[Movie 2005] A Bittersweet Life 달콤한 인생

[rubie]

WISHING EVERYONE A SWEET LIFE IN 2006!

[rubie]

RECAPTURING 2005, YEAR OF BITTERSWEET LIFE

A Bittersweet Life Movie Premiere in Seoul - April 1st

< please click on the thumbnails for larger caps >

gratitude:

honeyhunny.com, byunghunzzang.com, BHLee HK Club, lovelbh.com, innolife.net & various media sites

credit:

*Everything Lee Byung Hun*

[rubie]

Press screening

gratitude:

honeyhunny.com, byunghunzzang.com, BHLee HK Club, lovelbh.com, innolife.net & various media sites

credit:

*Everything Lee Byung Hun*

[rubie]

Moments of BitterSweet Life

gratitude:

honeyhunny.com, byunghunzzang.com, BHLee HK Club, lovelbh.com & various media sites

credit:

*Everything Lee Byung Hun*

[rubie]

APRIL'S BITTERSWEET LIFE

Simultaneously screening

In Seoul

In Japan

gratitude:

honeyhunny.com, newsen, byunghun.seesaa.net, NOWmagazine

credit:

*Everything Lee Byung Hun*

[rubie]

April 7, 2005

Korean actor Lee Byeong-Heon, who flew to Japan to promote his

latest movie "A Bittersweet Life," greets Japanese fans at

Narita Airport outside Tokyo on Wednesday.

Updated Apr.8, 2005 17:39 KST

Some 450 reporters flocked to a promotional press conference for Lee Byung-hun's film "Bittersweet Life" on Thursday, evidence that the Korean Wave continues unabated in the island country despite strained relations between the neighbors. There were 150 cameramen alone on the roof of the Shinjuku branch of the Isetan department store, in fierce competition to capture Lee's slightest moves for posterity.

The Japanese press including the Sankei Shimbun and Nikkan Sports ran detailed reports of the press conference in their Friday editions as curiosity about "Byonsama" reached fever pitch.

Lee, dapper in a black suit and tie, said, "'Bittersweet Life' is an important work for me as an actor. I feel very strongly about it." He charmed the Japanese press with his sense of humor as he discussed various episodes that occurred during the shooting of the film.

"When we shot the scene where I put the sugar in the espresso, the first two takes didn't turn out well,” Lee said to polite laughter. “So director Kim Ji-woon tried dropping the sugar in himself, but he still didn't like it, so I ended up trying it once again. In the final cut, however, it's the director's hand that you see. It seemed he really wanted to get into the film."

Lee also appeared live on TBS and will return to Korea after an interview with Fuji TV on Sunday. "Bittersweet Life" will debut in Japan at the end of the month, and Lee is well on his way to becoming a household name. About 100 bodyguards were mobilized for the actor’s arrival at Narita Airport, and tickets to the preview of his film were selling for W400,000 (US$400) on Internet auction sites -- a popularity exceeding that of even Hollywood stars.

(englishnews@chosun.com )

gratitude:

digital chosunilbo, wowkorea.jp, accessonline & all LBH sites sharing

*Everything Lee Byung Hun*

[rubie]

Excerpt below copied from Twitch.net, in a press report for KSW's new movie, Running Wild or Wild Beast. For the full article, please refer the RW movie thread or at Twitch itself.

http://www.soompi.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=553&st=40

January 04, 2006

야수 (Running Wild) Press Screening Report

Although Film Noir has a long tradition in other film industries, people in Chungmuro never really felt comfortable with the genre. It's not that noir films were never made, but they had a hard time catching the public's attention, perhaps because the influences from Hollywood and Hong Kong were too strong to ignore. A lot of films used certain elements of the genre, like Lee Myung-Se's 인정사정 볼 것 없다 (Nowhere To Hide), or even Kwak Kyung-Taek's 친구 (Friend), to move their narrative or visuals forward; some just took the core of what made those Hong Kong or Hollywood films successful, and tried to adapt it to a Korean setting, mostly resulting in failure. Some of them, like Ryu Seung-Wan's early films, extrapolated certain elements of the genre to create something entirely new.

But full fledged Korean noir with a clear and distinctive identity were hard to find, like the rare gem 게임의 법칙 (Rules of The Game) by Jang Hyun-Soo, one of the few salvageable noirs from the 90s. But, in a way, Kim Ji-Woon's 달콤한 인생 (A Bittersweet Life) changed the cards, offering the kind of verve and style rarely found in Korean films of the genre, but most importantly combining all the elements which make a film noir work into a cohesive unit. Stylish down the smallest details, in love with its rhythm and flair, the film rejuvenated a moribund genre all in one shot. It wasn't a major commercial success, but its accolades showed the industry film noir could be made effectively in Korea.

» Posted by X at January 4, 2006 01:42 AM

http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/004688.html

[rubie]

Source:

http://www.koreanfilm.org/criticspoll.html

The list of participating reviewers is also included at the site.

Credit: koreanfilm.org

These critical scores have been collected from contributors to the site or the discussion board, and are presented so that readers can get a quick range of opinions on a certain film. Of course, reducing the complexity of a full-length feature down to a mere collection of points is a huge disservice to the film, and the very short comments that go next to the scores are unlikely to help much. Also, one's opinion of a film can naturally change over time, so these scores won't reflect how well a film ages. In other words: please don't read too much into these scores, consider them just an informal conversation starter.

A Bittersweet Life - 2005

Paolo Bertolin - Kim's lavish visuals enriched by full-fledged dramatic consistency.

Filmbrain - Genre flick with lofty aspirations. Entertaining, but little more.

Tom Giammarco - Stylish violence and excellent characterizations.

Darcy Paquet - Movie to show friends who liked Old Boy.

Mark Russell - Slick-looking but empty, with endless, pointless violence.

[Guest ksen]

During my leave I saw a movie on TV but I don't know its name: LBH plays the movie director, shooting the movie about vampires, coming home he and his wife are kept prisoners by the maniac, an actor in crowd scenes... Does anybody knows the name of the movie, and what do you think about it?

[rubie]

^

Hi Kseniya, good to see you... welcome back!

The movie you're referring to is Three, Monster or widely known as Three, Extremes....

a 3-in-1 thriller from Korea, Japan & Hong Kong. The Korean segment starring LBH is entitled CUT.

There's a thread for the movie, at my signature space .. do check it out.

http://www.soompi.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=10500

[rubie]

Copied from *Everything Lee Byung Hun* thread, thanks to dewa130

SYMPHONY OF VIOLENCE: A BITTERSWEET LIFE

A hit at both our own showcase and last year's Raindance Film Festival Kim Ji-woon's A Bittersweet Life is finally available to a wider audience and if you haven't seen it yet go and grab a couple of tickets right now.

It's a cool-as-ice Korean revenge thriller often mentioned in the same breath as Park Chan-wook's Oldboy and while it's not quite as innovative it is a deviously good film and a worthy follow up to Kim's A Tale of Two Sisters.

Sun-woo is a hotel manager/enforcer for gang boss Kang: a sharp-dresser unlikely ever to put a foot wrong until, in the best noir fashion, a girl is thrown into the middle of his well-structured life and things get messy.

Sun-woo is asked to keep an eye on his employer's mistress Hee-soo and before you can say "John Travolta and Uma Thurman" everything begins to get away from him. He makes the mistake of veering from his own well-ordered path by doing what he believes to be right for everyone involved rather than simply doing what he should, and suddenly he finds himself the target of Kang's wrath. A course of bloody revenge ensues.

The action is pulled off in such a matter-of-fact style that the audience is left stunned right up until the film's close. There are brief flashes of humour, mostly involving Russian gunrunners, and the soundtrack is fabulous, but the emphasis here is on retribution as Sun-woo attempts to understand how things went so wrong so suddenly.

At its heart it has more in common with Hong Kong heroic bloodshed flicks but has such a cold, stark yet beautiful look that you can see why comparisons have been drawn to Park's revenge cycle.

The ICA in London are using A Bittersweet Life as the jumping off point for their a small season entitled 'Brilliant Korea' and are also screening Lady Vengeance, Memories of Murder, Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, Oldboy, Tell Me Something, A Tale of Two Sisters, Phone and R-Point.

Mike Atherton

Theatrical Release: 20

www.koreanfilm.org

[rubie]

Credit to lee ji woo for posting at *Everything Lee Byung Hun*

A Bittersweet Life

Having shown technical sophistication and superb tonal control in his last movie, the psychological horror ‘A Tale of Two Sisters’, Kim Ji-Woon displays his versatility with this brutal gangster thriller. The svelte Lee Byung-Hun (the sergeant in ‘Joint Security Area’) dominates this revisionist noir with an intriguing study in low-key psychopathy as enforcer Sun-Woo. His psychological gear-changes from an at-rest persona which mixes Zen inscrutability with Melville-esque taciturnity to whirlwind killer are a template for the film’s own narrative dynamics. Detailed to shadow his jealous boss’s classy young cellist squeeze (Shin Mina), Sun-Woo suffers a moment of weakness – has this killer a heart? – that triggers the subsequent violence and propels the movie along the increasingly bloody path of the existential revenger’s tragedy.

Tough guys offer no explanations and neither does the director. The movie doesn’t offer much psychological depth, despite its master-pupil parables. Kim is a commercially minded filmmaker and makes sure he fulfils the East Asian quotas for pain infliction, fight scenes and body-count. But his cineaste’s enthusiasms keep surfacing: the action choreography by Chung Du-Hong is excellent – John Woo without the ballet and gay subtext – but you sense the director is equally proud of how his cinematographer Kim Ji-Young photographs the light gleaming on limousine bonnets in night-time Seoul, one of the film’s many pleasing chromatic variations on traditional noir iconography. Kim can quote Tarantino (a hilarious sequence with a rival boss beating up his own henchman) or pay tribute to Scorsese (dining rituals beneath crimson curtains) but is yet to declare his own heart. WH

Source : Time Out London Issue 1848: January 18-25 2006

[rubie]

Credit to lee ji woo at *Everything Lee Byung Hun*

IOFILM : FILM : REVIEW

A Bittersweet Life rating 1.5/5 A Bittersweet Life

Director Kim Jee-woon

Writer Kim Jee-woon

Stars Lee Byung-hun, Shin Mina, Kim Young-chul, Whang Jung-min, Kim Roi-ha, Moon Ching-hyuk, Lee Ki-young, Oh Dalsoo, Jin Gu, Kim Hae-gon

Running time 118 minutes

Country South Korea

Year 2005

Associated shops

Read Docker's review of A Bittersweet Life

Reviewed by Scottie

A Bittersweet Life is tiresome in the same vein as Tony Scott's Man On Fire. It is weakly scripted and dull, with better performances than such utter hokum deserves. I found myself dreaming of Tarantino tackling the same material.

You can immediately sense that the creators are willing this film to be associated with Chan-Wook Park's terrific Old Boy, purely through association with South Korea, neo-noir and extreme violence. In reality, all it does is liberally steal pieces from superior films and cobble them together without realising just why those movies worked.

Seon-woo (Lee Byung-hun) is a short-tempered, tightly controlled and explosively violent enforcer, who takes care of business for a vicious crime boss, named Kang. He's told to look after Kang's girlfriend - Hee-soo, a highly skilled cellist - and report if she's meeting with anyone unusual, or more likely going behind Kang's back for sex. She reflects an awakening need in Seon-woo that he doesn't know how to deal with it, falling back on what he's good at - kicking the crap out of people. We see this in a road rage scene of vile potency. One would think that if he had a stress-ball, or a contemplative head on his shoulders, a lot of pain could be overcome.

When Hee-soo is discovered sleeping with another man, Seon-woo lies to his boss to defend her, on condition that the pair never meet again. Kang finds out and orders Seon-woo's unpleasant death. Thus the pattern is established for a criminally dull revenge picture.

A Bittersweet Life's central characters drove me livid. Those seeking emotional, or psychological, insights are wasting their time. The crude simplicity and unoriginality of structure, not to mention the jerking around of the audience, wore me out long before the film did.

Also, the unwarranted brutality is not used for any other effect than just to be nasty. Other than a spectacular firebrand fight - another Old Boy twist on the one-against-many theme - and a fairly amusing competition, assembling and disassembling a Russian handgun, there's nothing that stirs the imagination. The luscious, expensive production design and gorgeous lighting earns it points, but all it really has to offer is brutal, realistic violence, a sickening scream from a truly empty place.

[rubie]

01-17-2006

Favorite Films of Directors, Actors to Be Screened

By Kim Tae-jong

Staff Reporter

Poster for "The Killers"

What are the all-time favorite art movies of Park Chan-wook, director of "Old Boy" or of Moon So-ri, actress of "A Good Lawyer's Wife?" An art house theater in Seoul may give you a clue.

From Jan. 18 to 26, Seoul Art Cinema in Chongno, downtown Seoul, will hold a film festival "Friends of Cinematheque," comprising nine movies recommended by renowned local directors and actors.

The festival aims to bring more art movie fans to the theater and invite individual and company sponsors for the theater.

Park selected the 1964 U.S. crime thriller, "The Killers" directed by Don Siegel while Moon chose the 1977 American film, "Opening Night" by John Cassavetes, as their selections.

Along with Park and Moon, other participating directors include Kim Ji-woon of "A Bittersweet Life" who the recommended the Victor Erice's 1973 Spanish drama, "The Spirit of the Beehive" by, while Ryu Seung-wan of "Crying Fist" chose Samuel Fuller's 1963 film, "Shock Corridor."

Actor Hwang Jung-min of "You're My Sunshine" will also join the event with his choice of the 1979 American fantasy drama "All That Jazz" by Bob Fosse.

The venue is located near Chongno 3-ga Station on subway lines 1 and 3. For more information, call (02) 741-9782 or visit www.cinematheque.seoul.kr.

01-17-2006 16:52

Source: The Korea Times

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/20...16525411700.htm

[rubie]

Credit: cityonfire.com

IUXION'S REVIEW: A Bittersweet Life is pretty much a cardboard cutout example of how to make an entertaining gangster film, Korean or not. Lee Byung Hun shines in the lead as a hitman who is betrayed by his boss after making a seemingly inconsequential 'mistake' and faces an uphill battle as he seeks bloody vengeance. It may not be the most original plot in the world, but it certainly works. Nice touches, like a quiet moment in which Sun Woo (Lee Byung Hun) placidly savors a final taste of chocolate cake before 'going to work', add loads to the style and atmosphere.

There's this one scene about midday through in which these two dorks, full of themselves and not too pleased with driving of our protagonist, ungraciously spit on his shiny black car and throw a cigarette butt at his window. Sun Woo, being the badass that he is (and considering his current mood), abruptly stops his car in front of theirs, gets out, and proceeds to beat the two punks to a pulp. In the coupe de grace, he grabs their keys and tosses them off the bridge. For a moment there I forgot I was watching a movie and simply empathized with the character, his anger just about palpable and real.

If only the rest of the movie kept pumping the adrenaline to the same level, this might have been a classic. As it stands, it's pretty good, but on the whole, doesn't really add much of anything new to the genre. The supporting cast, including Kim Young Cheol and Shin Mina (who slightly resembles Jeon Ji Hyun) turn in fine performances, and the direction by Kim Jee Woon is super slick, if by the book. The set design was supposedly done by the same guy(s) as OLDBOY, and it definitely shows. Likewise, the music work is commendable.

I've heard a rumor that another [longer] cut of the movie exists, and that's something I'd be genuinely interested in. Some subplots in this version are a little rushed, and the movie could use a bit more characterization and dialogue to help set it apart. As much as I love gun battles, we've pretty much seen it all done before, and arguably done better (although the one here is certainly decent). Ditto with some of the torture scenes and the hand to hand combat of the one versus twenty variety, a lot of which I felt could've been shortened or removed altogether without much of a loss (besides a nagging sense of déjà vu). That's not to say none of the violence is striking, some of it is, but next to the innovative sequences showcased in Park Chan Wook's films of late, I couldn't help but want for more.

Nevertheless, this is a solid film. If you are at all into this type of thing, then by all means.

IUXION'S RATING: 8/10

[Guest The Moose]

ㅋㅋㅋ

rubie, your icon reminds me of JSA.

JSA the movie and now KBS 스페셜 - JSA.

Wait... LBH was in JSA...

[rubie]

ㅋㅋㅋ

rubie, your icon reminds me of JSA.

JSA the movie and now KBS 스페셜 - JSA.

Wait... LBH was in JSA...

Yep.. yep.. indeed he was... in JSA.

And so were them.

thanks to midnight sun for the cap.

What's KBS 스페셜 - JSA, btw? An animation?

[rubie]

June 16, 2006
 

Movie: A Bittersweet Life (2005) 

People: Kim Jee-woon and Lee Byung-heon 

Film Festival: New York Asian Film Festival 2006

A Bittersweet Life” screens at The New York Asian Film Festival 2006 on June 16, 8:30pm at the Anthology and on June 27, 6:00pm at the ImaginAsian.

From Kim Jee-Woon (A Tale of Two Sisters, The Foul King) comes the opulent gangster fairy tale “A Bittersweet Life.” Kim Jee-Woon seems intent on reconstructing the noir narrative with unique framing, editing and grandiose staging. Blood flies in scenes of relentless violence, but Kim Jee-Woon makes each shot of blood splatter and exploding carnage unique in much the same way that Dario Argento made parts of his films feel like paintings come to life. There is rarely a conventional shot in the film. The overlaid “bad guys versus good guys” western motif is quite familiar. It als has many shades of pop noir which may cause some to automatically tune out (”Oh great another Reservoir Dogs inspired wannabe”). I personally don’t think that Kim Jee-Woon is going for a rehash of pop noir or presenting a stale Western lifted into modern Korea’s gangster underworld. Rather, the film offers a fresh take on the gangster fairy tale in much the same cold emotional tones that Melville is known for. Notice the camera angles, the editing, the way scenes are constructed, the way the action unfolds… it is all fresh and unique. So many films follow the same exact framing, editing, narrative, construction of scenes and on and on to the point that sometimes the only things different are the characters’ names and the people that play them (it also goes without saying that it is easy to see how this film has made Lee Byung-Heon such a huge international emerging star.)

[rubie]

Scene-by-scene expressions of Sun Woo in A Bittersweet Life

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

Thanks to BB at leebyunghun.com

[Guest The Moose]

Yep.. yep.. indeed he was... in JSA.

And so were them.

thanks to midnight sun for the cap.

What's KBS 스페셜 - JSA, btw? An animation?

Ahahaha!!!

That's awesome!!!

JSA is one of my favorite films.

Ehh... KBS 스페셜 - JSA is a documentary that aired on last Sunday.

It showed everyday life of a military personal at the JSA and it was like the first time ever to actually film and showing it to the public.

Nothing new, really...

Everything on it was basically what we've all seen in the movie, JSA.