City of Violence

I didn't expect much from this....just an action flick to keep me busy for 90 minutes. I did get that, but I got even more.

I won't oversell it. The story is about as original as buttered toast. The actors however, played it with as much heart as they could (while trying to look tough). I'm not saying that there are Oscar-worthy performances here, but they didn't sleep walk through it, either.

There's a group of high school guys. They were friends, once upon a time. They grew up, and they drifted apart. One of them moved to Seoul and became a police officer. One day he gets a call summoning him home; it seems one of his boyhood friends has been killed. He goes home for the funeral, then with another boyhood chum, decides to investigate...because something just doesn't feel right. Tragedy and betrayal...and of course *violence* ensues.

The action scenes were certainly effective, with plenty of stylized Tae Kwon Do all over the place. Only one gun in the movie (in a police station)! There are some people on the site saying the action is under-choreographed and infrequent. I felt like the movie had a good deal of action: Plenty of short action scenes to keep it interesting, and two long b*lls-to-the-wall scenes, the second of which is something like "Kill Bill" meets "Lethal Weapon." A buddy martial arts flick, there just aren't enough of those! Oh, and people talk about the homage to "Kill Bill"....check out the homage to "The Warriors." What can I say....I laughed.

The bottom line is, this film is nothing groundbreaking. The drama won't make you cry. The action won't make you cheer out loud. The story won't make you think too much. In spite of this, it is a heck of a lot of fun. In the end, that's what entertainment is supposed to be...."fun." It's mindless action with a bit of soul....and I would recommend it to everyone....just set it aside for a night where you want a fun fix, and you don't want to think too much. And hey, we all have those some time.

THE CITY OF VIOLENCE is a solid action film with an engaging, gangster-focused storyline and plenty of interesting characters to keep the viewer's attention. Things kick off with a brutal murder in the street, which leads to the victim's childhood friends reuniting to reminisce about the old days. We learn that each character has gone his own way: one's now a small-time gangster, another a cop. The gradual pursuit and uncovery of the truth eventually leads to violent recriminations for one and all.

Interestingly enough, the mystery-style plotting and gangster window-dressing eventually wear off until by the end the film becomes a riotous, ass-kicking extravaganza that bears more than a passing resemble to the infamous 'Crazy 88' action scene in KILL BILL: VOLUME 1. It works: the director contributes plenty of stylish flourishes and the action is well-filmed through, from huge, sprawling street fights early on to the epic bad-assery of the climax. It truly is an excellent ending, lifting what's come before and proving itself a film more than capable of holding its own against bigger productions.

This is an entertaining enough modern-day martial arts action thriller which is, it has to be said, entirely unoriginal in almost every respect. The plot concerns a city cop returning to his hometown for the funeral of a childhood friend, victim of a back-alley knifing while chasing thugs from his bar. Together with a second childhood friend, our hero suspects something amiss and begins his own investigation into the murder. This decision is the cue for a succession of unlikely encounters and a particularly bloody and fatal encounter with yet another childhood friend.

There are some people whose personalities are so under-developed that they have a tendency to adopt the characteristics of those they are close to (accent, mannerisms, etc), and this film reminded me a lot of people like that. Watching it, I got the impression that the writer/director was mimicking every film he wished he'd made. There are a number of obvious 'homages', and a flashback to a juvenile fight that is as (hopefully deliberately) cheesy as any 70s chop-socky sequence. One of the 'homages' is to Quentin Tarantino's (himself the king of the 'homage') over-rated Kill Bill so if, like me, you were bored by Tarantino's self-indulgence, you might consider thinking twice about watching a film whose writer obviously thinks so highly of it. Having said that, there is something ironic about an Asian film so clearly referencing a film which blatantly ripped off so many of the staple devices of its national genre.

The action is as frenetic and professional as you'd expect, and the storyline is reasonably engaging but, when all is said and done, this is really nothing more than a decent time-filler.

As with most action films: forget about the plot - this one holds very little surprises and the villain is obvious from his very first scene, thus eliminating any suspense from the first 45 minutes.

But again: this is an action film, so who cares?

Actually, this is a very stylish action film, bringing some pretty neat photography and music along to boot.

It's also a rare tae kwon do mayhem-fest, so sit back and watch all those fighters leap into the air, pulling off unbelievable moves for your entertainment.

Overall: cool fights and a finale almost (repeat: ALMOST) on a par with the legendary finale of A Better Tomorrow 2.

Watch this film and - if you like martial arts action - you'll enjoy this immensely.

"The City of Violence" had gotten some fairly great reviews on Amazon, that is one of the main motives for why I bought it, that and also because I enjoy Asian cinema.

And now having seen "The City of Violence", I must say that I was thoroughly entertained and somewhat surprised by the movie. Initially, I found the story to be a little bit jumpy and not all that easy to grasp at first, as there is a lot of jumping to and fro and a heap of characters thrown into your face all at once. But once the dust settles and the movie trots on, it becomes really great. The story really isn't the main issue to carry the movie; the action and fighting is.

The action and fighting scenes and sequences were really nicely choreographed and executed. Lots of adrenaline and in-your-face fighting here. It is not the type of action as seen in many Chinese action movies, with wires and crazy jumping going on, no! This is done very realistic and believable. Though I do wonder how one manages to stay afoot after receiving such a beating as the two main characters did towards the end and final showdown (I guess they just had that Jean Claude Van Damme gene in them, eh?).

The people cast for the various roles were doing really great jobs with their roles, and I think it was nice to see so many unfamiliar faces on the cast list, which for me, means there are no associations to prior movies and roles hanging in the air. I enjoyed the performances by all people in "The City of Violence".

"The City of Violence" is a movie that you just have to watch if you are a fan of Asian action movies, it is an amazing Korean movie that is well worthy up along side some of the 'classic' Hong Kong action movies. And "The City of Violence" goes to prove that action doesn't have to come from Hollywood. And speaking of action, then the final showdown at the restaurant was one of the best fighting scenes I have ever witnessed in a movie, it just went on and on (but in a good way) and it was done so nicely.

Thumbs up for this movie, way up!