A Bittersweet Life ☯ Korean Neo-Noir thriller

"Master, is it the branches that are moving, or the wind?"
"That which moves is neither the branches nor the wind, it is your heart and mind."

A sky lounge bar & restaurant at a hotel, floating like an island in one side of the sky above Seoul. That place is a small castle of Sun-woo, a keen and sharp perfectionist. After spending 7 years serving his boss, President Kang and obtaining his absolute trust, Sun-woo became the person who managed the sky lounge. With his silent faithfulness not to ask why and a perfect of handling business, he won his boss' trust.

A cold-hearted boss, President Kang punished rule-breakers regardless of any mistakes they made. He had a secret that he cannot tell anybody: that is his young lover, Hee-soo. President Kang orders Sun-woo to watch her out of the doubt that she might have another lover, and if it turns out true, to kill her.

On the third day when Sun-woo started following Hee-soo, he made a surprise attack on the place where Hee-soo was with her boyfriend. However, at the last moment, he let them go after much hesitation.

Sun-woo believed that everything can return to the normal state. However, due to this decision that he made, Sun-woo starts an irreparable war against the whole gang who were his own brothers until the day he spare Hee-woo's life.

Kim Jee-woon began his career as a stage actor, then stage director, and finally has become one of the most popular and acclaimed figures among modern Korean directors/screenwriters. His second screenplay, The Quiet Family (1998), won him the Best Screenplay prize in a local contest, and Kim went on to make his directorial debut with this screenplay. The film was invited to many film festivals. Kim's films, from The Quiet Family (1998) to last year's A Bittersweet Life, have been hailed by critics and audiences alike for his unique style and storytelling. His second feature, The Foul King (2000), drew more than 2 million spectators, while his astounding horror film of true visual elegance, A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), reached 3.5 million viewers nation-wide. It went on to be remade by Dreamworks in the US.

Lee Byung-hun as Sun-woo

"You're messing with the wrong guy. ...You'd better watch your back."
A kin and sharp perfectionist with the image of espresso and tidy black suits. His world is dark, cold, cruel... but still, filled with irresistible attraction. As he lives in such fulled of violence world the only way of solving problems he knows is violence.
Kim Yeong-cheol as President Kang

"This time, you can't just pay me back with a finger or two."
A life-sustaining policy to him is "the rule". He who has a belif that "if hammer is light, the nail will rise.", is a cold-hearted man that punishes any rule-breaker without hesitation. The only person to whom he seems to have neither blood nor tears soften his heart is his young love, Hee-soo.
Shin Min-a as Hee-soo

"You can't always know what you want, can you?"
A young cellist who belongs to a totally different world from Sun-woo or President Kang's. Since being innocent and straightforward enough not to care others' eyes, she dominates President Kang's heart. Even thought she's a girl of the boss of gangs, she is not interested in gang's cruel logic at all.
Hwang Jeong-min as President Baek

"Life is pain, didn't you know that?"
Most of all, he never endures any attack on his ego. He has a personality he should pay back the exact same amount of pain that he suffered from in order to satisfy himself.
Kim Roe-ha as Mun-suk

Sun-woo's rival, who uses fists ahead of words.
Moon Eric as Tae-ku

A cool headed killer who never shows his feelings.

Oh Dal-Su as Myung-gu
Kim Hae-Gon as Gun Dealer

Lee Gi-Yeong as Mu-sung
Jin Ku as Min-gi

The soundtrack plays a big part in making this movie great cinema experience, as the diverse pieces, yet always tragic in tone, really add to the film. Concerning the style there is a lot of different stuff to be discovered here, from tranquil piano pieces to waltz-like tunes and more action-loaden tracks that are standing out with their great beat and spanish guitar sounds. An impressive OST, that concerning its unique style is second to none.

7 cachy tunes of 20 OST tracks performed by electronica rock band Dalparan. The film's R&B overflowing theme song "A Bittersweet Life" is sung by Yang Pa who made a surprise comeback after an extensive artistic break of 4 years. And very tranquil and tragic "Romance" by Japan's new age piano virtuoso Kuramoto Yuki fits very well into the rest of the CD.

"A Bittersweet Life" scores with great compositions, a bittersweet style, splendid spanish guitar pieces, outstanding beats and incredible coolness is a must-have for any soundtrack-lover!
source: AsianMovieWeb

1. Dialogue #1
   
2. My Sad Night
   
3. Irreversible Time
   
4. Dialogue #2
   
5. Romance by Yuhki Kuramoto
   
6. Red Lounge by Dalparan
   
7. Long Journey
   
8. Red Ice-rink by Dalparan
   
9. A Bittersweet Life II by Dalparan
   
10. A Bittersweet Life by Dalparan
    
11. Escape by Dalparan
    
12. Fearness
    
13. Dark Room by Dalparan
    
14. Follow by Dalparan
    
15. Etude In E Minor by Francisco Tarrega
    
16. Dialogue #3
    
17. Sky Lounge
    
18. Irreversible Time (Quartet)
    
19. A Bittersweet Life III by Yang Pa
    
20. A Honeyed Question by Lee Gi-yeong

"Maybe, from the beginning, it was film noir."

Recalling the past years, "Quiet Family" my debut film, was a comical film noir. In that movie, there exist film noir-like factors such as conspiracy, human's dark passion, cruelty and destruction.

"A Tale of Two Sisters" and "Three: Memories", which are full of shadow, tragedy and desire of murder, can be also considered to look like film noir's sentiment.

My intense interest in the genre of film noir, which I have liked from the beginning finally made me create "A Bittersweet Life". Since I wanted to do the different thing from the previous one, I made horror film after the comedy and, at this time, it is noir action. However, the world in my films is always the same.

"Film noir gives us the genre's own delight and at the same time,
makes us examine ourselves' lives and think of life's dark and bitter taste."

Motif is a "cool guys' irreparable choice" and it portrays a man's wrath about the reason why this happened, a desire to want to know the truth, a pain of memory, overwhelming ruin and so on. Through them, I wanted to deliver the question like: how the violence can work to those who have violence as the only way of solving the problem, if they can be saved out of that situation and what the persons in extremity feel, right before thay are ruined.

• It feels nihilistic at times, and as in Old Boy -- which will surely be compared to this film countless times -- the violence is strong and innovative enough to become a topic of conversation. Mixed in with the cruelty is a bit of absurd, black humor in the middle reels, but not enough to lessen the heavy feel of the work as a whole.
  koreanfilm.org, by Darcy Paquet



• Its balancing of stylish and nihilistic violence with tremendously effective black comedy, the kind that never gets to its knees begging you to laugh but earns it with its uniqueness. Its beautiful melancholy hidden under the wah wah and the bang bang, it all comes together as a masterful whole.
  Twitch, by X



• Lee Byung-Hun shines in this film noir that reeks of turbulence beneath a state of normality.
  movieXclusive, by Patrick Tay



• Despite stylistic déjà vu, this is hugely enjoyable, and beautifully brutal.
  EMPAIR, by Sam Toy



• The cinematography is breathtaking, the violence is beautifully choreographed and very brutal, the use of the genre extremely intelligent. Kim shows not only insight into the genre, but a love to it. "A Bittersweet Life" is a classic.
  DVDBeaver, by Henrik Sylow



• Visually striking to gawk at, excessively violent, unorthodox, emotionally layered, existential and quite sad when you stop and think about it%u2026this bitter sweet life RULED!
  JoBlo.com, by John Fallon



• Many bullets are shot and punches are thrown over the course of this movie, in a way that reminded me that I haven't really seen a flat-out action movie this good in a while. Kim Ji-woon and Lee Byung-hun are the best pairing of actor and director for this kind of film.
  eFilmCritic, by Jay Seaver



• There are no hipster, swaggering, ultra cool characters on these mean streets. Sun-woo comes across as confused, angry and scared by the cold, sadistic villains he is up against. It gives the film a more emotional and frightening core, while never being anything less than entertaining and exciting.
  Eye For Film, by Iain Macleod

2005 Awards

42th Grand Bell (Daejong) Awards
Best Supporting Actor (Hwang Jeong-min)

4th Korean Film Awards
Best Supporting Actor (Hwang Jeong-min)

26th Blue Dragon Film Awards
Best Cinematography (Kim Ji-yong)

13th Icheon Chunsa Film Festival
Best Actor (Lee Byung-hun)
25th Korean Critics' Choice Awards
Top 10 Films
Best Actor (Lee Byung-hun)
Best Music (Dalparan, Jang Yeong-gyu)
6th Pusan Film Critics Association Awards
Best Cinematography (Kim Ji-yong)
38th Sitges International Film Festival
Best Original Soundtrack (Dalparan, Jang Yeong-gyu)

2006 Awards

42th Baek Sang Art Awards
Best Movie

8th Deauville Asian Film Festival
Grand Prix Action Asia
Action Asia Prize
10th Fantasia Film Festival
Best Asian Film - Silver Prize
Best Cinematography (Kim Ji-yong)

skylounge - La dolce vita
Sun-woo's castle, also his battle field... Black and white, glimmering red is the main color of this room. The view of the city from the lounge totally changes as the sun goes down, which made the director to chose this place. The hallway of the skylounge was once Sun-woo's routine place, which in the end, turns into a lonely road headed to his enemies.

Inchon joint market
The place where the gang first captures Sun-woo. The scene was made at a real fishery joint market. A huge door and high ceiling makes it look unrealistic, when the place itself is from the real ordinary life. The blood of fish and maggots everywhere symbolize the lost of Sun-woo prestige.

Chung Pyung closed-factory
The most humiliating place for Sun-woo to get tortured. The old machines and cement walls were set up to make the place seem old and abandoned. When the action scene takes place, the lighting and camera shots emphasize the roughness of the area to make it seem like a totally different place from the scenes shown the the beginning of the movie.

source: official site

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