The latest from Kim Ji-woon (A Tale of Two Sisters, The Quiet Family), a slick tale of that revenge resounds with amazing style and wit, but ultimately do we really care?…
It only takes one mistake…
Sun-woo (Lee Byeong-heon, 3 Iron, Three… Extremes, JSA) has the perfect life. An ambitious but loyal member of a yakuza gang, he runs an exclusive nightclub for his boss Mr Kang (Kim Yeong-chul), while also acting as enforcer for him.
It’s a sweet life, until his boss assigns him a special task: tailing his new young girlfriend Hee-soo (Shin Min-ah, Volcano High) while he is away for a few days, to find out whether she has another lover. If she does then Sun-woo must dish out the appropriate vengeance on her wandering ways.
Sun-woo dutifully complies with his boss’s wishes. Arrogantly assured of his boss’s patronage, he thinks nothing of creating enemies both his own comrades within the gang and rivals without. Then he makes his one mistake…
When he finds out that Hee-soo does have a lover, he lets them go. Has he fallen for her himself? Soon it doesn’t matter, as finds himself captured, tortured and buried. Miraculously he manages to escape, his one goal: vengeance on the boss who has so badly betrayed him…
Once again sidestepping ever being stuck in any particular genre, director Kim Ji-woon’s (A Tale of Two Sisters, The Quiet Family, The Foul King) latest venture is a slick, well played, action thriller. In Ji-woon’s more than capable hands, the tensions of gang rivalries slowly intensify over the first half of the film with all the resonance of Beat Takeshi, Scorsese, Coppola, or even Johnnie To’s recent rather convincing (if somewhat disappointing) Triad portrayal in Election. You’re only too aware of the hole, literal as it turns out, that Sun-woo is digging for himself.
After Sun-woo’s violent escape from his torturers, the second half takes on the guise of a spaghetti western. The dark single-minded pursuit of vengeance is definitely reminiscent of Sergio Leone or Clint Eastwood’s 70s westerns than similarly themed Asian movies. Even the soundtrack ditches the ambient string quartets for more Ennio Morricone inspired faire.
Like his previous films, A Tale of Two Sisters and The Foul King, the sumptuous production and imaginative set designs by Ryu Seong-hie once again show Ji-woon’s flare for composition, the centrepiece bar being cleverly exploited in the final showdown between Sun-woo and his boss Mr Kang, as it’s name ‘La Dolce Vita’ neatly falls between them.
Refreshingly, unlike so many Asian thrillers at the moment, Ji-woon avoids a major reveal, like his countryman Park Chan-wook’s loose trilogy, revenge is a dish best not served at all, a shallow victory. But partly therein lies the problem – without a ‘big reveal’ we have to rely on the characters. Though well played, you can’t help but feel that Sun-woo in fact has rather an empty life – perhaps that’s the point? You the whole film wait for a romance between him and Hee-soo that never happens. Such unrequited love has been played before, and far better, in films like Le Samurai and John Woo’s derivative (but superior) The Killer.
Ji-woon’s dark humour is never far from the surface, but on some occasions it’s tone feels too flippant in comparison with the rest of the film – like the Russian arms dealer sequence, preceeding it’s showpiece finale when Sun-woo and the dealer rush to rebuild their guns before each other. You can’t help but wonder if Ji-woon never really had a clear idea of how the film would pan out. Despite being the directors cut, the reviewed Korean DVD release includes a good half hour or more of deleted and alternative scenes.
A Bittersweet Life is a very solid film by one of Korea’s most talented directors – definitely worth watching – but personally I’d like to see Ji-woon return to characters we can really care about. Even if they are third-rate would-be wrestlers who get bullied by their boss (The Foul King)…
DVD details
Distributor: CJ Entertainment (Korea)
The Korean release, as you might expect, smacks of quality. Great transfer, fantastic menus, nice packaging - hell, you'll know the deal by now! The drawback being that aside form the film, none of the extras - of which there are stacks, are subtitled.
