A Bittersweet Life

2005 "When doing right goes very, very wrong."
7.5| 2h0m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 01 April 2005 Released
Producted By: Bom Film Productions
Country: South Korea
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.d-o-e-s.com/collection/bittersweet/index0.html
Info

Kim Sun-woo is an enforcer and manager for a hotel owned by a cold, calculative crime boss, Kang who assigns Sun-woo to a simple errand while he is away on a business trip; to shadow his young mistress, Hee-soo, for fear that she may be cheating on him with a younger man with the mandate that he must kill them both if he discovers their affair.

Genre

Drama, Action, Crime

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Director

Kim Jee-woon

Production Companies

Bom Film Productions

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A Bittersweet Life Audience Reviews

Wordiezett So much average
Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.
Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Rubbercorpse This spectacular movie came out nine years before John Wick, but because I am a westerner I saw J.W. and J.W.2 before this. After watching this masterpiece, I was compelled to write my first movie review. This movie is just as good as J.W. and in many ways similar to it, but it is something completely different at the same time. The movie is two hours long, but it didn't feel too lengthy or boring at all.Dalkomhan insaeng tells the story of a respected, talented, and merciless mafia enforcer named Sung-Woo whose devotion to martial arts is beyond ordinary mobsters. He seems like a person who is used to doing everything his boss tells him, but one job makes him hesitate, and the mafia goes after him.The way Sung-Woo's situation changes from being respected to hunted is expected yet perfectly subtle at the same time, and watching his character develop during the movie was rewarding. Every single character in the movie was believable and had a unique personality. The acting of all actors, both lead and support, was spot on.What really made this movie a perfect 10 for me was how basically everything is shown. Just like in John Wick, the action scenes are filmed with steady cameras so the viewer can appreciate the choreography of the combat. And even so, there is still something even more visceral, gritty, and violent about this movie that I haven't seen before in cinema. Sure, there are super violent movies out there, but the violence in Dalkomhan insaeng didn't have a single sign of over-the-topness. We get to see dead bodies laying still in a growing pool of blood, stabbing, smashing, bullet hits and blood pulsating through bullet holes via the now rare medium of a still movie camera frame that truly lets the viewer see what's going on.The movie had a few implausible events regarding main character Sung- Woo's abilities, fitness, and pain tolerance, but this movie definitely ranks closer to 10 than 9.5 in my books. After all, it is obvious from the start that Sung-Woo is not an ordinary guy. Also, the soundtrack was nice, different, and refreshing.
shawnblackman A Korean gangster flick that excels in every aspect. It deals with a right hand man who is supposed to follow the boss's girlfriend and report any suspicious activities. He catches her having an affair and doesn't say anything. Another crime family is persisting that he apologize for beating some of their members. These things all come to a head resulting in one hell of a showdown.The same director who did I Saw The Devil (2010) brings us this masterpiece. It has John Woo type action with an incredible score. It does have an Oldboy feel and near the end you can see the influences of Scarface (1983). Clocking in at two hours this is one fast paced ride full of imagery. You won't find much wrong with this one so enjoy.
akash_sebastian It had such a good start and showed such great promise, but in the end, it didn't amount to anything. In the present day rush of amazing Korean thrillers, this one lacks a lot of things; it's quite forgettable. The chain of revenge is not as sensible and intriguing as 'Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance' or as impactful as Kim Jee-Woon and Byung-Hoo Lee's other collaboration, 'I Saw the Devil'. Even the action sequences were not entertaining enough. I agree the story is quite straight-forward and the influences are subtle, but that just makes it seem like a meager slasher-flick. The underlying philosophical overtones didn't resonate that well with the plot.The French film 'Leon''s influence is clearly seen, and the simplicity of the plot, instead of making it different and visceral, finally acts against the movie.But with a director like Kim Jee-Won, after a movie like 'A Tale of Two Sisters', and an actor like Byung-Hun Lee, this is a Total disappointment. The movie failed to reach its full potential. It's not the movie it could have been; the end result feels more bitter than sweet.
drpavlovic1411 When you see so many good reviews,you ask yourself: hmm...did we see the same movie????!!! 'The best Korean movie ever', 'fantastic'... It can be that I watched some other movie???!!This movie is totally predictable. From the start you know who will make the hell of life to our hero, you could see what kind of boss our hero has..., the task what he gets can be end up only in two ways... Everything has been seen so many times.I must admit that this movie is real,close to the real life,it is not that the main character can beat 1000 guys with one kick,but..., who knows, maybe with some more fantastic fight scenes the movie would be more interesting. This way, you can predict almost the whole movie. The ones who consider this is the best Korean movie ever..., they obviously haven't seen enough Korean movies and their excellent cinematography.The sum: a movie's goal is not to be totally unpredictable, always to give some new perspective, to have some great scenes..., but this one is nothing but a gangster cliché. To obey to your boss entirely, or not? It is so normal when somebody reaches the point when it is not so easy to obey 100%, the reason is not important. Even the punch line: How did we get to this point and why? is not so impressive, because every 'why' has its reason. So, this movie can be depicted as NOT ENOUGH of anything which is important for a good movie (it doesn't matter if we seek for a deep movie, a good action or some other kind of movie).