A Bittersweet Life ( Korean Movie 2005 )

Story: Sun-woo (Lee Byung-hun) is the manager of a bar and serves under crime boss Kang (Kim Yeong-cheol). For seven years already, he loyally stands at his bosses side, so that he is even entrusted with the task to keep an eye on Kang's girlfriend Hee-soo (Shin Min-a), as Kang believes that she may be cheating on him. If this should prove to be true Sun-woo is supposed to eliminate Hee-soo and her new boyfriend. Sun-woo finds out that Hee-soo is in fact unfaithful to boss Kang. However, Sun-woo gives Hee-soo one last chance and spares her life, if she and her boyfriend never meet again and if she would completely erase this affair from her memory.

At the same time, Sun-woo also clashes with Mu-sung (Lee Gi-yeong), the son of befriended gangster boss Baek. The otherwise cool-minded Sun-woo suddenly starts to show more and more emotions and is drawn into a whirlpool of violence when boss Kang finds out that his girlfriend cheated on him and that Sun-woo hid it from him. Sun-woo is captured and tortured, but somehow manages to escape. Now, he plans on taking revenge on Kang, while at the same time he asks himself how things could have ended up like this and why his boss is reacting in such an extreme way. The answer to that question is something he only gets after a long walk through a sea of blood..

Review: "A Bittersweet Life" is gritty, uncompromising and bloody. A movie that will make any action fan jump for joy and which is so consistent concerning its story and the dying of some of the characters, that you might think that you are back in the good old "Hong Kong film noir" times. What's really special about the movie is that behind the rather simple story around a killer, who faithfully served his boss for many years and suddenly is dropped because of a small mistake he made - this again just is Hong Kong stuff through and through - there is even more substance than we could have hoped for. The story is wrapped up in great pictures, which at times are incredibly stylish, without looking artificial, and so much gritty action and blood, that you might question if this movie is really from Korea.

 Lee Byung-hun portrays the movie's anti-hero. He's almost the embodiment of coolness, which however also means that he lacks any real emotions. His character's distance makes it really difficult for us to relate to him, but actually that's not what the film aims for. Only slowly there are more and more emotions showing through and Sun-woo has to ask himself why they are coming up so suddenly. Kang seems to know the reason for that before Sun-woo does, which is also why he punishes his former subordinate so extremely. Still, the killer can't understand how things could have come to pass the way they have. There is no doubt that the director wants to illuminate the pointlessness of violence, that creates a whirlpool of blood in which anyone near it is about to drown. Apart from that director Kim Ji-woon ("A Tale of Two Sisters", "The Quiet Family") also stresses the importance of honor and losing one's face in this society. In the end, it might all just head for vengeance, but at its core, as odd as this might sound, the film focuses on how Sun-woo becomes more and more human, and how one single mistake can turn your whole life upside down. 

 Until towards the end we get only little to see of the human side of the main protagonist. He scores some sympathy points by sparing Hee-soos life, and we also suffer alongside him when he gets tortured really badly and even gets buried alive, but at his core he is still the somewhat cold-blooded killer. Main actor Lee Byung-hun ("JSA", "Bungee Jumping of their own") maybe hasn't a multi-layered character to portray, but he absolutely succeeds in giving his character the charisma and coolness, that is indispensable for a movie like this to work out. Furthermore, it's also really refreshing to see that despite his fighting expertise and toughness the main character is also very vulnerable. We don't get any superman, but someone made from flesh and blood. And concerning the latter one, he loses quite much of it during the movie. Lee also surprises with impressive agility and speed in some of the fighting scenes. Which is no wonder as he trained some Taekwondo in his youth. As an action- and anti-hero Lee cuts quite a figure and he also gives it his all in some rather arduous scenes, so that we really don't want to change roles with him when he is buried in mud in a specially harsh scene.

A Bittersweet Life Movie Trailler

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Product Title: A Bittersweet Life (DVD) (2-Disc) (Director's Cut) (Korea Version) 

Artist Name(s): Lee Byung Hun (Actor) | Kim Young Cheol (Actor, Actor) | Eric Mun Jung Hyuk (Shinhwa) (Actor) | Shin Min Ah (Actor) | Hwang Jung Min (Actor) 

Director: Kim Jee Woon 

Release Date: 2011-06-21  

Language: Korean 

Subtitles: English, Korean 

Country of Origin: South Korea 

Picture Format: NTSC   

Disc Format(s): DVD  

Region Code: All Region   

Rating: III 

Publisher: Contents Zone 

Package Weight: 200 (g) 

Screen Format: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital EX, DTS-EX, Dolby Digital 2.0 

Price $ 12.99 

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