[Movie 2015] Gangnam1970 /강남 1970(New Trailer p17)

[CallieP]

I was very impressed with the movie itself, the cinematography is exceptional, gorgeous sets depicting that time period; the night scenes at the lake with the fog on the water, and when Jong Dae walked in the rain with his umbrella, with “Anak” playing in the background - I find all that extremely artistic, atmospheric, chilling and evocative.

I liked the simple straightforward storyline. I thought the story moved smoothly from beginning to end. There were many characters in the movie thus the confusion but once you recognize who is who, I think the story is well thought out and well-executed, it is not haphazard. Every scene leads logically to the next scene and that every scene has a purpose, it wasn’t extraneous. Yoo Ha had a story to tell in his trilogy. It was a hard, unrelenting judgment of that period in Korean history. (It was not supposed to be a slick gangster drama with twist and turns and an unexpected ending as some viewers wanted.) It was supposed to be film noir, telling a dark, honest tale of how lives were affected when politicians decided to develop farm land and open spaces, integrating it into the City of Seoul. It was about greed, avarice, blackmail, trickery, and ripping off the gullible. It a tale about hopelessness, poverty after the Korean war and when the country was still reeling from the effects of war, struggling to recover, to contain communism and N. Korea. It was a time when unemployment caused many to join gangsters for bonding and a family as well as a way to survive the grinding poverty. It is also about gangsters and the politician’s role in the process of developing Gangnam. Yoo Ha makes no apologies for his tale. He offers no redemption. It is the bitter truth and there is not always justice and the powerful can get away with their crimes. The violence is part of his tool to emphasis the harshness and bleakness of the time, the rampant lawlessness and the power of the gangsters then. Gangster movies always involve, sex, violence and drugs. To me it was a powerful tale I did not think that the violent and the sex scenes were over the top. The brutal or violent scenes could be less but I thought they were effective and they had a message. In fact I liked some of the brutal scenes, the mud fight, and the fight in the granary where Jong Dae was captured. The choreography was artistic.

Yong Gi vies for power and is willing to use his brother to gain his ends and even kill him. Jong Dae is more enigmatic, he wants land, I think it gives him security; his ambitions are more for his adopted father and sister’s well being than just pure greed. I feel he is working towards getting land and a secure future; He wants the gang leadership for his father. I loved the ending of "what if", both Jong Dae and Yong Ki boxing with each other to keep warm. If they had not lost their home, they might not have become gangsters. However, in an environment where there is not hope or future, something has to give.

I loved Lee Min Ho’s portrayal of Jong Dae. His acting is understated. He does not overact, he becomes Jong Dae. I noticed that Lee Min ho’s voice sounded more husky and sexy at times. There was a melancholic, sad look in Jong Dae’s eyes all the time. You could feel a deep yearning and hunger in him for family, love and security. He was lonely, detached; yet there is a latent rage in him that surfaces when he attacks those who hurt his adopted father and sister. I was awed by the the murderous look in Jong Dae’s eyes when he attacked those who hurt his family. If you notice he was most vicious when he attacked or killed those he believed had a hand in his father’s downfall.

I remember some critic commenting that both actors looked bored. They did have a bored look in a couple of scenes but not because the actors were bored with the movie but it was the characters that were bored or tired with the situation occurring then. (Ha! Ha!)

LMH’s fighting was awesome. His movements so fluid and swashbuckling and to think he did most of the stunts himself. You can tell he had to dig hard to bring out that brutality in his acting. LMH is such a sweet guy that is just not his character. He deserves to win the new actor award.

 

 

[CallieP]

Above spoiler alert is another review of GB from me.

[PeerNorway]

"Gangnam Blues" (aka. "Gangnam 1970") Limited Edition Blu-ray

Finally ! The date for Blu-ray release of "Gangnam Blues" 강남 1970 (aka. "Gangnam 1970") have been set to 26th. June (2015) ! This will be a limited edition release which will contain both the theatrical (135 mins.) and uncut versions (141 mins.) of the film - and it will have English subtitles. I am not sure but I think there will be some extra goodies included in this special package - something about a book and a poster. There will also be commentary (in Korean I guess), making-of features, premiere, trailer and (more ?) deleted scenes.

[CallieP]

‌@PeerNorway, where can one purchase it? It is not available as a regular LTD edition DVD?

[PeerNorway]

@CallieP, you can get the Blu-ray I mentioned on websites like YesAsia, KimchiDVD, eBay, etc. - they carry South Korean DVD and Blu-ray releases. I am sorry, but I am not so sure what you mean by "regular limited edition DVD", but if you refer to regular as a one disc release with the longer uncut/un-edited 141 min. version of the movie on DVD, then the answer is no.

[PeerNorway]

Last week I got this Blu-ray, but I haven't had time to watch it yet. Maybe I get around to watch the longer unedited version this weekend.

[CallieP]

Last week I got this Blu-ray, but I haven't had time to watch it yet. Maybe I get around to watch the longer unedited version this weekend.

I purchased it too but have not seen it yet. Hopefully next week.

[PeerNorway]

@CallieP, awesome ! Let me know what you think ? I have a bit of mixed feelings about the movie after watching it a 2nd. time...

[irilight]

Here is a review of Gangnam Blues, I ran across.

 

Gangnam Blues

"As everywhere, cities are built by the ruthless."

SCREENED AT THE 2015 FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: "Gangnam 1970" (or "Gangnam Blues", the name under which it's traveling the festival circuit) is the sort of movie where I tend to spend the first ten or fifteen minutes frantically trying to remember the seemingly dozens of characters being introduced in rapid succession, only to relax a bit more upon realizing that, really, only these two and the guys in their immediate orbit are going to really matter - and given that this is a mob movie, maybe they'll be the only ones introduced early who are left when all is said and done.

Those two guys are Kim Jong-Dae (Lee Min-ho) and Baek Yong-ki (Kim Rae-won), orphans living in a shantytown outside Seoul in the early 1970s. Gangnam may be a poor area now with unproductive fields now, but developers, politicians, and gangsters see its position on the road to the capital and intend to develop it after swindling its owners out of their deeds and destroying any opposition they may have in the government. Jong-dae and Yong-ki are dragooned into doing thug work to break up a political meeting, but get separated. Yong-ki winds up joining the mob and moving up quickly, while Jong-dae is taken in by Kang Gil-su (Jung Jin-young), a boss in a rival gang who semi-retires to run a laundry business after being stabbed. It will be three years before their paths cross again, and they form a secret alliance.

There are a lot of other players and side-plots to the story, which is built on (mostly) fictional characters, though against a real-life backdrop. It is a dizzying combination of politics and crime when the two were harder to separate, bringing the intelligence services in as well. If you're not versed in the background, trying to reduce it to the stories of Jong-dae and Yong-ki is almost self-defense. Fortunately, writer/director Yu Ha will reward the patient viewer; his story of corruption and gang warfare never becomes truly simple, but does have a sort of inevitable forward motion, even as the people at the top are knocking each other off and forcing each other out of power. At times, I almost wish it were a book with references and the ability to flip back, but it is eventually merely a dense movie, not an impenetrable one.

And, yes, if you spend most of your attention on the two main characters, you'll get most of the personally compelling pieces of the story. Though their paths are similar, they're also distinct enough to be interesting: Yong-ki seems like the weaker of the two initially, but being thrown into the deep end of a shark tank makes him ambitious with an eye out for opportunities. Kim Rae-won's performance is something of a velvet glove, with the fact that he came from nothing always visible and making him easy to empathize with even if he's always scoping out the room.

Jong-dae, on the other hand, winds up with something approaching a family, and though he displays the same sort of hunger, there's something else tugging at him as well. Lee Min-ho doesn't make Jong-dae unsure as his baser impulses pull him into crime, but he's often a little easier to like, more engaged with people even if it's futile. His scenes with Jung Jin-young as his foster father - and Jung's alone as a man torn between living an honest life and protecting his children because he feels the pain of falling short with every step - give the film a bit of a doomed heart, because despite them, nobody is ever actually stepping back.

That leads to some impressive escalation, and as the movie goes on, Yu Ha serves up some impressive mayhem. His movie never becomes a slick, glossy thing - his gangsters and their political allies are fighting over potential as opposed to what's there already - but it never feels cramped or limited. When the action explodes, it does so in a big way, whether out of nowhere or as something inevitable just keeps getting bigger and bigger. A nifty score by Jo Young-wook builds atmosphere without overdoing it.

There's probably a great larger work to be made out of the stories of this period, a Korean "Boardwalk Empire" or something like it. This one takes a while for those of us who aren't always excited about this sort of history of development, but it's well worth it by the end.

 

Source

 

[CallieP]

@CallieP, awesome ! Let me know what you think ? I have a bit of mixed feelings about the movie after watching it a 2nd. time...

I will let you know after I watch the director's cut. Hopefully this weekend.

[CallieP]

@‌PeerNorway

,I finally finished watching the director's cut of GB and all the special features. I liked it better. What do you have mixed feelings about? The mud scene was a little longer and there were some killing scenes where LMH looked even more ferocious. I was disappointed that the director's cut did not have more family scenes between Sun-Hye, her father and Jong Dae though. The deleted scenes showed some nice ones with them. Should have added it in the movie.  I watched the mud scene in slow motion. You can see all the moves there and the fighting was really well executed. The sex scene with Bae Jong Ki and his girlfriend was longer in the director's cut and even more explicit so I am glad they shortened it in the movie version. Over all, I like the director's cut.