A Bittersweet Life, 2005.
Directed by Kim Jee-woon.
Starring Lee Byung-hun, Shin Min-a, Kim Yeong-cheol, Hwang Jung-min, and Jin Goo.
SYNOPSIS:
A mobster with a conscience falls foul of his boss when he disobeys an order, forcing him on a path of revenge.
No country does revenge movies quite like South Korea, and Kim Jee-woon’s 2005 crime thriller A Bittersweet Life is quite possibly one of the slickest, most stylish examples of the genre, which means that a 4K UHD disc of the movie is likely to receive a little bit of a fanfare from Asian cinema fans. Thankfully, Second Sight have given the movie one of their lush UHD makeovers, so now is the time to upgrade that old DVD.
Sun-woo (Lee Byung-hun) is a lethal assassin who works for ruthless mob boss Kang (Kim Yeong-cheol). Sun-woo is loyal to Kang, so much so that Kang confides in his most trusted henchman that he has a very young mistress called Hee-soo (Shin Min-a), but he is worried that she is having an affair with another man and so he sends Sun-woo to follow Hee-soo and find out what is going on, with orders to kill them both if his fears are correct. However, once Sun-woo discovers that Hee-soo is seeing another man he starts to develop feelings for her himself, making him disobey Kang’s orders and forcing the people he used to think of as friends and colleagues to betray him, setting the mobster-with-a-heart on a trail of bloody revenge.
With a plot that doesn’t stray too far from regular gangster territory, what makes A Bittersweet Life stand out from other revenge movies is that it is shot in a way that doesn’t make you feel like you are witnessing brutal violence – and the violence is very brutal – thanks in part to the romantic undertones bubbling away under the surface, but also to the neo-noir stylings that Kim Jee-woon employs. Like Quentin Tarantino, each violent act is over-the-top and clearly not trying to be realistic, but at the same time there is a grittiness to it, an edge that adds to the poetry of the fight choreography, giving the movie a unique visual style without going too far into cartoon territory, as many action movies of the era tended to do.
As with most Asian movies, A Bittersweet Life does have a long running time for what is essentially a 90-minute-done-and-dusted revenge thriller plot, clocking in at just shy of two hours, but the movie never gets boring, despite some scenes being needlessly drawn out. Lee Byung-hun makes for a convincing lead, being charismatic when he is either in gangster mode or being vulnerable and letting his heart do the talking, which helps make the longer scenes more watchable as you cannot take your eyes off him, even when he is not the focus of the scene he is in. Add to that some of the abuse that Kim Jee-woon puts him through – the scene where Sun-woo gets buried alive and claws his way back to the surface is proper horror movie territory – and you have the ingredients for an engaging actor/character combination, which is key to a successful revenge movie.
But what does this limited edition set come with? Well, there are no less than four audio commentaries, one a brand new scene specific commentary with director Kim Jee-woon and academic Areum Jeong, plus a new full-length commentary by historian Pierce Conran and critic James Marsh. The other two are archive commentary tracks featuring Kim Jee-woon with actors Kim Young-chul and Lee Byung-hun, and also with director of photography Kim Ji-yong and set designer Yoo Seong-hee. The disc also contains deleted scenes, trailers, archive ‘making-of’ featurettes and music videos, all of which comes housed in a rigid slipcase showcasing new artwork by Michael Bolland and a 120-page book with new essays by Dr Lindsay Hallam, Rich Johnson, Michael Leader, Daniel Martin and Alison Peirse, plus six art cards.
Overall, this is another excellent package from Second Sight that takes an already great movie and makes it just a little bit better. The movie itself is one of South Korea’s finest when it comes to violent thrillers, and the image clarity of the 4K UHD disc is nothing short of spectacular, showing off all Kim Jee-woon’s filmmaking techniques in a way that is sometimes cool, sometimes arty, but always breathtaking. Chalk this one up as another success for Second Sight, and a limited edition set that collectors will want to snap up asap.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
