"You can do a hundred things right, but it takes only one mistake to destroy everything."A Bittersweet Life is a 2005 South Korean film directed and written by Kim Ji-woon and starring Lee Byung-hun. Ruthlessly violent, it illustrates the ethical codes in the Korean mob and how they clash with personal
morality.REVIEWA Bittersweet Life is genre adept Kim Jee-woon's fourth feature film, following strong showings in black comedy, sports comedy and horror. In this instance, it's a crime/revenge film and another completely different rendering than his previous films, proving that Kim has a strong capacity for understanding the genre film, twisting it and providing solid entertainment out of it.The story is a very simple one without any notable twists and turns: a dedicated mob enforcer, the model for coolness in criminal, has a moment of sympathy and his boss of many years takes it personally. Brutally beaten and upon the verge of being killed, he seizes a moment and escapes, going on a vengeance rampage once free. An interesting thematic undercurrent to the story is a level of self-deception and desire in the characters. In being unable to be honest, these men seal their fates. Granted, it doesn't make the story any more complex, but it adds a lot to the characters and their motivations, with the self-discovery of answers to their own unanswerable questions being secondary (or perhaps primary) goals.It's a tragic story, but elevated by the remarkable characterizations of all the players, from the charismatic cool anti-hero to the various bosses and upper level henchmen, all of whom are memorable characters. Furthermore, the direction definitely oozes with the type of cool that drives fanboys into seizures: lots of stylish ultraviolence, dialogue laden with buckets of cool, etc. The shots, the lighting, the acting, the art/production design--everything contributes so immensely to a high level of cool. And that might be a weakness for this film, but it seems like that's what the film set out to do and so it doesn't really disappoint.As such, the running time of two hours barely registers as the piece moves from step to step with heavy outbreaks of violence. Kim makes several homages to other films in the crime/action/vengeance films in process so fans of these kind of movies might have even more fun. However, while the film executes so strongly its goals of being a remarkable genre piece, it doesn't really try for much else, so those not interested in a stylish crime/revenge film loaded with violence and tons of style will find nothing special here. Those who do go in looking for this in a film will find a lot to like. Strongly recommended for those who appreciate the genre.
September 1, 2011
