Day 18 - Breathless (South Korean)

"Sang-hoon is a foul-mouthed and violent gangster working for an illegal money-lending organisation run by his long-time friend, Man-shik. He is first seen attacking protestors who are disrupting the work of a construction company with the other members of the organization.
Sang-hoon has a nephew, Hyung-in, whom he adores. His sister cares about him also, even inviting him to dinner. Sang-hoon is on less friendly terms and avoids her. It is revealed that when he was a kid, his abusive father once had a quarrel with his mother and stabbed his sister by accident. His mother was then hit by a car. It is implied that his father has remarried."

Not bad for a directorial debut from Yang Ik-june, I know it is hard to act and direct at the same time a lot of people can do it but not a lot of them can make them successful.

This film is filled with profanity, brutal violence, broken relationships, death, etc. Truly the film has potential but fails to do anything too well. The cinematography was horrible during the action scenes which left me feeling quite annoyed. Though the camera also moved around a lot during normal scenes which did not help at all.
The characters are all messed up to put it nicely. Sang-Hoon is so messed up after witnessing his mother and sister's (he later learns he has a half sister) death by his father. Sang-Hoon beats his father regularly, cusses at everyone, and is generally not a nice person to be around. Though it is a façade which is well planned by the Yang.

The ending is dull and really predictable I was slightly sad to see it happened.

2/5

Cast

Yang Ik-June as Sang-Hoon (also starred in arahan, no regrets)

 

 

Kim Kkobbi as Yeon-Hee (also starred in The king of pigs, the city of violence)