jesse o
I've always been of the opinion that you cannot judge a film based on misleading information from trailers or whatever other material that is created in order to promote a movie. The fact of the matter is that the promotion of the film, outside press junkets, is handled by the studio and not the people who actually had involvement in the creative end of things. Actually, press junkets are handled by studios, what I mean is the fact that you actually get to talk to the people involved in the making of it. Long story short, the point is that if you went into a movie expecting a lighthearted comedy but, instead, got gory and dark horror movie then you can't actually blame the movie. Though, in that case, it's a clear bait and switch by those promoting it. You're promoting something completely different to what the movie is. But, take this movie as an example, the trailers made it seem like a lighthearted rom-com, which South Korea has like a billion of, and it really wasn't. It was more a romantic drama with a few hints of comedy. While I admit that the trailer might have been more misleading than it should have been, it's not gonna have any bearing on what I thought about this. Quite frankly, I just found this to be a really dull and uninteresting romantic drama with some, of course, heavy-handed melodrama near the end. I suppose they thought that a professional hitman falling in love with a suicidal woman was more than enough reason to be intrigued or drawn into the story. That's just not how it works, you have to give us more than that. Riggs, in the first Lethal Weapon, was a suicidal cop due to his wife's murder, and this led him to do reckless things since he felt he had nothing else to live for. He was living as if he was just wanting to die in order to be reunited with his wife again, if you believe in heaven and the afterlife (which I don't). Lethal Weapon redefined the buddy cop genre and it helped usher in a fresher style of action film, but Riggs was still a very interesting character to explore. This movie, on the other hand, doesn't really do any of that and it's really kind of lame. I wouldn't say that they at least made an attempt to explore these characters. The hitman is starting to grow old of the lifestyle and he's looking to leave it behind, but that's it. The suicidal woman they do absolutely nothing with. There's this subplot where she's looking for answers from her ex (who caused her to be suicidal when he dumped her), but I've got no idea what answers she was looking for and why. I understand trying to get closure from a bad break-up, but I don't believe the film ever really tries to explain that in a coherent fashion. Another one of the problems with the film is the fact that, surprisingly, the two characters spend a good chunk of the film apart from one another. This is a problem because it was already hard enough for me to buy into these two falling in love with each other. The leads' chemistry is certainly lackluster, at best. They're both good actors, but you never once see sparks fly between the two. There's no real sense of attraction between the two, so they needed all the help they can get. And for the movie to keep them apart for as much as they did was a mistake. I'm not saying that the chemistry between the leads would have gotten better, but you could at least have the characters spend more time together in order to, at least, give us a chance to see how these two might have fallen in love. Because the only thing these two have going for their 'romance' is the fact that they're attractive to the other. That's how me and my first "girlfriend" got together, we thought the other was cute and that was it. The "relationship" lasted less than one month. There's no exploration of the feelings this woman awakaned in the hitman or vice versa. Though, at least, with the woman, she wants to teach him how to live a normal life. It's not much and it's the usual 'I can fix you through the power of love' nonsense, but it's something. As I mentioned earlier, there's melodrama here, naturally speaking. The hitman takes the woman hostage, in order to save her from police persecution, at least that's what I'm assuming. One of the snipers on top of the buildings shoots the hitman in order to save the hostage. The woman, whose name I forget and don't care enough to look up, starts weeping loudly (with a sad music score in the background naturally), telling the hitman that he can't die and that she'll go with him if he does. It's the typical manipulative bullshit, trying to make you believe that these two are star-crossed lovers. It was nonsense, because these two didn't even come across like they would be a summer fling for the other, much less meant to be together forever. But I will give them props in that this melodrama didn't last long. There's been movies that I've seen where the histrionics lasted over 30 minutes. I actually went back and looked up the film I'm talking about and it is called Almost Love, you can look up the movie and see my review if you want. That's not the only one, but that's the first one that came to mind. There's even a movie where they changed the result of the 2002 World Cup in order to have South Korea win in order so they could kill a little girl. Essentially, the story was that they couldn't get to the hospital in time as a result of the mobs of people celebrating in the streets. That's how far some of these filmmakers will go to exploit their characters and manipulate your emotions. They change the result of the World Cup in order to KILL A LITTLE GIRL. Can you imagine wanting to force in your melodrama so badly that you actually change the result of the World Cup (which is easily verifiable) just so you can justify killing a little girl for histrionics. That's dedication to manipulation, holy fuck. But I digress, this movie isn't as bad as those that I just mentioned, but there's no denying that the melodrama here does no one any favors, whether it lasts 5 minutes or 20. Oh and there's one other complaint I had. There's this fight scene on top of a building between the hitman and his replacement. And this fight scene is absolutely fucking awful. You remember the shit people gave The Iron Fist for having some really poorly choreographed fights on top of quick cuts. The worst offender of this was a 35-second fight scene that had a total of FIFTY-SIX cuts. Yes, FIFTY-SIX of them. Well this fight scene is exactly the same, I don't know if there's 56 cuts, but there's way too many of them for the fight to be any good or for it to be pleasing to the eye. It was so fucking disorienting and dreadful. I fucking hated this scene. There's nothing really wrong with this movie (minus the fight scene I just mentioned), it's not like it pissed me off as some of these movies tend to, but it's just a terribly dull movie with shitty character development and very little in the way of sparks between the leads. It's fine for a couple of hours, but you'll forget about it by the time you go to take a dump after the movie ends. Not recommended.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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Audience Member
Cute romantic comedy
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/24/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Another great Korean film, hard to define from a genre point of view, mostly a black comedy drama with some action, executed brilliantly, and reminded me why Korean films are considered to be world class. The story of a quiet professional killer and a woman with suicidal tendencies, but thankfully not done in a broad Hollywood way. Very enjoyable.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/30/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This movie is an excellent mix of dark comedy, action, and romance. Contract killer Hyun-jun finds his latest victim a suicidal woman with a death wish, and refuses to end her life because he doesn't think he should be used for assisted suicide. This is how he meets Jin-young, and they begin a small romance.
The narrative breathes new life into the contract killer genre. Instead of focusing on action or killing, it develops the characters and forms an original story that mixes an awkward romance and some midlife crises. It thrills, makes you laugh, and fully immerses you with the characters for an original and refreshing movie.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/05/23
Full Review
Audience Member
this movie turned out to be fun to watch since i like the male lead he was also good in guns and talks so i wanted to check this one out and it was funny had good timing and the rest of the cast did well and i like the action and story that made this movie worth the sit though
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/14/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Not quite what I expected, but still worth a watch (that is, if you like long, brooding, meaning-of-life movies). The premise is fantastic but the execution could have been better, I feel.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/20/23
Full Review
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