BEAUTIFUL, BUT ONLY HALF FULL

Korean film directors are PhDs in violent masterpieces and „Bittersweet life” is no exception.

The story is in the back plan of the entire of the flick, concentrating on a pretty thin mix already seen elements of revenge and betrayal inside the mafia circles. Major asset of Kim Jee-Woon's movie is the blazing production, camera and light of action sequences at its core. The director is very well aware of that, so he exploits them to the very extreme, leaving the viewer feeling awed, but pretty much empty at the end.

„A bittersweet life” is the feast for the eye, but sadly not for the ear and brain as well.

A BITTERSWEET LIFE - 5/10

FOTO: cyberpat.com

TOO ARTSY

Everything we already saw in „Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance” is there in the second part of „The Vengeance trilogy” by Park Chan-Wook, but enhanced to the very limit. This particularly goes for the artistic approach to camera, lighting and choreography which are both mesmerizing, but also a bit tiresome.

Plot uses the two trademarks of Korean scriptwriters: overlapping of stories and course of time and it uses it with some variable success. First part of the movie tends to stall everything, while things get a bit more interesting towards the end, with some true life dramatical questions opened up in the waiting room.

„Sympathy for Lady Vengeance” is a beautiful picture, but with no matching sound to complement it.

SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE - 5/10

FOTO: image.tmdb.org

A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE

Korean new wave cinema reinvented the trash slash action thriller genre, combining it along the way with some drama and artistic elements. The backbone of that new mutated line of movies tends to be motive of vengeance.

„Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” is the first part of the much acclaimed „Revenge” trilogy by the gifted director Park Chan-Wook, climaxing in the worldwide known „Oldboy”.

First part of the saga brings us the story of the deaf and dumb young man that kidnaps his boss's daughter so he can pay the kidney transplantation for his sister. As it often does, everything in his plan goes wrong and a lot of side characters get drawn into the plot, complicating and overlapping the story to the very end.

Directing is superb, with strong symbolism and beautifully shot violent scenes throughout the entire course of the movie. Acting is just mesmerizing, led by Kang-ho Song, as well as the action choreography.

„Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance” is a true masterpiece of New wave Korean violent thriller drama.

SYMPATHY FOR MR.VENGEANCE - 8/10


FOTO: s3.amazonaws.com

A BEAUTIFUL LEGEND

FOTO: shiningstuff.com

Chinese tend to overact, especially when it comes to their historical and mythical movie scripts. ”Hero” is no exception with nameless warrior’s (Jet Li) story behind the country’s uniting in the Middle age.

Yimou Yhang was the perfect choice for the directing chair of this epic flick, with his fanatically resilient consistency when it comes to colors, frames and action choreography. Every scene is a small piece of art, mesmerizing the spectator to forget about the somewhat banal and naïve plot.

”Hero” is spectacular, beautiful and consistently directed historical legend for the lovers of Chinese ”fly and fight” action genre.

HERO - 6/10