Billed as the new Oldboy, A Bittersweet Life is the latest effort from the director of A Tale of Two Sisters, Ji-woon Kim. The film is yet another stylishly shot Asian movie, but lacks substance and eventually peters out.
The main character of the film Sun-woo is the right hand man of gang boss, Kang. Kang has to leave the country for a couple of days, but before leaving tells Sun-woo that he is seeing a younger woman and suspects that she is cheating on him. Kang orders his loyal henchman to watch over his girlfriend and should Sung-woo find out that she is being unfaithful, he has strict orders to kill her and her lover.
You don’t have to be a mind reader to see where this is going. Despite that, it is excruciatingly difficult to sit through this without simply wondering why? Someone’s life can change quite quickly and unexpectedly, but you’d hope that it would make more sense than Ji-woon Kim’s effort.
That said the film is still entertaining in parts. The fight scenes and comedic moments mean that the movie is worth the admission ticket. Overall though, A Bittersweet Life is quite poor in comparison to A Tale of Two Sisters, which was quite fortunate to be overlooked due to its similarity to two other films that were released around the same time (I won’t say which films because this will give away the ending)
This is yet another example of overhyped Asian cinema. While Hollywood efforts might have paled in comparison during recent years, there is no reason to celebrate a genre which exudes style over substance. Isn’t that why we complain so much about blockbuster?
March 18, 2007 at 9:24 am |
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