw more of Jeon Do-yeon (Beasts Clawing at Straws, The Shameless), who clocks in barely 5 minutes screen time cameoing as Byung-hun’s drug addled wife. Re-uniting with Byung-hun after their roles together in the underwhelming Memories of the Sword and underseen The Harmonium in My Memory, there’s something appealing about the pairing of them in a disaster flick. Somebody must have thought the same thing, as she’ll have a more prominent role opposite Byung-hun in Emergency Declaration, an aviation disaster movie that’s set to be released this year. Other notable names onboard for the ride include Jeon Hye-jin (The Beast, The Merciless) as a government official, the gravelly voiced Lee Kyung-young (Monstrum, The Prison) as a military general, and Choi Kwang-il (Inseparable Bros, Seven Years of Night) as the president.

There’s a certain cynicism towards the U.S. once their military forcefully enter the picture, a tone which has become increasingly prevalent in Korean cinema since the Trump era. There’s a similar feel in Steel Rain, and like there in Ashfall it once again comes down to the South and North working together to solve a problem, with American intervention portrayed as a hinderance rather than a help. It’s an interesting shift in attitude towards their presence on the Korean peninsula, one that’s come through particularly strongly in recent years, and it’ll be interesting to see if the approach continues post-Trump. Unfortunately Dong-seok is left with a clunker of a line at the end, when his U.S. loving character returns to Korea a few years later, and states that he thinks he’ll settle there. I’m sure it went down well locally though. 

While bookended with typical disaster movie genre tropes and cliched scripting, the rollicking number of daring escapes, shootouts, vehicular chases, and volcanic mayhem that takes place in-between serve to make Ashfall an entertaining time at the movies. With Ha Jung-woo and Lee Byung-hun anchoring proceedings, their combined screen presence means the special effects work (which improves significantly from the initial scene) never overshadows the human element of the story. Undemanding entertainment it may be, but in the case of Ashfall that’s far from a criticism, delivering a movie that strikes just the right balance between action, spectacle, and drama.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7.5/10

The post Ashfall (2019) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Keys to the Heart” Korean Theatrical Poster

Director: Choi Sung-Hyun
Cast: Lee Byung-Hun, Park Jung-Min, Youn Yuh-Jung, Han Ji-Min, Choi Ri, Kim Sung-Ryoung, Moon Sook, Hwang Suk-Jung, Lee Joo-Young, Baek Hyun-Jin
Running Time: 120 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Stories about washed up boxers have been around for almost as long as cinema itself, and the Korean movie industry is no exception. From Choi Min-sik in Crying Fist, to So Ji-sub in Always, and more recently Um Tae-goo in My Punch Drunk Boxer. A year prior to the latter, in 2018 Keys to the Heart hit the screen, featuring Lee Byung-hun in the role of a washed-up boxer who re-connects with his estranged mother.  

After his mother walked out of the family home because of her abusive husband many years ago, Byung-hun was left to mostly fend for himself, and grew up to be a promising boxer. However after striking an official during a match (a fact we only learn through an article he reads about himself in one of Keys to the Heart’s more reflective moments), his life has hit rock bottom, and now spends his days giving out takeaway flyers on the street. While drinking with a friend, by chance he meets his long-estranged mother who happens to be a server in the restaurant they’re in, and events conspire so that he eventually agrees to move in with her until he’s back on his feet. While there he meets his autistic half-brother whose savant syndrome means he’s a piano genius (and what the ‘keys’ of the title refer to), and gradually the family begins to reconnect and bond.

The directorial debut of Choi Seong-hyeon, having previously penned the scripts for the likes of The Fatal Encounter and The Negotiation, Seong-hyeon has brought on board some big names for his first time sitting in the director’s chair. The mother is played by Youn Yuh-jung, a legendary actress who debuted in Kim Ki-young’s 1971 classic Woman of Fire as the title character, and at the time of writing is enjoying high praise for her supporting role in Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari, which nabbed her trophies at the BAFTA’s and the Oscars (for which the former saw her acceptance speech go viral). In the role of the autistic brother is a near unrecognizable Park Jung-min (Tazza: One Eyed Jack, Time to Hunt), and Han Ji-min (Miss Baek, The Age of Shadows) clocks in an appearance as a famous pianist who Jung-min looks up to.

For those wondering based on the plot description, Keys to the Heart is about as commercial a piece of Korean cinema as you’re likely to find. The plot is classic K-drama material, incorporating the usual combination of tears, triumph, forgiveness, and of course that uniquely Korean trope – the terminal illness. It also feels fair to point out that there’s no boxing involved, with the exception of a humorous scene in which Byung-hun agrees to become a sparring partner for a much younger MMA fighter in return for $200, and proceeds to instantly regret it. In some cases a movie can suck no matter how much talent you have in front of the camera (see the likes of Memories of the Sword and The Drug King), and in others, the talent in front of the camera is able to elevate the material to be better than it probably deserves to be.

The latter is the case for Keys to the Heart through and through. Lee Byung-hun is one of those rare actors who exude charisma and screen presence no matter what they’re in, and here as a grumpy and pride filled has-been the role provides him with an opportunity to play a character we’re not used to seeing him portray. The same can be said for Youn Yuh-jung, who here was following up her lead role in 2016’s confronting The Bacchus Lady. While her character is predictably written, she brings a nuanced portrayal to the role and delivers a performance which makes it relatable, even when we’ve seen the type of role plenty of times before. 

Perhaps the most divisive performance will be that of Park Jung-min as the autistic brother. A couple of years after Keys to the Heart was released Hollywood would unleash Music onto the world, the directorial debut of musician Sia. The tale of an autistic young adult and the relationship she has with her sister, Music was widely derided and labelled as offensive for its portrayal of autism onscreen, casting a spotlight both on how the condition is used in cinema, and if it’s right for non-autistic actors to play someone who has autism. Jung-min plays the role as someone that’s highly sensitive, takes comfort in his smartphone, and tends to respond to almost everything with a “yes”. While in the context of the narrative his character (and therefore his condition) is endearing and offers up many of the comedic beats, I speculate if the lack of Keys to the Heart’s release in the west is down to avoiding similar controversy.

While the Rain Man-esque relationship between Byung-hun and Jung-min feels predictable (along with the relationship with their mother), the characters are well rounded and the connections they form feel natural and unforced. Where Keys to the Heart falters is in its approach to a side-plot which onscreen can’t seem to decide how much attention it’s supposed to have. Early on Byung-hun gets a little tipsy after one too many soju’s and is hit by a speeding car, one which happens to be being driven by Han Ji-min, who plays the famous pianist that Jung-min emulates (I know, what are the chances!?). We learn Ji-min’s character has disappeared from the spotlight, having herself been hit by a drunk driver months before which resulted in her leg being amputated. She’s part of an agency that want to pay Byung-hun off rather than have the matter taken any further, however the reasons as to why are never clearly conveyed.

As a plot device to have Jung-min meet his hero, and inevitably inspire her to start playing the piano once more, it works fine, but Seong-hyeon’s script keeps on hinting at more. Why is everyone around Ji-min so tense all the time? Why does Ji-min seem to have an axe to grind with her former piano tutor? These elements are introduced in what ultimately amount to throwaway scenes which don’t further the plot nor add anything to it. As a result Ji-min’s role is serviceable, but considering she clocked in the performance of her career during the same year with Miss Baek, the inconsistent focus on her character here can’t help but feel like a let-down.

Thankfully proceedings come together for the finale which sees Jung-min literally take center stage. Indeed while Keys to the Heart may sell itself on the relationship that forms between the 2 brothers, onscreen their bonding is really there as a catalyst for Byung-hun to reconcile things with his mother. As predictable as it is, the moments where they begin to open up about the years of pain they’ve suffered still manage to create a lump in the throat, and there’s not too many other movies in Byung-hun’s filmography that have him busting out the dance moves. Seong-hyeon goes a little overboard by including a scene in which Byung-hun goes to meet his incarcerated father (played by Hong Suk-yun – White Badge, No. 3), who comes across as a one dimensional villain with no remorse for violent past, but in a commercial piece of filmmaking like this it’s forgivable.

While there can be no doubting that Keys to the Heart is a light and easily digestible piece of commercial filmmaking, it does what it sets out to do with an amicable earnestness. As a first time director Seong-hyeon’s direction is admittedly pedestrian and lacks any real spark which indicate he’ll be a filmmaker to look out for in the future, but here he gets away with it thanks to Byung-hun’s performance and the cast that surround him. If it was any other actor in the role chances are Keys to the Heart would be written off as another unremarkable and routine entry in the Korean drama genre, but with a cast that anchor proceedings through an ensemble of stellar performances, ultimately Keys to the Heart turns out to be more than the sum of its parts. 

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10

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“The Man Standing Next” Theatrical Poster

Director: Woo Min-Ho
Cast: Lee Byung-Hun, Lee Sung-Min, ak Do-Won, Lee Hee-Joon, Kim So-Jin, Seo Hyun-Woo, Ji Hyun-Joon, Park Sung-Geun, Park Ji-Il, Lee Tae-Hyeong, Kim Seung-Hoon
Running Time: 114 min.

By Paul Bramhall

South Korea has had a tumultuous history since its creation after the division of the peninsula in 1954, shortly after the Korean War ended, up to it achieving democracy in 1987. While it spent most of the 33 years under some form of authoritarian regime or another, the era which still causes controversy to this day is the time spent under the rule of Park Chung-hee, who came to power in 1962 following a military coup the year prior. As president Chung-hee kept himself in power up until his assassination in October 1979, and while he’s largely credited for the rapid modernisation of Korea, it’s a legacy which is stained by his autocratic style of ruling. The many restrictions on things like freedom of speech and the press, and the fact that his opponents frequently found themselves held without trial and subject to torture, gradually saw the tide of public opinion begin to turn against him by the late 70’s.

The subject of Chung-hee’s assassination has been covered before in the Korean film industry, notably in Im Sang-soo’s 2005 dark comedy The President’s Last Bang, which covered the 3 hours leading up to the assassination along with the immediate aftermath. 15 years later, the subject is back on the screen with director Woo Min-ho’s latest, The Man Standing Next. Decidedly different in both tone and scope than Sang-soo’s take on the subject, Min-ho has created a poker-faced political thriller that covers the 40 days leading up to the fateful event, and its subject matter is the assassin, played by the legendary Lee Byung-hun.

Based on author Kim Choong-seek’s novel Chiefs of Namsan, the plot focuses on the head of the KCIA (Korean Central Intelligence Agency), who would ultimately become the man who pulls the trigger. It’s worth giving some background to the KCIA, as while it sounds legitimate, in reality the agency (which was created shortly before Jung-hee came to power) was used to supress and disrupt anti-government or pro-North Korean groups. Essentially used to protect Jung-hee’s position of power by torturing anyone suspected of being critical towards him, the agency soon became feared by the likes of students and reporters, who frequently found themselves hauled away and savagely beaten. The irony is that Kim Jae-gyu, who was appointed by Jung-hee to head the KCIA in 1976, was close with the president, both hailing from the same hometown and graduating from the Korea Military Academy in 1946 together.

It’s a relationship which is understandably ripe for cinematic exploration, that of 2 idealistic friends that grow up together, only for their ideals to gradually set them on different paths, with the leadership of a whole country at stake. The question is if Woo Min-ho is the man to do it. As a director Min-ho is infuriatingly inconsistent. Both his debut and sophomore features, 2010’s Man of Vendetta and 2012’s Spy, are mediocre to middling, then in 2015 he hit us with Inside Men, one of the best Korean movies of the decade. While it seemed he’d hit his stride, in 2017 he followed it up with The Drug King. How do you mess up a movie which reunites Song Kang-ho and Bae Doona after not sharing the screen together for more than 10 years? It seems Min-ho was eager to give us the answer, as The Drug King was an unwatchable bloated mess.

I ended my review for that one by saying “For me the jury is still out on Min-ho as a director and screenwriter, however if The Drug King is indicative of the style of movie he wants to make, I’ll clock out here.” I meant it, however I confess to not foreseeing him re-team up with his Inside Men star Lee Byung-hun, an actor I’ll watch in almost anything. Perhaps Byung-hun is Min-ho’s golden ticket, but with The Man Standing Next he’s once again created a thoroughly engaging thriller that will likely stand up as one of the best movies of the year, if not the decade (I know we’re only 10 months in, but I’m calling it). Min-ho may have fictionalised the names of those surrounding Chung-hee (and understandably so, considering the lawsuits The President’s Last Bang had to deal with), but Byung-hun is clearly playing Kim Jae-gyu.

Stepping into the shoes of Jung-hee himself is Lee Sung-min, who’s worked with Min-ho before on The Drug King (but we won’t hold it against him), but has come into his own in recent years thanks to his roles in The Witness and The Spy Gone North. He puts in a powerhouse performance here as Jung-hee, playing him as a man who’s aware that his time in power maybe coming to an end, but whose pride seems unwilling to let it go. The plot itself revolves around another of Sung-min and Byung-hun’s close accquaintances, who’s broken rank and escaped to Paris where he’s both written a memoir denouncing the regime, and testified against Sung-min in front of the U.S. Senate. Before anymore damage can be done, Sung-min dispatches Byung-hun to Paris to hunt down their former collague and silence him, retrieving the memoir while he’s there so it can’t be published.

Played by Kwak Do-won (Steel Rain, The Wailing), once Byung-hun meets him it turns out Do-won has more information than first thought, planting the smallest seed of doubt in Byung-hun’s unwavering loyalty to Sung-min, and one that sets him on the path for which he’d be remembered. While the setup sounds tailor made to crank up the tension, Min-ho allows proceedings to playout as a slow burn. To a degree we know the ending, so the key here is to draw the audience into the journey, and the narrative allows us to get to know each character and their relationship with each other in an unhurried way, which works perfectly. Byung-hun on the surface plays the character as a picture of composure, however within the context of the story it fits, making the times when emotions overflow carry a lot of impact, and Byung-hun is an actor able to portray what’s just simmering beneath the surface with the smallest of nuances.

The performances are complimented by the (as usual for a Korean production) outstanding period production values, and even moreso by the locaiton shooting. Events play out across Seoul, Washington DC, and Paris, and the cinematography makes the most of each city. A shot with Byung-hun and Do-won on the steps of the Lincoln memorial is a standout, and Paris by night is captured as a city of intrigue and danger. Notoriously difficult to get shooting permits for, The Man Standing Next owes a debt of thanks to Parasite, which made the French firm fans of Korean cinema, allowing for the permit in question to be granted with surprising ease. Similar to Take Point, the production also benefits from utilising foreign actors who can actually act, an element which should be a given, but one that can never be taken for granted in Asian productions even in 2020.

While the sense of paranoia runs throughout the 110 minute runtime, the final scene in particular is a masterclass in tension building as various parties congregate over dinner, and Byung-hun grapples with the reality of what he plans to do. Its so palpable I could have swore a bead of sweat formed on my own forehead. The scene does highlight one of the scripts (also by Min-ho) minor flaws, with the introduction of 2 of Byung-hun’s trusted colleagues who we meet for the first time during the scene, and we know nothing about despite them playing a critical role. Likewise for Kim So-jin (The Divine Move, New Trial) who has a role as one of Byung-hun’s associates, but ultimately feels like a plot device more than a fully fleshed out character. But these are minor quibbles in what’s a thoroughly entertaining tale of espinoage and betrayal, although who the betrayer is will largely depend on your perspecitve.

The Man Standing Next closes with an audio clip where we get to hear the real Kim Jae-gyu give his reasons for doing what he did during his trial, played over still images from both the trial and the aftermath of the event itself. Whatever Jae-gyu’s reasoning was, ultimately it’d be another 8 years before Korea achieved democracy. Chung-hee’s assassination paved the way for Chun Doo-hwan, a military strongman who’d been operating a secret unit with the blessing of Chung-hee, to launch a coup that placed him as the head of the KCIA, and within a year he’d made himself the new president, beginning one of Korea’s darkest periods. The Man Standing Next offers a detailed and thoroughly engaging look at Jae-gyu and his relationship with Chung-hee, anchored by a pair of compelling performances from Lee Byung-hun and Lee Sung-min, and deserves to be seen.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 8.5/10

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“A Single Rider” Korean Theatrical Poster

Director: Lee Zoo-young
Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Gong Hyo-jin, Ahn So-hee, Jack Campbell, Yang Yoo-jin, Annika Whiteley, Kei Ekland, Baek Soo-jang, Choi Joon-young
Running Time: 97 min.

By Paul Bramhall

If there was ever an example of an under the radar movie, then you’d be hard pressed to come across a better one than A Single Rider. Headlined by Korea’s most well-known actor, Lee Byung-hun, the low key production was his fifth movie in 2016. From headlining the Korean blockbuster Master, to roles in the Hollywood flicks Misconduct and The Magnificent Seven, to a cameo in Kim Ji-woon’s The Age of Shadows. Perhaps understandably, A Single Rider was largely overlooked (despite it being Warners Brothers 2nd foray into Korean cinema, the first being Age of Shadows) . The same goes for his co-star Gong Hyo-jin, who received considerable praise as a mysterious Chinese babysitter in Missing, also released in the same year. As a result, the debut of writer and director Lee Zoo-young seemed to come and go as quietly as the movie itself.

For the curious, the question of how a debut director managed to secure such established names for their first feature is one that comes with rewarding answers. It’s been over a decade since Byung-hun headed a straight up drama, with the last time being Once in a Summer in 2006. His star has grown considerably in the subsequent years, from his collaborations with Kim Ji-woon (The Good, The Bad, The Weird, I Saw the Devil), to his forays into Hollywood (RED 2, Terminator: Genisys), to his recent roles in Korean period pieces (Masquerade, Memories of the Sword). Similarly, Gong Hyo-jin is one of those actresses who’s been in more movies than memory initially suggests. From early appearances in the likes of Guns and Talks and Volcano High, to roles in Lee Myung-se’s M and Ryoo Seung-wan’s Dachimawa Lee.

In A Single Rider Byung-hun plays a successful fund manager whose wife and son are living in Sydney, Australia. They’ve been there for the past 2 years, and are due to return to Korea soon, having originally left on Byung-hun’s insistence that their son should learn English there. However when the company he works for declares bankruptcy, combined with news from his wife that they want to delay their return home, he suddenly finds his world crashing down around him. After spending a night alone with a bottle of whisky in front of his computer, he makes the brash decision to book a flight to Australia. With nothing left to lose, he heads down under with nothing more than the clothes on his back, his passport, and his wife’s address scrawled on his hand.

Sure enough, Byung-hun locates the address in question, set in the leafy suburbia of Bondi Beach, however before he can knock on the door, he overhears the sounds of his wife’s voice and a male companion. Choosing to sneak around the back of the house, he observes his wife, played by Hyo-jin, giggling and acting affectionately with an Australian man, played by popular Australian TV actor Jack Campbell. Rather than confront them, he backs away in silent shock, and it’s this decision which really defines the movie that A Single Rider becomes. Developing into what can almost be described as an otherworldly hybrid of Alexander Payne’s The Descendants and Kim Ki-duk’s 3-Iron, Byung-hun spends all of his time in Sydney watching Hyo-jin and Campbell from a distance, as he attempts to establish if she’s really having an affair.

As a result, despite characters often making inconsequential chatter in the background, there are significant stretches of A Single Rider with no dialogue, instead relying on Byung-hun’s ability to convey a range of emotions with just his expressions, and a hauntingly minimalistic piano score. Bereft of the expected cathartic confrontation between husband and wife, instead Byung-hun’s fears and regrets slowly come to the surface through his interactions with a variety of other characters. He befriends a young female backpacker also from Korea, is viewed suspiciously by an elderly neighbour of his wife, and even interacts with members of Campbell’s family. Indeed the closest relationships he establishes are with the Korean backpacker, played by Ahn So-hee (the high school student in Train to Busan) and Hyo-jin’s dog, which decides to follow him around.

Byung-hun reluctantly ends up agreeing to help So-hee after she’s duped out of almost $20,000 by a trio of shady Korean youths, who offer to exchange her currency to Korean Won for a more favourable exchange rate than the banks. After initially observing her from a restaurant window driving off with the trio, when she suddenly reappears visibly dazed and unable to walk straight, he assists her to get back to the hostel she’s staying in, and eventually the pair attempt to track down those responsible for stealing her money. Notably this part of the story is inspired by the real life case of another Korean backpacker, who was murdered in Brisbane in 2013 following a similar scenario. Despite their differences, Byung-hun and So-hee form a bond through their shared feelings of being lost in a foreign land, and their dire circumstances.

For a first time director, Zoo-young shows a remarkable grasp of pacing and tone. Sydney is filmed lavishly, capturing the beauty of iconic landmarks like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, however at the same time she imbues it with a sense of isolation and loneliness. The more Byung-hun comes to realise how integrated Hyo-jin and their son are to the overseas life he’s responsible for sending them too, the more he seems incapable of bringing himself to interact with her. In brief flashback scenes to their life together in Korea, we see Hyo-jin lose interest in her passions such as music, weighed down by the expectations of being a wife to a high flying fund manager. However in Sydney she’s been free to rediscover everything that she’d given up on. This is really what A Single Rider is about – the power of regret, and how we only have a limited time to do something about it.

The question of whether that distance can be bridged is one that keeps A Single Rider so engaging, even during its quietest moments, and the singular focus on viewing everything from Byung-hun’s perspective allows the narrative to flow in unexpected directions. Indeed we never really know if his decision to help So-hee is out of genuine intent, or if it’s more of a diversion to make himself feel better for the years he put his career ahead of everything else, including his own family. That same focus also allows for some of A Single Rider’s weaker moments to be forgiven. While the main characters are all well written and developed, those that lack any significant amount of screentime don’t fare so well.

The trio of Koreans that dupe So-hee out of her money seem only to be interested in what visa they can get to stay in Australia, and a scene in which the police take Hyo-jin’s concern that her dog has gone missing as a valid reason for investigation is mildly laughable. However these are minor grievances, and Byun-hun’s performance anchors A Single Rider so whole heartedly that it’s difficult to imagine its existence without him. While Zoo-young has used the flavour of the month depicting the corruption of those in power, this setup is quickly established to simply be a framework, one which unfolds into a tale that’s much more personal and smaller scale than recent blockbusters covering the same.

With an unusually lean runtime for a Korean movie of 95 mins, perhaps expectedly Byung-hun’s visit to find his wife and son comes with a twist. There’s no doubt that some hardened viewers of this genre will likely see it coming, however even for those that don’t (myself included), it’s delivered in such a beautifully poignant and melancholic way that it delivers the expected emotional punch. More than 10 years ago A Bittersweet Life ended with Byung-hun staring at his reflection in a window, A Single Rider contains a similar scene, one which encapsulates the essence of that movies title in a profoundly moving way. For those looking for something a little different from Korean cinema, then A Single Rider comes strongly recommended.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 8.5/10

The post Single Rider, A (2016) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“The Age of Shadows” Korean Theatrical Poster

AKA: Secret Agent
Director: Kim Ji-woon
Cast: Goo Uoo, Song Kang-Ho, Han Ji-Min, Um Tae-Goo, Shin Sung-Rok, Seo Young-Joo, Lee Byung-Hun, Shingo Tsurumi, Kim Dong-Young, Park Hee-Soon
Running Time: 140 min.

By Martin Sandison

I remember going to see Kim Ji-woon’s A Bittersweet Life back when it came out, and thinking: This is something special. An artistic aesthetic, but with populist entertainment at its heart. I then saw The Good, the Bad and the Weird, and here was the apotheosis of his approach. Finally, his masterpiece, I Saw The Devil, veered into a dark, but ultimately rewarding territory. Unfortunately, his American effort, The Last Stand, sanitised much of what had gone before, despite the fact it was a fun watch. Now, Kim is back in South Korea with his most lavish production to date, one that carries on his vision, but also falls short in some areas.

Screening in the Glasgow Film Festival, Age of Shadows benefits from a big screen viewing, not least because of the riveting action scenes. Also the movie features some of the best male Korean acting talent with Song Kang Ho, Gong Yoo and Lee Byung Hun (in a cameo appearance) all sharing the screen.

Song plays Lee Jung-chool, a high ranking officer who has defected from the Korean resistance and takes his orders from Japanese overlords. Song finds himself being pulled back in to the resistance thanks to circumstance, his conscience and resistance fighters Che-san (Lee Byung Hun) and Kim Woo-jin (Gong Yoo). They both manipulate him into helping them, and thus sets in motion a plot with plenty of twists and turns.

With the bravura opening scene, Kim sets out his stall; action choreographed with the eye of a genius and complex character design conveyed through this activity. The show-stopping set pieces on show some of the most intricately designed in recent history, and make a case for Kim being THE action filmmaker of our time. What makes them special is the combination of tension, technique and character depth within each sequence. The centrepiece scene is on a train, and it is so crammed with the above, it bursts at the seams.

Gong Yoo shows much more acting chops than a pretty one-note performance in Train to Busan, with more noteworthy scenes, especially towards the end. Song Kang Ho proves yet again he is one of the best leading actors in the business, and tackles the development of his character with aplomb. Despite being a glorified cameo, Lee Byung Hun’s role is a pivotal one with his charisma intact. A mid-film scene, featuring all three is glorious, as they drink from a seemingly neverending barrel of wine – in the hands of a lesser filmmaker, this could have been the best thing about the movie; Kim handles each character and situation with such mastery that there are numerous stand out scenes. Special mention goes to Um Tae-Goo as Hashimoto, in a seriously creepy and physical performance as one of the Japanese officers. However, there are a couple of Western actors in small roles who come close to Hong Kong movie levels of terrible acting.

The gloss of the film can be a bit stifling at times (it’s the first Korean Warner Brothers co-production), with little edge compared to Kim’s greatest work, I Saw The Devil. Also, the opening half hour is pretty hard to follow, with multiple characters introduced and plot strands piling up.

The Age of Shadows certainly is an exhilarating ride, and has some thematic and historical depth. This approach is one reason why South Korea is making some of the best movies at the moment, and long may it continue.

Martin Sandison’s Rating: 8/10

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“Master” Theatrical Poster

Director: Jo Eui-seok
Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Gang Dong-won, Kim Woo-bin, Uhm Ji-won, Oh Dal-su, Jin Kyung, Monsour Del Rosario, Jung Won-jung, Yoo Yeon-soo, Jo Hyun-chul
Running Time: 143 min.

By Paul Bramhall

The Korean film industry rounded out 2016 with yet another thriller concerning those in positions of authority abusing their power. This time based on the true story of a CEO who defrauded his sales staff in order to line his own pockets, it’s a story that plugs directly into the sentiments that many Koreans are feeling towards those in authority during recent times. While some viewers are likely starting to feel fatigued at the recurring theme that’s been present throughout the year, these productions are arguably more entertaining than the overly patriotic epics like The Admiral: Roaring Currents and Northern Limit Line from a couple of years prior.

On the surface, Master bears a striking resemblance to a production which was released just a year earlier, in the form of Woo Min-ho’s Inside Men. Both focus on a trio of male characters and their allegiances with each other, and both feature Lee Byung-hun as one of the characters in question. Byung-hun has had a busy 2016, with roles both in Hollywood productions Misconduct and The Magnificent Seven, as well as on local soil with Master, and Kim Ji-woon’s return to Korean filmmaking in Age of Shadows. Here Byung-hun plays the CEO in question, the leader of a pyramid scheme company called One Network. Replacing Jo Seung-woo and Baek Yoon-sik as his co-stars are Gang Dong-won and Kim Woo-bin.

Dong-won has had almost as busy a year as Byung-hun, with major roles in the horror movie The Priests and crime caper A Violent Prosecutor. For Master he purposefully beefed up for the role, with his broad shouldered appearance reflecting a marked difference from his usual slight frame. Playing a committed anti-corruption investigator, to draw a comparison to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Dong-won is the good to Byung-hun’s the bad. That leaves the ugly, which has Woo-bin playing a young IT expert who’s been helping Byung-hun to launder the money, while also planning to skim off the top. Woo-bin has made a steady transition from predominantly starring in TV dramas, to featuring more on the big screen. Cutting his teeth as the main character in Friend 2, which was followed up with a role in the breezy crime caper The Con Artists, Master is definitely his meatiest role to date.

At the helm is director Jo Eui-seok, also responsible for the script, who was last seen directing the Korean remake of the Hong Kong movie Eye in the Sky, with 2013’s Cold Eyes. What’s perhaps most interesting about Master is that, despite Byung-hun and Dong-won clocking in the most years of experience, it’s Woo-bin’s compromised IT expert that proves to be the most interesting focal point of the movie. His expertise in staying off the radar clearly not matching that of his IT skills, he’s pulled in by Dong-won’s investigator, and strikes a deal to help them take down Byung-hun in order to avoid jail time. Forced to be a mole within Byung-hun’s organization, his constantly shifting allegiances, and willingness to do anything to save his own skin, come together to make him the most conflicted character of the trio.

This is however, also most likely due to Byung-hun and Dong-won’s characters being somewhat underwritten. Byung-hun fares the best, his natural charisma able to make roles even in misfires like Memories of the Sword at least watchable. As the CEO he portrays the role almost like that of a cult leader, addressing his thousands of employees in flashy seminar halls and shedding fake tears of gratitude, he’s blindly followed based largely on the cult of personality which he’s built around himself. Dong-won’s unwavering investigator is the dullest of the trio, given little personality beyond his desire to take down Byung-hun, and despite being dedicated to the role, the fact he has little to work with in terms of the script is at times a little too apparent.

Master essentially feels like two movies in one. The first half is set in Korea, and involves plenty of setup and plot development as proceedings build to a raid on Byung-hun’s home, with the intention of seizing a ledger containing the names of those in power who he’s been paying off. However he ultimately gets away, escaping with both the ledger and $3 billion, and sets sail for Manila in the Philippines. After a climatic car chase and fight between Dong-won and a masked assailant in a tunnel, he’s ultimately left high and dry with no more evidence than what he began with, while Woo-bin is marked as both a traitor to One Network and ends up on the receiving end of a blade.

It’s only when the pair get wind of Byung-hun’s whereabouts that they decide to team up in order to redeem themselves, and get the bad guy once and for all. This basically sees proceedings hit reset, as everyone packs up and heads to Manila for a second crack at taking down Byung-hun and his cohorts, and the remainder of the movie is set for the most part in the Filipino capital. While most other reviews for Master will skim past this point, it’s worth noting that the Filipino senator that Byung-hun’s CEO attempts to woo while in Manila, is played by none other than Monsour Del Rosario. Yes, the same Monsour Del Rosario from such 90’s action movies as Ultracop 2000, Techno Warriors, and Bloodfist 2. Since those days of appearing in action cheapies, Del Rosario has become (at the time of writing) the congressman for a district of Manila, so can kind of be viewed as playing himself.

The change in locale certainly plays a big part in keeping things from appearing too repetitive, with the slums of Manila acting as a sharp contrast to the extravagant life Byung-hun was living in Seoul. His pitch perfect Filipino accented English is also a plus, which he learnt specifically for the role, and makes his attempts to swindle Del Rosario into coughing up billions of dollars for a proposed eco-city, which he has no plans to ever build, all the more entertaining. It’s a credit to both the script, and Byung-hun’s acting, that the switch to English never glaringly stands out as it did in similar efforts such as The Berlin File, with some lines even being quote worthy. At one point Byung-hun quips “Senator, let the children play on the grass, and not in the trash.” A line which delivers the intended comedic effect.

It’s perhaps indicative of the script as a whole that we get to spend the most time with the villain, and indeed at times even feel endeared to him. However Master can’t quite escape from the fact that it’s very much a talk-heavy movie, while seeming to strive to be something more action orientated. The action quota is in fact minimal, and while the initial Seoul based climax in the tunnel is a brief but suitably tense confrontation, a final shoot out on the streets of Manila almost feels shoe horned in, and doesn’t feel natural for the characters to be partaking in. The same criticism can be applied to the final scene as a whole, as Eui-seok seems determined to allow proceedings to end with a bang, despite the majority of what’s come before not really being indicative of such a tone.

Indeed the epic runtime of 143 minutes doesn’t seem entirely justified. But thankfully Master coasts along on the stellar performances from its trio of leading men and supporting cast, which includes Jin Kyeong (who also featured in Eui-seok’s previous movie Cold Eyes) as Byung-hun’s business associate, Eom Ji-won as Dong-won’s partner, and the ever-present Oh Dal-soo. However with some additional trimming and the inclusion of a couple more action scenes, it’s easy to feel that underneath all of the talking and scenes of planning, there’s a much leaner movie that could have come to fruition. As it is, Master stands its ground as a middle-of-the-road thriller, bolstered by a high budget and A-grade actors who make it appear to be more. It’s a sleight of hand that Byung-hun’s character would be proud of.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7/10

The post Master (2016) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Inside Men: The Original” Theatrical Poster

Director: Woo Min-Ho
Cast: Lee Byung-Hun, Cho Seung-Woo, Baek Yoon-Sik, Lee Kyoung-Young, Kim Hong-Fa, Jo Jae-Yun, Bae Sung-Woo, Kim Dae-Myung, Jo Woo-Jin, Yoo Jae-Myung
Running Time: 180 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Based on a web-comic by Yoon Tae-ho, who was also responsible for the web-comic behind the excellent Moss, when Inside Men hit Korean cinema screens in 2015, its tale of political corruption strongly resonated with audiences, making it one of the most successful movies of the year. The news that director Woo Min-ho had shaved 50 minutes off the movies original 3 hour run-time, in order to have a wider theatrical distribution, soon had fans requesting that the director’s cut should also have a chance to be seen on the cinema. It was a request that quickly gained momentum, and by the end of the year, the full 3 hour version was also given a theatrical run, under the moniker of Inside Men: The Original.

For full disclosure, I’ll confess to not having seen the trimmed down theatrical version of Inside Men, so I’m unable to do a comparison of the two. Having watched Min-ho’s original vision in its entirety, there’s something about human nature which leaves me with no inclination to watch a version with any of the wonderfully dark story forcibly left on the cutting room floor. With that being said, when I first came across the production, despite featuring an impressive amount of talent in front of the camera, the news that it was being directed by Min-ho was enough to make me give it a pass all together. Prior to Inside Men, Min-ho’s filmography consisted of 2 titles – Man of Vendetta and Spy – a pair of movies which were both painfully misguided and equally painful to watch. With Memories of the Sword already taking the 2015 prize at proving that a talented cast in front of the camera, doesn’t make up for a lack of talent behind it, I wasn’t going to hold my breath.

Thankfully though, it turns out that while in some cases an excellent cast can get dragged down to the level of a poor director, the flip side of the coin is that a (so far) poor director can be elevated to the level of his excellent cast. This is very much the case with Inside Men, as the end product is one that sees everyone involved working in synchronicity with each other. The cast is somewhat of a reunion for actors Jo Seung-woo and Baek Yoon-sik, who worked so well together as the student-mentor team in Choi Dong-hoon’s entertaining 2006 caper flick Tazza: The High Rollers. Lee Byung-hun rounds out a trio of main characters, here in his 3rd movie of the year after appearing in Terminator: Genisys and the previously mentioned Memories of the Sword.

The plot for Inside Men I dare say is difficult to do justice with in words, for fear of making it sound dull. It revolves around a slush fund that was set up by a pair of conglomerates, to bankroll the presidential campaign of a sleazy congressman, and Seung-woo plays a seemingly incorruptible prosecutor who’s about to get his hands on a document which prove the existence of the fund. However before he can, it ends up in the hands of a gangster, played by Byung-hun. It’s revealed that Byung-hun has a history with a politically influential journalist, played by Yoon-sik, and as a favor he passes on a copy of the document to Yoon-sik, should he ever decide to break the story. However when the congressman catches wind that Byung-hun had possession of said document, Byung-hun wakes up to find himself tied to a chair in a brightly lit room, which ends in a rather graphic encounter with a saw.

Spanning a 2 year period, Inside Men pulls you in from the opening minutes, which has Byung-hun decked out in a white suite, sat in a darkened room about to detail his story to a journalist. It almost feels like a film noir, as he launches into a monologue revolving around Jack Nicholson’s character in Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, and how he relates to the characters predicament. Indeed while both Seung-woo and Yoon-sik are essential to the story, Inside Men feels very much like Byung-hun’s show. His small time gangster has a sense of reckless bravado and comical timing which quickly endear you to his character. In a year which saw Byung-hun embattled from local media in Korea, it was a ballsy role to take, especially considering some of the scenarios have a level of overlap with reality, most glaringly when, at one point, he’s accused of having inappropriate relations with a member of a K-pop group.

Whatever the case, Inside Men put Byung-hun’s career firmly back on track. As a gangster who has a love of old Hollywood classics, and even goes so far to run a casting agency as a front to his more dubious activities, he quickly becomes the heart of the movie. Similar to how Chow Yun Fat’s role in A Better Tomorrow had many Hong Kong youths chewing on toothpicks, here Byung-hun hilariously minces a classic line, declaring to Seung-woo “Let’s drink Maldives in the Mojito”, a line which could be heard everywhere in Korea after the movie’s release. For viewers who’ve been wanting to see him in a role similar to that which put him on many peoples radars in the first place, as the enforcer in Kim Ji-woon’s A Bittersweet Life, Inside Men grants them their wish. There’s a familiarity to his character, that of a gangster who isn’t completely bad, seeking revenge on those that did him wrong despite being in completely over his head, however it’s never a familiarity that feels stale.

Indeed as much as Byung-hun is hell bent on going after those who were behind his unfortunate encounter with a saw, so Inside Men as a whole seems to be hell bent on delivering a condemning indictment against Korean society. From the corporate conglomerates and media outlets that fund politicians behind closed doors, down to the level of Seung-woo’s prosecutor who can’t get a promotion due to his lack of family connections higher up, Min-ho’s script takes a merciless swipe at all of it, and does so with conviction. There’s an underlying feel of seething hatred that permeates throughout Inside Men, a hatred at the greed and corruption that have led to more than one tragedy in Korea during recent times, and that hatred often manifests itself in sudden bursts of violence throughout the run-time.

Despite Byung-hun and a handful of his cohorts being the only fully fledged gangsters in the movie, their portrayal often feels like we’re watching the best of a bad bunch. It’s the politicians and media that are framed as the real gangsters, a feeling which is enforced further through Jo Young-wook’s pulsating electronic score, occasionally recalling scenes from Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage. The only difference being of course that in Kitano’s movie, the characters are gangsters. Inside Men also draws another, all be it superfluous, similarity with Outrage, in that there’s barely a single female character in the whole movie. What female presence there is, usually comes in the form of a chorus line of naked girls in a karaoke room, set to partake in whatever debauchery their customers demand, or an ill-fated wannabe actress. However even this in itself is a criticism of the circles that Inside Men takes place in, the lack of female roles glaringly apparent from the word go.

The 3 hour run-time builds up to a satisfyingly constructed payoff in the finale, one that’s not earmarked by violence and bloodshed, but rather takes a chance by assuming we’re invested in the characters enough to see them deliver revenge in their own way. That they do, and perhaps most telling of all, when the credits roll, it doesn’t feel like 3 hours have gone by at all. Inside Men effortlessly marks itself as one of the best movies to come out of Korea in recent years, being all at once a political thriller, gangster flick, and a revenge fuelled drama. After a couple of misfires, Min-ho proves that as the expression goes, third times a charm, and while it’s certainly a big ask, here’s hoping his next movie is at least on par with what he’s pulled off here. If I could give the director one piece of advice, it would be to stay angry, it seems to suit him.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 8.5/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP38GHwWg8I

The post Inside Men: The Original (2015) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Memories of the Sword” Korean Theatrical Poster

Director: Park Heung-Sik
Cast: Lee Byung-Hun, Jeon Do-Yeon, Kim Go-Eun, Lee Joon-Ho, Lee Kyoung-Young, Kim Tae-Woo, Bae Soo-Bin, Kim Soo-Ahn, Moon Sung-Geun
Running Time: 121 min.

By Paul Bramhall

Korean cinema continues to create some of the most original and innovative movies for audiences to enjoy, however just like many other countries, it also has a film industry that likes to follow trends. If a movie makes it big, a trail of inferior copy cats is inevitable. With the success of the 2012 blockbuster Masquerade, lavish period pieces quickly became the in thing after an absence of several years, although none of them have really captured the success of the Lee Byung-hun starring historical drama. Three years on, and Byung-hun returns to the genre with Memories of the Sword, which also marks his first Korean movie since Masquerade.

Byung-hun’s name would usually be enough to sell a title, however a scandal which he found himself at the center of in 2014, that played out very publicly, saw him fall out of favor with a lot of the Korean public. It also explains why he’s kept his focus on building a career in Hollywood, having earlier in the same year featured in Terminator Genisys. Despite this, Byung-hun is one of the most charismatic and solid actors working today, so many are no doubt happy to see him back headlining a Korean production. Here he’s paired with an actress of equal caliber in the form of Jeon Do-yeon, with Memories of the Sword marking the second time the pair have worked together, after starring in Lee Yeong-jae’s 1999 drama The Harmonium in My Memory.

Helmed by Park Heung-sik, the movie marks the directors first time at attempting a wuxia. Known for dramatic pieces such as I Wish I had a Wife and My Mother, the Mermaid (both of which starred Do-yeon), as anyone familiar with Zhang Yimou would contest, when a dramatic director turns his attention to the wuxia genre it usually wields interesting results. The anchor for Heung-sik’s piece comes in the form of Kim Go-eun, who plays the daughter of one of the Three Great Swords, a trio of heroes that once fought to overthrow the corrupt military authorities of the time. All she knows is that her father was murdered when she was still a baby, and she’s been raised by a blind tea house owner, played by Do-yeon, with the one purpose of seeking revenge against the two people responsible for her fathers death.

This may sound rather heavy, which is in stark contrast to the sunflower filled fields the movie opens with, which see Go-eun cheerily running around them without a care in the world. After jumping over a 20 foot sunflower, she enthusiastically declares that she’s finally ready to go out into the world. Several gravity defying jumps later, she forces her way into a high ranking officials fight tournament, where she proceeds to take part in a duel marred by split-second editing, crash zooms, and generally hectic camerawork. Although as an audience it’s impossible to really see what’s going on, the high ranking official, played by Byung-hun, thankfully observes enough to recognize her fighting style, and tracks her down afterwards to find out who she is.

In a nutshell, Byung-hun and Do-yeon were the other 2 members of the Three Great Swords, and used to be a happy couple. However Byung-hun betrayed them, killing Go-eun’s father, and becoming a power hungry aristocrat. Do-yeon couldn’t bring herself to kill Byung-hun when she had the chance, but she does rescue the baby of her murdered comrade, and settles on raising it to kill both herself and Byung-hun when she becomes 20. Do-yeon stays true to her word, revealing her true identity to Go-eun and how Byung-hun killed her father, and explains how she must kill both herself and Byung-hun to avenge her father’s murder.

While the above may sound like I’ve just spoiled the whole plot, including all the reveals and twists, this isn’t so, as the events described all take place within the first 30 minutes. Herein lies Memories of the Sword’s biggest problem, in that by placing all of its cards on the table so early on, for a 2 hour production it leaves itself with 90 minutes to keep us interested and engaged. Unfortunately it fails miserably at doing this.

It’s difficult to ascertain what Heung-sik, who also wrote the screenplay, was aiming for here. In many ways it almost feels like we start proceedings in the middle of the story, with the first 15 minutes being full of Byung-hun and Do-yeon working their best tortured expressions. Do-yeon often looks into the distance regretfully, Byung-hun looks sad as he keeps remembering Do-yeon’s words, such as how boiling water looks like shrimps eyes (kindly provided by Do-yeon in voiceover), but none of the pained expressions are earned. The movie has just started, so we don’t have any emotional investment yet, but Heung-sik seems to think we should be sharing their pain from the word go.

As events unfold, everyone struggles with a script that becomes increasingly preposterous, with developments that defy believability and twists which are plain laugh worthy. Even the plot begins to break down under the weight of its own logic. Go-eun has been raised in the tea house Do-yeon runs, and from the opening scene we witness that it can’t be anymore than a kilometer from where she meets Byung-hun. However later on we’re supposed to believe that Byung-hun has never seen Do-yeon for the 20 years she’s been raising Go-eun, or known her location, despite apparently living in such close proximity to each other.

Memories of the Sword’s crimes sadly don’t end there, with themes and often whole scenes being ripped from other movies. The Three Great Swords are blatantly styled after the characters of Broken Sword, Flying Snow, and Sky from Zhang Yimou’s Hero (not to mention the imagined fight sequences and distinct color schemes). The training sequence in a bamboo forest manages to do a double whammy, bringing to mind both Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the Pai Mei sequences in Tarantino’s Kill Bill. Heung-sik also plagiarizes his fellow Korean contemporaries, with an attack on an outdoor tea ceremony starting off exactly like a similar scene from A Frozen Flower, and a fight in the shadows taken almost shot-for-shot from Lee Myeong-se’s Duelist.

The action itself poses another issue, in a production already riddled with them. Poorly shot, while Byung-hun acquits himself quite well (although he admittedly has little to do), Do-yeon and Go-eun are not so lucky, with Do-yeon in particular coming out the worse. While the blame lays more with the action director than it does with her, in the action sequences she’s required to perform in her uncoordinated flaying of the sword does anything but convince she’s a master swordswoman. Go-eun also seems too slight to really convey any believability in her duels, and seems miscast in the role of a character that has their world ripped out from under them.

Despite having a cast led by two heavyweights of Korean cinema, Memories of the Sword is the perfect example of a production which, if you don’t have the quality behind the camera, no amount of quality in front of it is going to hide the cracks. Featuring a ridiculous plot, a talking parrot, and Lee Byung-hun delivering the line “I’ll never drink tea again. Never”, with a perfect poker face, Memories of the Sword is, unlike its title, best forgotten for everyone involved.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 3/10

The post Memories of the Sword (2015) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“The Viral Factor” Chinese Theatrical Poster

Director: Dante Lam
Cast: Jay Chou, Nicholas Tse, Bai Bing, Lee Byung Hun, Lin Peng, Jung Woo-sung, Andy On Chi Kit, Carl Ng Ka Lung, Liu Kai Chi, Elaine Kam Yin Ling
Running Time: 120 min.

By HKFanatic

“The Viral Factor” is the latest blockbuster from Dante Lam, a man who has become one of Hong Kong’s premiere action director thanks to films like “Fire of Conscience” and “The Stool Pigeon“; it was also the first film to enter Lam into the One Hundred Million Yuan Club, for those filmmakers who earn over 100 Million Yuan at the Chinese box office. I wish I could say this was one of Lam’s better efforts. Despite a globe-hopping setting and plenty of explosions, “The Viral Factor” fails to deliver as a solid piece of action entertainment. The story just does not hold up to any kind of scrutiny.

The screenplay makes the crucial mistake of dolling out exposition to the viewer before the credits have barely finished rolling. We’re told why characters are important and why what they’re doing is important, but we’re never shown why they’re important. The film begins with a confusing series of scenes set in Jordan, as an international police force led by the Chinese (including Jay Chou) are transporting a key scientist to safety before his deadly strain of bird flu can be released to the public…or something like that.

It doesn’t take long for everything to go tits up, and here we get to see Dante Lam’s approximation of a “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” video game battle in what is, in all honesty, probably the best set-piece in the entire movie. Questionable CG-fireballs aside, Dante Lam knows how to carefully maneuver his camera through action sequences that feel like barely controlled chaos. From there, Jay Chou heads off to Malaysia to track down his missing brother, played by bad boy actor Nichols Tse, and possibly get revenge on the team leader who betrayed him (an under-utilized Andy On). The story plays out in a confusing mix of English and Cantonese dialogue, a sure sign that the producers were trying too hard for a hit.

Dante Lam’s films have always been about his character’s personal lives and family melodrama as much as the action, but here he’s stuck with the borderline-catatonic Jay Chou in the lead, an actor who barely knows how to convey emotion. Let’s face it, Jay Chou is a Taiwanese pop idol; he’s not the kind of guy to headline a hard-hitting Hong Kong action movie. Nicholas Tse is forced to pick up the acting slack, which he does by sinking his teeth into scenes where he’s allowed to do nothing but cry or over-emote. Considering how many helicopters were likely blown up in the making of “The Viral Factor,” this is one touchy-feely movie.

I never thought I’d say a movie has too much action but the problem with “The Viral Factor” is that the screenplay doesn’t really know how to raise the stakes, so characters are always chasing after each other with little to no consequences. As I watched this movie, I felt a curious sense of detachment: actors raced around locales and tried to accomplish goals the movie had only barely communicated to me. I enjoy seeing Dante Lam playing on such a large scale, with this much production muscle behind him, but next time he needs to expend it all on a better script.

The story builds to a showdown aboard a large sea vessel, with a shootout occurring in-between shipping containers. Thanks but we’ve seen this before before in Tsui Hark’s “Knock-off” and that was staged with a hell of a lot more aplomb than what we get here. I still have nothing but respect for Dante Lam, but with “The Viral Factor” he simply went too mainstream. It was most likely a mistake to go for a story with this many characters and locations, and it was definitely a mistake to cast someone like Jay Chou in the lead. With no true hand-to-hand combat and most of the shoot-outs staged like video game cutscenes, “The Viral Factor” is missing that visceral touch that makes the best Hong Kong action movies so personal.

HKFanatic’s Rating: 5.5/10

The post Viral Factor, The (2012) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“I Saw the Devil” Korean Theatrical Poster

Director: Kim Ji-woon
Writer: Park Hoon-jung
Cast: Lee Byung-Hun, Choi Min-Sik, Jeon Guk-Hwan, Cheon Ho-Jin, Oh San-Ha, Kim Yun-Seo, Choi Mu-Seong, Kim In-Seo, Jo Deok-Je, Han Cheol-Woo
Running Time: 114 min.

By JJ Hatfield

I Saw The Devil is a stunning masterpiece of the macabre. A terrifying tale of horrific deeds done for sickening psychotic pleasures and unimaginable acts carried out for a promised justice. In the dark of night on a lonely snowy road a hideous crime is committed. This gruesome barbarous undertaking sets the wheel in motion for a spellbinding journey into the depths of blood drenched terror in nightmare proportions.

When his fiancée Ju-yeon is viciously slaughtered, Kim Soo-hyeon sets out to find her murderer and make him pay, and pay dearly. With the help of his fiancée’s father, retired chief of police Jang, Soo-hyeon quickly discovers the primary suspects in Ju-yeon’s bloody and vicious murder and rules them out in his own way one by one. It isn’t long before he has found the subject of his search. Indeed Soo-hyeon finds the savage serial killer Jang Kyung-chul rather quickly, tracking him down and confronting him but he doesn’t beat him to near death and turn him into the authorities. Soo-hyeon made an impassioned promise to his beloved Ju-yeon and he intends to keep that promise no matter where it may lead.

Choi Min-sik, known for Oldboy, has always proven himself accomplished as any character but here he goes well beyond his previous success to his finest role to date. Choi turns in a positively brilliant performance. He takes on the task of being the cold-blooded butcher Kyung-chul and does so to sadistic maniacal perfection. When he is on screen you can look nowhere else, even though you may try to look away. Kyung-chul is the embodiment of absolute evil. He is not a misunderstood character and there is no possibility of redemption. There is nothing that could conceivably explain the cruelty and mental and physical atrocities he inflicts on his victims and thereby those that love them. Though Kyung-chul is thoroughly malevolent that in no way translates into him being dimwitted. A suspect in numerous killings of girls and young women for years he has managed to evade capture. Whether this is due to his superb evasion techniques or deficient police abilities isn’t quite clear, although it does seem mostly the latter.

Lee Byung-hun, A Bittersweet Life, The Good the Bad the Weird, leaves absolutely no doubt that he has become a truly excellent actor capable of an astonishing artistic achievement. He too turns in the performance of his career. With I Saw The Devil he proves himself worthy of outstanding status. Lee makes a convincing loving and compassionate man whose vow of revenge twists his very soul. He is very believable as the character Soo-hyeon a highly skilled secret agent with the National Intelligence Service. Soo-hyeon’s training allows him to more effectively contend with the ruthless Kyung-chul than the average person at least on the physical level. His unfathomable pain drives him onward never allowing him to rest in his quest to fulfill his promise, to extract his revenge.

Kim Jee-woon is the mastermind of the movie. Previous works include A Tale of Two Sisters, A Bittersweet Life, and The Good the Bad the Weird. Kim is a fantastic director and with I Saw the Devil he excels. He utilizes the cinematography of Lee Mogae to shape every slice of film in excruciating and unflinching detail. The camera never shies away from the bloody terrors instead recording what feels like intensely private horror. These are things no one would ever see unless doing the blood soaked grisly acts themselves. A number of shots involve the element of snow. Pure unspoiled innocence provides the backdrop for droplets to pools of blood, the jet black hair of a victim, the palette for prey to fall to the merciless hunter. It may sound odd but this is a beautiful film. Scenes of the snow are vivid and unblemished. Every shot is clear and distinct, perfectly framed lighted and balanced.

There are numerous exceptional scenes that combine cinematography, choreography and action. An abandoned greenhouse provides a visually striking environment for Soo-hyeon and Kyung-chul to come together, two men pitted against each other in a duel. A taxi is the stage for an amazing action sequence. The choreography is brilliant, no less the shooting. It is a brutal bloody frantic surreal piece of film. Every image is striking, every scene splendidly crafted.

Anyone who thinks this is just a Korean version of an American slasher movie is a fool. With so many facets this gem must be seen more than once. I Saw The Devil is a multilayered impeccable work that succeeds because every single aspect is flawlessly done. The fact is everything is executed to perfection. Hollywood can never make a film like this. I Saw The Devil is one damn fine film – one of the best you will ever see and you will never forget.

I Saw The Devil receives my highest recommendation and the best score possible here at cityonfire.com.

JJ Hatfield’s Rating: 10/10

By HKFanatic

From the looks of it, “I Saw the Devil” is drawing stronger reactions online – both positive and negative – than your average Korean revenge film. I think it’s largely because this is one of the few revenge movies I can think of that makes its “hero” complicit in the violence and pain that is wrought.

On the surface we have a slick and stylish film with a very capable, almost Jason Bourne-like protagonist, who is on the hunt for the serial killer who took everything from him. During the runtime we get plenty of bloody, bloody murders; some backwoods cannibals that will turn your stomach; the constant threat of rape; and enough tendon slicing and torture for several films. Somewhere along the way our protagonist becomes so mired in the bloodshed and his lust for revenge that he loses sight of the innocent who are hurt in the process. There’s no one to root for here; just black painted on black.

“I Saw the Devil” may be the latest in a long-running stream of South Korean revenge films, but director Ji-woon Kim (“The Good, The Bad, The Weird” and “A Bittersweet Life”) is just as happy to subvert the genre as he is to embody it. He toys with the notion of giving the viewer the catharsis we crave from a revenge flick – a wrong has been committed and someone needs to make it right – but by the end of the film, the audience has been tossed into an abyss of brutality where there is no right, no wrong, no hero, no villain, just a concrete floor splattered with blood and entrails that the credits will slowly sweep away like a janitor clearing a school hallway.

Arthouse critics, action purists, revenge movie fans – all should find something to enjoy in “I Saw the Devil,” but then again it’s not exactly a movie you “enjoy” in the traditional sense. The film glides through the night like the windowless van of a predator, offering you a ride after the buses have stopped running. You’ll hop in, a little leery but thankful for the warmth. And just when you least expect it, the movie bashes you in the head with a lead pipe until you slump over, blood streaming from what used to be your skull. Are you ready?

HKFanatic’s Rating: 8.5/10

By Mighty Peking Man

After Soo-hyun’s (Lee Byung-hun) girlfriend is barbarically murdered, he seeks revenge against the psychopath (Choi Min-sik) held responsible…

In a country whose movies consist mostly of remakes (“The Karate Kid”), reboots (“Conan The Barbarian”), comic books (“Green Lantern”), teeny bopper novelizations (“Twilight”) and filmmakers (Michael Bay, James Cameron) who piss and shit on the foolish masses; it’s good to know that there’s an alternative option out there for top quality filmmaking that’s fresh and original.

It’s no wonder I got into foreign cinema to begin, which remains one of the best choices I’ve ever made in regards to entertaining this little brain of mine. I’m not saying all of Hollywood sucks, I’m saying that most of it does. Let’s put it this way: it has been years since I have been truly in awe after watching a Hollywood movie (get the hell out of here with that “Inception” shit!).

Kim Ji-woon’s “I Saw the Devil” is as good as it gets when it comes to a single motion picture full of revenge, violence, suspense, gore and action; with that statement, it almost sounds like I’m downplaying it as some kind of senseless shock-value flick; the fact is, it’s an all-round solid movie that’s filled with great characters, a simple plot and a director/writer/cast/cinematographer/action choreographer who really knows what the fuck they’re doing.

I have thoroughly enjoyed every Kim Ji-woon title I have seen (I have yet to see 2000’s “Coming Out”). However, I was a little worried after watching “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” (2008); don’t get me wrong, it’s an awesome movie, but there was a part of me that sensed Kim Ji-woon might have been headed more towards the big budget Hollywood side of things, and away from the more low key cult favorites like “A Bittersweet Life” (2005) and “Foul King” (2000)…

With “I Saw the Devil,” Kim Ji-woon takes a step backwards from the mainstream light, and pulls out a gutsy – metaphorically and literally speaking – thriller that I’ll never forget and continue to bring up anytime the subject of ‘great movies’ is discussed.

A definite must see!

Mighty Peking Man’s Rating: 10/10

The post I Saw the Devil (2010) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” Korean Theatrical Poster

Director: Stephen Sommers
Cast: Channing Tatum, Sienna Miller, Christopher Eccleston, Karolina Kurkova, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rachel Nichols, Marlon Wayans, Ray Park, Lee Byung-hun, Dennis Quaid, Jonathan Pryce, Gerald Okamura
Running Time: 118 min.

By JJ Hatfield

The overall response to the newest “first” chapter of the “Joe” world seems to be mostly positive. In other words from the studio to the Hasbro company cranking out new and improved “Joe” items, everyone is happy making money.

Perhaps I am too jaded and seen too many movies marketing but it seemed to me the only reason to make this movie was for a quickie cashcise (a new word for greedy franchises). However I dispensed with pre-determined judgments and watched the movie. With virtually no background in “G.I. Joe” I was not certain who belonged in that world and who did not and had to wait until the movie begins to fill in the huge craters of a plot.

The plot is only one of the problems in Joe land. Channing Tatum is “Duke” who is recruited to be in the special “Joe” unit. They must have needed him to shore up a set. His wooden performance could be confused with an inanimate object except for when he is screaming or lamely tossing out one liners. This guy can dance with or without clothes? Even knowing nothing about Joe Land I immediately was confused by Snake Eyes and his ridiculous looking upper body with abs and a good physique literally built right into the suit he was forced to wear. Apparently the studio thought it looked ridiculous as well but it’s hard to believe they agreed to the silly costume. The director audio commentary stated that “they tried to shoot around the suit, or hide it behind something”.

The only real type sort of martial arts is when Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow meet. In one of the very few scenes I liked was a bit of back story behind Snake Eyes and Storm Shadows relationship and partially at least why they loathe each other.

Lee Byung-hun plays Storm Shadow but he isn’t given much to work with but demonstrates he can perform in English speaking movies. To see some of his work check out “A Bittersweet Life”. As for Snake Eyes (Ray Park) how could you possibly tell if he can act or not? He doesn’t speak and that gawd awful suit – it could be anyone in there! The Big Guy in all of this is “Joe” General (Dennis Quaid) who barks one liners and pep talks so old they turned to dust as he says them.

One aspect I didn’t understand was why there was not more about the COBRA importance. It’s not just an evil group name and they do use cobra venom, etc., but it just isn’t discussed.

There are side stories about the main characters, I can’t even call them sub plots that are thinly sketched with no substance. Another problem is having a connection between a “Joe” and the evil Baroness. Apparently Duke needs her later as he cannot fly and fire at the same time. (insert your own joke) The special effects were just not special and in some cases made the scene look completely unreal. Taken all together I cannot go any higher than 5.5. However after talking with a number of mostly men who had fond memories of “Joe” and it was a kick to see it again for them I decided to add a half point for true fans.

JJ Hatfield’s Rating: 6/10

The post G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

"Addicted" Korean Theatrical Poster

AKA: Jungdok
Director: Park Young-hoon
Writer: Byun Won-mi
Producer: Lee Choon-Yeon
Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Lee Mi-yeon, Lee Ueol, Park Sun-young
Running Time: 114 min.

By JJ Hatfield

Life is good for the two brothers Ho-jin and Dae-jin. They are very close and good friends too. The two live together as they have no other family until Ho-jin marries. Their lives are peaceful and routine and that seems to suit them fine.

Ho-jin, the elder brother (Lee Eol) is an artist craftsman who works with wood and likes to make ordinary things become extraordinary. He is up and coming in his success and starts doing shows. The younger brother Dae-jin (Lee Byung-hun) likes being a carefree guy without responsibilities who loves to race cars. Ho-jin doesn’t like him racing because it is dangerous but he knows how much Dae-jin loves the life and he can’t talk him out of it.

In different locations but virtuality the same time both brothers are involved in serious car accidents. Both are near death with severe injuries. Rushed to the same hospital Ho-jin and Dae-jin are in coma and the prognosis is not good. Eun-soo does her best to care for them and check in on them at the hospital but as time passes so do her hopes of either of them recovering. There are times Eun-soo doesn’t say anything using body language instead to show how much she has suffered and is still suffering. Ho-jin was such a thoughtful husband, always cooking and giving her surprises. He built many things in their home and his garden. He was so much a part of her life, sending her love notes, so many little things he did for her. How could she live without him?

Hard at work one day Eun-soo receives a phone call that leaves her stunned. Dae-jin has awakened from the coma. As would be expected he is physically very weak and terribly confused. It has been nearly a year since the crash. Eun-soo is of course pleased Dae-jin is alive but no doubt some times she looks at him and for a moment she wishes it was Ho-jin. Of course she never would say anything to Dae-jin. He couldn’t help who got better and who didn’t.Somewhere along the way a note of uneasiness has moved into the story unnoticed.

After some time Dae-jin is told he is well enough to return home. Eun-soo does her best to accept the situation. Her husband gone and now she has his ill brother to care for too. Dae-jin’s recovery is rather miraculous but he has begun to take on habits and mannerisms of Ho-jin. Not as he used to be – he has even given up racing. Even more startling is Dae-jin says he is Ho-jin! This new revelation is tearing Eun-soo apart. One night she invites an old female friend and part of Dea-jin’s racing team to dinner. He does not seem to understand why she thinks he is Dae-jin. He cooks them dinner and both women are so stunned they can barely eat.

Eun-soo repeatedly consults doctors and researches people with similar injuries and even follows through with investigating a soul inhabiting the body of someone else. The poor woman has been through so much, and now the doctor says this? Well not exactly. But there are at least documented cases where a person believed they were another person. And as the doctor stated it is not something that can be tested for.

Dae jin moves, talks, walks like Ho- Jin. What he likes, dislikes. Eun-soo does not believe he is Ho-jin. But everything that happens point to just that. That creepy feeling grows even though nothing is happening. But what if something is about to happen? What will Dae-jin do as Ho-jin? It is a complete unknown, this mix of brothers. That unknown is what makes this movie grab and keep your attention. Ye-jin, Dae-jin’s old female buddy doesn’t believe Dae-jin has Ho-jins spirit. She tries to discover the truth by spending more time with him but she ends up uncertain.

In the meantime Dai-jin and Eun-soo spend more time together and Eun-soo finds herself more accepting of Dae-jin as Ho-jin. It isn’t rational. it’s not logical yet there are things he knows or acts he does that only Ho-jin could possibly know about. Little things only a lover would know.

Lee Byung-hun does a terrific job of being mysterious. When was the last time you saw a good movie with a character that pulled off “mysterious”? The viewer is not certain of his character but it’s played as slightly dangerous and the next scene is not a given. This role could not have been an easy one for him but he manages to pull off the transition from Dae-jin to Ho-jin masterfully.

Lee Eol as Ho-Jin puts in a wonderful performance. Though he is not on screen for the vast majority of the film, he uses what time he has to create the complete persona. If his acting was not strong enough there would really be no movie. It was imperative that he establish Ho-jin and all his mannerisms, likes, dislikes, even the way he moves or works with his furniture. His relationship with Eun-soo is all important.

Mi-yeon Lee as Eun-soo gives a truly award winning performance. Her being given the prestigious Grand Bell Awards, for Best Actress only makes it official the fine work she does in “Addicted”. She is believable as a person would be caught up in such a bizarre situation! So many twists and turns and a couple of heart stopping shocks. You feel them too. The film would fall apart with an actress of lesser skill.

This is an excellent film. It has a lot of mystery right to the end and leaves you with plenty to think about. Then later you will find yourself thinking about “Addicted” again, realizing you had to watch it again. It is perhaps too slow in development for some however they are missing part of the important stuff, such as dialog. Yes exposition is required. There are no bloody, gore filled, martial arts, guns, explosives and such. The action is supplied by the terrific performances of Lee Byung-hun and Lee Mi-yeon and Lee Eol.

Highly Recommended.

Grand Bell Awards 2003
Won Grand Bell Award: Best Actress Lee Mi-yeon

“Addicted” is a fine mystery drama.

JJ Hatfield’s Rating: 9/10

The post Addicted (2002) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“Lament” Korean DVD Cover

AKA: Jisangmanga
Director: Kim Hee-Cheol
Cast: Shin Hyun-Joon, Lee Byung-Hun, Jeong Seon-Kyung, Choi Hak-Rak, Yeo-kyeong Kim
Running Time: 87 min.

BY JJ Hatfield

When we first meet Lee Kwang Su (Shin Hyun Jun) he is in very bad shape. His entire life he has tried to forget and escape from a nightmare of a childhood. His only family is an older brother who is half insane. Kwang Su does his very best to keep his brother from getting into trouble but as years go by he only becomes more mentally ill and much more difficult to keep from possibly hurting someone or even himself. The unthinkable happens and Kwang Su dives deep into drink to try and help numb the crushing pain.

In an alcohol haze he literally bumps into Park Jong-man (Lee Byung-hun), a waiter in a local bar when he is not filming himself or faxing Hollywood to break into American movies. Everything is an opportunity to him and he tries to copy Kwang Su’s falling down drunk movements. As Kwang Su stumbles through the streets he sees a music shop and is drawn to it. The young woman who works there is alarmed but he begins to play one of the pianos and the music is so moving she is drawn to him. And then he is gone.

As luck would have it Kwang Su wanders in the bar where Jong-man works. Jong-man tries to convince him to stop drinking but suddenly the police arrive to arrest Kwang Su for a crime he can’t remember but he manages to escape. In the process however Kwang Su’s pack is left at the bar. Jong-man takes the bag home with him and discovers a diary, family photos and sheet music. He goes through the items and finds them very interesting. Kwang Su shows up at Jong-mans to get his bag back. On an impulse Jong-man tells him he should stay with him. At the time Jong-man’s intent is more selfish than sanctuary. He sees Kwang Su as a potential asset to him and does not want to let him wander off. Through it all Jong-man continues to makes tapes of himself and faxing movie companies. He also seems to have a few moments now and then when he actually thinks about another human, Kwang Su in this case. Without even realizing it he is beginning to change the way he lives and “acts”.

A bond develops between the two very different men to the extent that Jong-man goes on the run with Kwang Su when the police raid the apartment. They end up in an isolated old house out of town. Jong-man believes Kwang Su is good luck despite his problems and that he could go far with his musical talent. Through it all Jong-man is upbeat, optimistic and bubbling with energy, always propping up Kwang Su. However there does reach a point where the extremely overly positive energy just doesn’t work anymore. However during this time Kwang Su makes visits to the music shop and spends more time with Se Hee.

There are some annoying scenes that take away from the human drama aspect. Kwang Su mainly cries and rolls his ankles while really intoxicated yet he can run away pretty damned well. Don’t get me wrong he has justifiable reason to be distraught, but it seems like it goes on too long. However the viewer has to let go of that impression as the story within a story unfolds. Would someone really just invite a stranger to stay in their home? In the story and at that point in Jong-mans career pursuits it doesn’t seem that unreasonable.

Jong-man films everything he does with the exception of using the bathroom and having sex. He eats, sleeps, chats, talks to very different people and shows his various acting styles, always filming. Most of it is Lee Byung Hun hamming it up big time however occasionally the viewer sees a glimpse of the ‘real’ Jong-man. Se Hee and her relationship with an unknown musician who has…er, issues seems like a real stretch.

Kim Hee-Cheol, the director seems to have taken the approach of letting if not encouraging the two leads to be as over the top as possible. This works fairly well with Jong-man but goes on too long. Kwang Su makes you feel as if you have been walking the streets, sick, mentally anguished for days and days, but it does improve if the viewer will have some patience. The ending provides a twist the viewer never sees coming.

“Lament” is not a great film but it’s good. Unfortunately overlooked by many seeking action it didn’t deliver the punch. This isn’t a martial arts, kick ass action movie. That does not mean it cannot still be a good watch.

*SPOILER* There is something I noticed I have never heard anyone reference. Perhaps I am the only one who would care about such things. In the bathroom scene with Kwang Su he takes a box from his bag. It certainly looks to me to be a cremation box traditional in south Korea. When he opens the box it appears the crematorium gave him an empty box. *END SPOILER*

JJ Hatfield’s Rating: 7/10

The post Lament | aka Elegy of the Earth (1997) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“JSA: Joint Security Area” Korean Theatrical Poster

AKA: JSA
Director: Park Chan-wook
Cast: Lee Byung-Hun, Song Kang-Ho, Shin Ha-Kyun, Lee Young-Ae, Kim Tae-Woo, Gi Ju-Bong, Lee Han-Wi, Lee Dae-Yeon, Kim Myung-Soo, Kim Kwang-Il
Running Time: 100 min.

By Equinox21

J.S.A. has been my favorite Korean movie, my second favorite Asian movie (behind Chungking Express), and one of my top 5 favorite movies in general ever since I first saw it. Everything about it (save for one minor aspect) is absolutely top notch; acting, music, story, direction, ambiance… all perfect. As outstanding as J.S.A. is, watching it still brings down my day a bit as it is a great example of a classic tragedy.

When there’s a murder in a North Korean watch tower on the border between North and South Korea, Swiss-Korean investigator for the NNSC (Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission), Major Sophie Lang (Lee Yeong-ae), is called in to solve the mystery. The South Korean soldier that shot and killed 2 North Korean soldiers and wounded a third in the tower, while being wounded himself, has already been identified. What the Major must discover is exactly why the shootout took place. She doesn’t get any help from the two surviving players in the shootout, as North Korean Sgt. Oh (Song Kang-ho) claims that Sgt. Lee (Lee Byeong-hyun) simply walked in and started shooting, and Sgt. Lee claims that he’d been kidnapped and was forced to shoot the North Koreans in his escape. Through the course of the movie Major Lang must prevent hostilities from increasing all while she discovers the shocking truth. The story is absolutely perfect, and easily one of my favorites because of the great implications that the truth holds.

So as not to spoil any of the surprise, I’ll just say that the acting was terrific from Song Kang-ho, Shin Ha-kyun, Lee Byeong-hyun, and Kim Tae-woo. The entire impact of the movie rests on their shoulders, and they do not disappoint!

The direction was brilliant by Park Chan-wook. There are a number of elements he adds to the movie to keep the suspense and drama on overdrive. In particular is one seemingly minor scene in the first act that is repeated at the very end of the movie, but from a different angle in which it yields an entirely different emotional impact the second time around.

The music was extremely well placed in J.S.A., and has one of my favorite soundtracks of any Korean movie. It fits the tragic mood of the movie very well. It’s also such a moving soundtrack that it’s one of the few that I’ve bought. It couldn’t have been any better.

The ONLY negative aspects of this movie were the few portions that were in English. Lee Yeong-ae’s limited ability to speak English hurt the movie in only those few parts, but thankfully this had no impact on the overall story or feel. I just ignore these few scenes negative aspects when watching the movie, because every other scene more than makes up for it.

Everyone should watch this movie because, simply put, it is brilliant. Everything about it, except that one minor flaw, was perfect. This was a huge success in the South Korean box offices, and rightly so. See J.S.A. as soon as possible, if you haven’t already.

Equinox21’s Rating: 10/10

By Dragon Ma

Would you risk a certain death for something greater? I’m not sure that’s the question JSA is asking but it’s along those lines. This film deals with a friendship that occurs after someone takes a risk and walks over a line that’s marked certain death for the person who walks over it and anyone who greets him at the other end.

The film opens with a shooting and two men, Sergeant Lee (Lee Byung-Heon) and Sergeant Ho (Shin Ha-Kyun) from South Korea surviving and two from North Korea Lieutenant Choi and Private Jung (Kim Tae-Woo) dead and another North Korea, Sergeant Oh (Song Kang Ho) surviving. Major Sophie-Jean (Lee Young-Ae) is brought in by the NNSC (Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission) to find out what really happened. As Sophie begins to investigate she finds not everything is as straightforward as she thinks.

After the success of Shiri came another film dealing with the division of North and South Korea, only this one is not as loud and bombastic as Shiri. It’s more of a detective story but as you watch the film it explains early on what happened, the only thing that needs to be explained is why and that’s where JSA gets interesting. As both sides meet for the first time and realize neither is made out to be the enemy that they’ve been told you begin to appreciate the friendship although you know it’s not going to last and that’s the tragic part, this friendship will not survive because of the pervading outside forces that threaten it. The acting is superb across the board, the only weak link that maybe considered is Lee Young-Ae who never grew up in Korea but speaks perfect Korean but has broken English. Park-Chan Wook’s direction is smooth and assured and he doesn’t miss a step, although there is a misguided attempt at history somewhere in the film but that’s only a minor point, he also brings a great visual sense to the film but it’s used only sparingly so it doesn’t distract from the story or the characters. I recommend this excellent film to anyone who is interested in watching Korean films, it’s a great introduction as to why there has been such a buzz surrounding that country and here is your proof.

Dragon Ma’s Rating: 10/10

By Alexander

There are many things to like about Joint Security Area, from its fresh perspective of the volatile border between the two Koreas, the inclusion of a neutral Swiss investigative party depicted by competent (!) gwailo actors, a compelling and suspenseful narrative and deft direction by Park Chan-wook. But the most appealing quality of this dramatic thriller are the dynamic performances of Song Kang-ho (Shiri) and Lee Young-ae. Lee is particularly riveting as a South Korean soldier torn between his loyalty to an unexpected friend and his duty to his country. He effortlessly shifts from the expected stoicism of a border guard to boredom to terror as his character is faced with mounting dilemmas after an ill-advised encounter in North Korea.

JSA should not be dismissed as a straight action film ala Shiri or the dozens of films being churned out by Hong Kong crap factories. It’s so much more than a violent shoot-’em-up framed by the always topical conflict between North and South Korea. Rather, it’s a moving story that personalizes the agony faced by many Koreans separated from loved ones by political ideologies and massive, guns-at-the-ready armies.

JSA is REQUIRED viewing, and would serve as a fantastic introduction to the exciting (and rapidly expanding) world of Korean cinema.

Alexander’s Rating: 8.5/10

By Len

Between the two koreas lies a demilitarized zone, guarded by soldiers on both sides who are trained to be enemies. One night, this balance of terror is upset by a weird shootout on the North Korean side in which several soldiers from both sides are injured and killed. A young South Korean sergeant makes a confession on which he states that he’s responsible for the bloodshed, but what was he doing on the wrong side of the DMZ in the first place?

UN sends a neutral committee from Switzerland to investigate this volatile situation, headed by a young korean-born female officer. From here starts a intriguing mystery told in flashbacks and eyewitness accounts as slowly pieces of the puzzle start to reveal themselves.

Starting off like a normal, by-the-numbers actioner, JSA soon starts to develop into a intriguing drama where instead of political issues, the relationships between people are the main focus. As both sides give their views on what happened, the viewer starts to understand the actual course of events leading to the shootout but right until the end some things are kept under wraps, and thus the film constantly manages to surprise. Not only with plot revelations, but with the quality of the drama also.

Like some of you might have guessed already, I love this film. Director Park Chan-Wook knows how to keep the suspense until the very last scene and never loses touch of the actual human beings involved in the incident. This isn’t a film about soldiers, but a film of real people, with actual lives, who just happen to be soldiers in two rival nations. The brilliant acting plays a big part in this. Song Kang-Ho, who some might know from Foul King and Shiri, is just awesome as the north korean officer somehow involved in the shooting and Yeong-Ae Lee is very convincing as the South Korean sergeant who’s obviously trying to cover for someone by confessing.

In the end, the last piece of the puzzle is revealed as the camera slowly tours over a photograph taken by a tourist earlier in the film and forces the viewer to think about what (s)he has just seen.

A great film.

Len’s Rating: 9/10

The post JSA: Joint Security Area (2000) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

“The Good, The Bad, The Weird” US Theatrical Poster

Director: Kim Ji-woon
Cast: Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, Jung Woo-sung, Yoon Je-moon as Byeong-choon, Ryoo Seung-soo as Man-gil, Song Yeong-chang, Son Byeong-ho
Running Time: 120 min.

By Jeff Bona

A psychotic hitman, Park Chang-i, aka The Bad (Lee Byung-hun), is hired to steal a treasure map from Kanemaru, a Japanese official traveling by train. However, Yoon Tae-goo, aka The Weird (Song Kang-ho), a thief, gets to Kanemaru first, with the intention of robbing him for his money, but he ultimately ends up with the map – unaware of its value. Meanwhile, a bounty, Park Do-won, aka The Good (Jung Woo-sung), plots to hit two birds with one stone by intercepting Park Chang-i’s plans, thus collecting money for his capture and retrieving the map for the Korean Independence Army.

Three men. One map. One treasure. The last man standing wins.

Though not as experimental as Wisit Sasanatieng’s Tears of the Black Tiger, and not as surreal as Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western Django – Kim Ji Woon’s The Good, The bad, The Weird (note: there is no “and” in the title) is another creative entry in this on-going trend of Western Genre films by Asian filmmakers.

Although Kim Jee-Woon made a name for himself with The Foul King and A Tale of Two Sisters, he’s mostly known for his mobster film, A Bittersweet Life. Those familiar with A Bittersweet Life, who are expecting the same kind of visionary violence, will be pleased.

Above anything this film is trying to showcase – and believe me, the whole movie is top quality – the action is what shines the most; it’s crisp, fast, inventive and brutal. A lot of it filmed with beautiful scope in mind, such as the horses running through gritty explosions; and even Road Warrior-style vehicle chases, which would make George Miller proud.

Jung Woo-sung (Musa) has a tame role as The Good, so he doesn’t really get a chance to show off an off-the-wall performance. Lee Byung-hun (A Bittersweet Life), who plays The Bad, gets to have a lot more fun as a scarfaced killer. But it’s Song Kang-ho (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance), The Weird, who steals the show as the goofy, but very skilled gunslinger/thief, who has no idea what he’s gotten himself into when he put his hands on that map. Obviously, much of the film’s comedy revolves around his role as well.

Overall, The Good, The Bad, The Weird isn’t Kim Jee-Woon’s best film. It’s his best looking, no doubt. It’s definitely entertaining, amusing as hell, and the pacing is excellent. But it’s not the step-above A Bittersweet Life that I was hoping it would be, but then again, that’s one flick that’s hard to beat.

Jeff Bona‘s Rating: 8/10

The post Good, The Bad, The Weird, The (2008) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.

"A Bittersweet Life" Korean Theatrical Poster

Director: Kim Ji-woon
Producer: Lee Yu-Jin
Cast: Lee Byung-Hun, Kim Young-Cheol, Shin Mina, Hwang Jeong-Min, Kim Roi-Ha, Oh Dal-Su, Vadim, Eric, Kim Hae-Gon, Lee Mu-Young, Jin Gu
Running Time: 120 min.

By Iuxion

A Bittersweet Life is pretty much a cardboard cutout example of how to make an entertaining gangster film, Korean or not. Lee Byung Hun shines in the lead as a hitman who is betrayed by his boss after making a seemingly inconsequential ‘mistake’ and faces an uphill battle as he seeks bloody vengeance. It may not be the most original plot in the world, but it certainly works. Nice touches, like a quiet moment in which Sun Woo (Lee Byung Hun) placidly savors a final taste of chocolate cake before ‘going to work’, add loads to the style and atmosphere.

There’s this one scene about midday through in which these two dorks, full of themselves and not too pleased with driving of our protagonist, ungraciously spit on his shiny black car and throw a cigarette butt at his window. Sun Woo, being the badass that he is (and considering his current mood), abruptly stops his car in front of theirs, gets out, and proceeds to beat the two punks to a pulp. In the coupe de grace, he grabs their keys and tosses them off the bridge. For a moment there I forgot I was watching a movie and simply empathized with the character, his anger just about palpable and real.

If only the rest of the movie kept pumping the adrenaline to the same level, this might have been a classic. As it stands, it’s pretty good, but on the whole, doesn’t really add much of anything new to the genre. The supporting cast, including Kim Young Cheol and Shin Mina (who slightly resembles Jeon Ji Hyun) turn in fine performances, and the direction by Kim Jee Woon is super slick, if by the book. The set design was supposedly done by the same guy(s) as Oldboy, and it definitely shows. Likewise, the music work is commendable.

I’ve heard a rumor that another [longer] cut of the movie exists, and that’s something I’d be genuinely interested in. Some subplots in this version are a little rushed, and the movie could use a bit more characterization and dialogue to help set it apart. As much as I love gun battles, we’ve pretty much seen it all done before, and arguably done better (although the one here is certainly decent). Ditto with some of the torture scenes and the hand to hand combat of the one versus twenty variety, a lot of which I felt could’ve been shortened or removed altogether without much of a loss (besides a nagging sense of déjà vu). That’s not to say none of the violence is striking, some of it is, but next to the innovative sequences showcased in Park Chan Wook’s films of late, I couldn’t help but want for more.

Nevertheless, this is a solid film. If you are at all into this type of thing, then by all means.

Iuxion’s Rating: 8/10

By Owlman

All you need to know about A Bittersweet Life is that it is, in my humble opinion, one of the best gangster movies from recent times that I’ve ever seen. Seriously – a great mix of cool characters, action, dialogue, and humour.

Actually, on a technical note, another thing that you need to know about A Bittersweet Life is that the DTS soundtrack on the DVD is excellent. I can’t recall any other movie that I’ve recently seen on my home system sound so clear – footsteps from afar coming closer, branches blowing in the wind, gunshots rattling your ears (right up to the post-credits gunfire), and more.

Owlman’s Rating: 10/10 (And that concludes my half-assed review of this movie. Buy this movie, man – you can’t go wrong.)

By Equinox21

***SPOILERS***

This is one of those movies that might be talked about for some time. At least I hope it is. The film is called A Bittersweet Life because the main character, Sun-woo (Lee Byung-hun), is the manager of a bar called La Dolce Vita (Italian for A Bittersweet Life). In addition to being the manager, he’s also the right hand man to a local mob boss.

When Sun-woo fails to carry out a specific order, because his conscience gets the best of him, he’s put on the boss’ hit list. From then on it’s a struggle to survive, and get answers. This bloody, violent and noir movie ends up with an ultimately ambiguous ending. Did everything really just happen or was it a fantasy concocted by Sun-woo because he’s bored with his life?

A Bittersweet Life was a very interesting movie to watch, and painful to look at in certain parts. Not as graphic as a film like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance or Save the Green Planet, but just as striking. What I really liked was Sun-woo’s journey to obtain a gun. It wasn’t like America, where you can just walk into a store and walk out armed like The Terminator. Sun-woo had to go through a rigorous process in the underworld to get a gun. Of course, this added to his ultimate downfall. Plus, having never fired a gun before, his aim is not as perfect as “in the movies”, this adds to the realism and, to be quite honest, the enjoyability of the film (which also adds to the ambiguousness of the ending).

I would have to say that my thoughts on the film are that it was all a fantasy. Not just because of what is said at the end, but also because of how much punishment Sun-woo takes and stays on his feet (after dozens fall before him, after taking much less in the way of physical bodily damage). This doesn’t make it any less enjoyable, it just makes it more fantasy than an attempt at realistic gunplay action. A Bittersweet Life is highly recommended.

Equinox21’s Rating: 8.5/10

The post Bittersweet Life, A (2005) Review first appeared on cityonfire.com.