A Bittersweet Life (Dalkomhan insaeng) is a Korean film noir about a young man who works at a hotel as an enforcer and takes care of “business” there when things get rough. He seems invincible up until the moment he meets his special assignment. The girlfriend of his boss and he is to follow her for 3 days and find out whether she cheats on his boss or not and if so he is to execute both of them. The only time Sun-Woo smiles is when he sits in on a musical rehearsal of said girlfriend. All goes well for the protagonist until he faces the choice of obeying orders or finding a less harsh solution and lying to his boss about it. He decides for the latter and his boss finds out and from there on all hell breaks loose. Sun-Woo goes through several near death experiences and the demise of those which caused them is presented to us in a very graphical manner until the very end. Looking forward to the Director’s Cut which is supposed to be 50 minutes longer.
8/10
Monthly Archive for July, 2005
“Kung Fu Hustle” is supposed to be a silly movie or so I heard. Now I know why! It is true there is a lot of silly stuff in it, hilarious in my mind. I must warn those who are annoyed by “kitsch” since you might be turned off by the comic and “over the top” style this movie frequently exhibits.
The story is silly, the moves are just plain silly but the whole piece is very artfully coreographed and a joy to watch and a good laugh on top of it. “Gong Fu” all the way.
8/10
so this game, let’s call it WoW, has me glued to the pc (yes, that notebook I wrote about in november last year) once more and I am just about to hit 60 (level cap) now. took me some time, to say the least. I play a rogue… like 80% of the rest of the realm population, or so it seems. that made me think… is it because everyone and their grandma likes to roleplay the evil sinister thug, sneaking in the shadows and backstabbing people at free will and then vanishing into thin air with a wicked snicker? hmm… must be it! *eg*
/gank
I wonder if it is any good seeing Stewie Griffin: the untold story! without having seen one episode of the family guy. Since this movie has been rated 9.5 on imdb at the time I write this, I cannot but wonder if the majority of viewers are flatulent… or wait… maybe one just needs to see the series before watching the movie in order to fully appreciate it! I do not have that luxury so my frame of reference will be limited. Nevertheless, I saw the pilot of Season 4 (the series) and I found it “mildly” entertaining most of the time, weird or even queer at times and occasionally simple and flat (as 2d strips are).
I have seen the Ghost in the Shell (Kôkaku kidôtai) and the shell was naked. what if not a naked shell is all we leave behind in the end. Besides all the fast paced action and nudity this movie has the dystopian quality of “Blade Runner” only more centered on the desert of the real – the net. Somehow I got reminded of David Brin’s short story “Piecework”, esp. when it culminates in a new breed planted inside the synthetic body of a child.
So what defines being human? The ghost in the shell?
8/10
