Hopeless

Hopeless, is a visceral, gritty, and thoughtful crime drama hitting digital this week. This well acted, and well directed film is more drama than crime-drama in many respects, and it is those elements that will have you thinking long after you are done watching Hopeless.

The basic story is that of poor, troubled boy that gets involved with the wrong crowd in order better his life, and that of his Mom's. However, this movie does not take the easy way out in unfolding the story. It is painful and disturbing at times. There are also times when the emotions of the characters are confusing; by that I don't attribute it to poor filmmaking. Just the opposite. The story makes us understand that these characters are complex.

Hopeless is not rated, but it is not for the faint of heart, or for children. It is very good, and I do recommend it.

The story begins with a young man whose life is far from ideal-struggling with an abusive father, unemployment, and mental distress. Without delving into too many specifics, the central premise revolves around his entanglement in the murky world of corrupt politics.

I found the main character (MC), his sister, and the enigmatic mafia boss intriguing. Although the mafia boss's backstory remains somewhat elusive, it fails to leave a lasting impact. The character development lacked the depth it deserved. Nevertheless, the overall narrative was compelling, leaving me yearning for more. Perhaps a drama series adaptation would enhance the experience.

Filmmaker Kim Chang-hoon clearly has good intentions on telling the story through the visual presentation, themes about violence and society and his directing but the tedious atmosphere, uninviting characters, and the cliched writing unfortunately detracts what could have been a pretty compelling South Korean Neo-Noir movie. Chang-hoon offers some interesting directions and the movie does demonstrate good directing and vision explored throughout the movie. Including solid camerawork and some solid performances from the cast members.

The narrative is an interesting concept but the lack of depth given to the characters and the tedious pacing creates the movie to become bland and uninviting to engage with. With the performances being solid, the good performances aren't able to save the movie because the characters weren't good. Despite the characters are given backstories and personality depths, the emotional core and attachment feels missing which I struggled to engage with them.

There are some odd color presentations, the soundtrack was cheesy, and there are some pretty rough dialogue that was a little difficult to take seriously. It's clear there is a vision here but the vision isn't strong enough to withhold a good story. I can see Filmmaker Kim Chang-hoon having a potential in making good movies because he does offer some good talents. But it feels missing.

Hwaran" is a Dutch translation word and means the world's dizziness caused by catastrophe, disturbance, or disaster. The film contains all these implicit words. It may feel somewhat difficult, uncomfortable, and cruel, but the actors' passionate performance quickly passes about two hours of running time. Song Joong-ki boldly shed his image of a flower boy and clearly digested his masculine image with wild and colorful action. He drew the dark middle boss perfectly, drawing another face of Song Joong-ki, making him look forward to his noir in the future. In addition, a large number of actors who boast solid acting skills appeared, enhancing the immersion of the play. Song Joong-ki first anti-protagnoist transformation as Chi-gun outstanding, but easy, and special, but the evaluation of the cliché and his performance is likely to vary. However, it seems clear that this has solidified the inner room and trust of a wide range of middle-aged actors beyond the limits of simple popular stars. Especially The ironic synergy created by the two characters, including the organization's middle boss Chi Gun, who recognizes wounds similar to himself and reaches out to Yeon-gyu, and Yeon-gyu, who changes more and more precariously with him, will leave the audience with deep compassion and leave the deepest lingering feeling this fall.

The depth of this movie can only be understood by finding and interpreting the meaning of the hidden objects such as motorcycles, nails, and fishing hooks.