Rough Cut

영화는 영화다 (Rough Cut; also known as A Movie is a Movie) is a South Korean movie that was released on September 11th, 2008 with a runtime of 113 minutes.

Story: Gang-pae is a gangster and has risen to one of the highest positions in his gang. He's known for his violent nature but at the same time has a side appreciating arts, especially movies.
On the other hand, Jang Su-ta is a popular actor who's known for his short temper. A few days after beating up his co-starring actor he goes drinking with the director and meets Gang-pae in that bar.
While filming a fight scene a few days later Su-ta beats up another actor again and no one is willing to take the co-starring role after that. When he remembers that Gang-pae actually has been acting in a minor role in a movie before, he calls him and offers the gangster the co-starring role. Gang-pae agrees to this - as long as they are really fighting..

Cast: As for the cast there are only Gang-pae and Su-ta in the focus though there are a lot of other characters we meet from time to time. However, I think it's the best thing to focus on the two main characters.
So Ji-sub accepted the role of Gang-pae and the first thing I need to admit is that I seem to have a weak spot for So Ji-sub in suits. Besides, the gangster image totally fits him. As you might remember I really liked A Company Man, a movie I've reviewed some time ago. While the topic in this one is kind of different, the "gangster" image works well for So Ji-sub. His acting was on spot most of the time showing his soft side as well as his rather cold and serious side.
On the other side we see Kang Ji-hwan as Jang Su-ta, an arrogant actor with a somewhat violent side and he just can't hold back when it came to the movie they were filming. His violent part gets him into serious trouble and his company even gets into financial problems due to the money they have to pay to keep the reporters quiet. While fighting with Gang-pae he seems to grow as a person though and it seems like he's becoming a little more open towards Gang-pae later in the movie, almost as if the two of them became friends.


The movie in itself is strong, the cast is quite good as well and people - THIS is a gangster movie. While there were some things in the background story that seemed too much, this movie still got a 9/10 rating from me which is actually pretty good.
What I found to be rather funny about this movie in general is how they chose the names of the characters. Gang-pae in fact is the Korean word for gangster and Su-ta the Korean pronounciation of "star", and it's actually kind of funny that they did even use the names reflecting the characters that good.

After all a strong movie I'd recommend to those who enjoy exciting fights or just fans of the actors!

Oh, and at the very end - can we PLEASE talk about how everyone in this movie is watching Green Fish? I can't stop laughing about this fact.

An Ethics Lesson

분노의 윤리학 (An Ethics Lesson; also known as Ethics of Anger) is a South Korean movie released on February 21st 2013 with a duration of 110 minutes.

Story: Jin-ah is a popular girl desperately in need for money. That's how she got in touch with loan shark Park Myung-rok. Her neighbor Kim Jung-hoon is a police officer who's spying on her in her apartment. Her former boyfriend Han Hyun-soo who still loves her visits her apartment frequently and hears her with her lover, married Professor Kim Su-taek, one night. After fighting with her Hyun-soo kills Jin-ah and Professor Kim gets arrested. Jung-hoon, who recorded the murder, is contacted by Hyun-soo. Myung-rok meets Jung-hoon when he's trying to remove the camera and the microphones in the middle of the night. This is how the men get involved with each other, except for Professor Kim who doesn't know what's happening to him.

Cast: Lee Je-hoon as Kim Jung-hoon delivers what he's supposed to do though it does not become clear why exactly he has been spying on Jin-ah. There are signs that he had a crush on his beautiful neighbor but then again the viewer doesn't get to know this for sure. After all his acting is quite satisfying.
Kim Tae-hoon as Han Hyun-soo seems to be a good actor as well but, and this is only my opinion so don't hate me for that, he seems to be a little too old for such a passionate and at the same time sometimes just.. stupid character. Usually one would expect someone younger when it comes to really impulsive and passionate characters but then again his acting fits his character after all so that's not much of a problem at the end of the day.
Jo Jin-woong as Park Myung-rok made me crack up, for a loan shark he's quite funny but also has his options to make things go his way - or to at least try that. As a loan shark and a gangster I really had difficulties to take him seriously.
Then there's Kwak Do-won as Professor Kim Su-taek. While him cheating on his wife is definitely something about morals it doesn't make him a charming character. As for the acting, I loved the way he developed while being interrogated over days or weeks.
Lastly I need to mention his wife, Sun-hwa, played by Moon So-ri. She doesn't have many scenes so there's no development and her character appearing in the end makes it seem incredibly random like -  "oh, we could add a little bit of a wife seeking for revenge as well!" but her behavior in that one scene is interesting. It doesn't seem like it's her first time dealing with.. uhm.. sudden circumstances.




Now my personal rating? As you might have noticed I found the movie at least enjoyable but it still only gets 6/10 from me because it seriously missed the point. A movie that's supposed to be a crime and maybe even melodrama movie isn't supposed to be as hilarious as this movie is, it just seems like a whole parody of another gangster movie. If its aim was to make the audience crack up the rating would have been better but since it is supposed to be a rather serious movie (as far as I've read) it turned out quite bad.
That being said, I like the way the scenes were used. For example in two scenes, when Hyun-soo calls Jung-hoon we see what Hyun-soo is doing first and hear Jung-hoon through the phone, in the next scene it's the opposite, we see Jung-hoon. It's actually pretty nice but can turn out kind of repetitive it it's used too often.


If you're looking for a good laugh you definitely should try this movie but if you're looking for a serious gangster movie, this one is not for you.

Friend

친구 (Friend) is a South Korean movie that was released in 2001. Most commonly people refer to this movie as a gangster movie but it's also said that it's one of the most important movies about friendship in general.

Story: The movie follows four childhood friends through their lives. Joon-seok is the leader of the group and his father is a gang boss. Dong-su is an ambitious man who wants to be more than an undertaker like his father. Jung-ho was known as the clown in their class and lastly Sang-taek who is an ambitious student. They've been playing together as children already, get reunited in high school and meet each other over and over again after graduating. While Jung-ho and Sang-taek went to college, the other two get into careers in rival gangs which leads to them fighting against each other. Jung-ho and Sang-taek find themselves helplessly watching their childhood friends pointing weapons at each other.
What I personally found impressive about this movie actually is the ending in court. Now I don't want to spoiler too much to those who haven't seen the movie yet but it's interesting to see how the friends still try to protect each other (as much as they can of course).

Cast: Jang Dong-gun is in this movie as Dong-su! While he became popular mainly through his roles in this movie as well as in Taegukgi: Brotherhood of War he has been playing in another gangster movie back at that time as well. I did enjoy his acting a lot in this movie anyways and will probably watch some other movies soon.
We see Yoo Oh-seong as Joon-seok, a character to whom friendship is more important than anything and who lives up to some kind of code within the gang business. Actually I found his acting to be best in this movie, fitting the story and the emotions I would imagine a character like his to feel.
Then there are Seo Tae-hwa as Sang-taek and Jung Woon-taek as Jung-ho. I don't remember much about them but together with the others they made up the main cast of this movie and I think no one stood out in a bad way.


I've rated this movie as a 7.5/10 though just because I found it interesting but not completely unique and I couldn't take some parts seriously. It's worth a watch if you're interested in the history of Korean cinema and movie analyzes but also if you just want to watch something about friendship. Be warned though, it's not a peaceful perfect world shown in this movie.

Green Fish

초록 물고기 (Green Fish) is a South Korean movie released in 1997 that has become noticed for being a pretty untypical gangster movie.

Story: The story starts with Mak-dong being released from the army. While trying to give back a scarf he caught he starts a fight with some guys in the train but doesn't manage to give back the scarf. That's why he searches for the woman, Mi-ae, the lover of gang boss Bae Tae-gon. Through those events and his feelings for Mi-ae, Mak-dong enters the gang and rises to a high position quickly. But since he has no ambitions, Mak-dong can't answer whenever he's asked about his dream and that just doesn't fit the times of huge social changes and modernization. A simple dream like his, building up a restaurant for his family, doesn't work with the ideals in such a fast changing world which gets him into trouble.

Cast: Han Seok-kyu did actually a good job as Mak-dong. He's actually not a hero as you would see in most gangster movies, he's more like an anti-hero and it's refreshing to see a character with human weaknesses and human emotions in a movie. Shim Hye-jin as Mi-ae kept me shaking my had though, she seemed not only weird but completely drugged most of the time. I feel like the movie could have been a lot better when they left out her completely strange behavior. Moon Sung-geun as Bae Tae-gon did well in this movie though. I feel like his character wasn't too bad of a person actually but was more of a hero than the actual main character.


To be completely honest, it took my group (yes, we had to analyze the movie in a group project) days to find the movie online. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad but then again it's definitely not worth the chaos and the stress. And I don't know if it was because of me watching this movie with four others but we just ended up laughing about some things that were said to be rather tragic. Mission success? Well, no, if it should make you feel bad for the characters and you end up laughing harder than before something's wrong. That's why my rating actually is 6.5/10 which is not entirely bad but not that good either.