Baramui paiteo

To be quite honest, I didn't know anything about this film before I had purchased it. In fact, I had only bought it for two reasons. The first was that I knew it was a martial arts film and two, because it featured Masayo Kato, who appears in a few movies that I happen to like. However, by the time I had finished watching the movie, I had to admit that it exceeded my expectations for a few reasons. For instance, it had some drama, which most martial arts films tend to lack; the picture quality was superb; and above all, it was an autobiographical sketch based on a real life martial arts master.

I won't go over the story, as I'm sure that a few other people had already given it away anyway. But to those who have criticized the film on the basis that it was "boring" just because the fights were too quick and not very well choreographed, I think it's important for them to acknowledge the fact that this was based on a true story. Most fights really did end relatively quick because of Choi Bae-dal's lethal blows. In fact, it was said that most fights between him and his opponents did not last more than three minutes, while other matches ended with only single blows coming from one of Bae-dal's kicks or punches.

Needless to say, I did enjoy the film as I've already emphasized above and was glad that I saw it for another reason: because I would not have embraced Bae-dal's depicted character with the same respect that I currently have for the other great martial arts legends, the likes of which include Musashi, Bruce lee, Wong Fei Hong, et al.

8 out of 10

I was pretty excited when this hit theaters. There was a lot of buzz floating around about it being the next great martial arts film. Unfortunately, for everything it does right, it does equal wrong.

For starters, this is a martial arts film, so you would assume there would be lots of fighting. And there is fighting, just not all that much. Most of the film is littered with lengthy dialogue scenes that are intended to deepen the characters, but this fails as well. Character motivation seems to be limited to "spur of the moment" reasoning and the ultimate plot is nothing more than standard fight-film fare (boy gets beat up a lot, boy trains, boy beats up everybody).

This isn't to say that the film doesn't have some positive aspects. The film is gorgeous; color, cinematography, lighting, all handled with expert flare. As for the fights (when the film gets around to them), they are excellent. Eskewing the modern trend penchant for treating fights like elaborate dance sequences, here instead we get some real hard-hitting brawls that also maintain a look of grace.

If only the filmmakers had put as much effort into the writing as they did into the look of the film, this could easily have been one of the top martial art films, instead of mild entertainment destined to be forgotten.

Score: 6/10

I was impressed and satisfied with Fighter In The Wind. Most martial arts movies tend not to be very serious, but in terms of grit and realism, this was one of the few martial arts movies that maintained complete seriousness throughout.

Apparently, it is biographical of a real karate master, which I didn't realize until the end. It is also apparently based on a comic book version of the story, which in hindsight is easy to see in the colorful and visually well-arranged cinematography. Many different environments, landscapes and buildings are encountered in the course of the story, and they are all beautifully presented. The director is a master at his craft.

Baedal's geisha girlfriend, played by Aya Hirayama, is absolutely stunningly beautiful, and the movie is worth watching just for her. But it is a good movie in its own right, with a good portrayal of the Korean minority in Japan just after World War II. Although parts of the story and characters lack depth, I do find the movie generally satisfying, except in one respect: As the other commentators point out, it doesn't have a great deal of fighting, and the fights it does have are brief and relatively unimpressive - all the more so because Baedal apparently doesn't use any specific style. It doesn't ring true, either, that he gets to challenge every kind of martial arts school, from karate to judo and others. Would such schools accept challenges from someone with such an unspecific fighting style? I doubt it. But, I'm no expert on this.

In any case, despite these flaws, I think the overall style of the movie is very well made, and I enjoyed it a lot. I'd definitely recommend it to any fan of martial arts and action movies.

My rating: 7 out of 10.

One major problems I had with this movie is the almost utter lack of character development. The protagonist has very little conversation that reveals his thoughts. Instead the director focuses on his determination, which is shown soley through actions, rather than words that might provoke a deeper understanding of the character. To sum up my knowledge of the characters: Baedal wants to be the best fighter, his best friend is a goof, and the bad guy is harsh and hates Baedal. Thats about as deep as it gets. Slight exagerration, but you see what I mean (and I do mean SLIGHT).

The second shortcoming was Baedal's transformation to a great fighter. For the most part is was glossed over and unrewarding. We get a glimpse of the brutal training he endured, and then miraculously he is like a whole different fighter. When this movie is about the transformation from an average fighter to the "best" in Japan, I expect a little more than that.

Lastly I have to knock it down a point for the style of the film. It seems like during some fights they decided to arbitrarily add in special effects. These detract from the movie, especially because the rest of the movie is not stylized in that manner (Kill Bill for example). Also, some of the sets and characters/costumes seemed a little cheesy, making me think it was a relatively low budget film. Not what I would expect for a movie from 2004.

The disappointing part of this movie is really that they could have done a lot better. The story itself has plenty of interesting aspects that are great for a movie. However, the way they chose to present was just plain dull, largely due to the reasons I have expressed above. While I was watching, it gave me the attitude, "Oh, hes gonna fight this guy, maybe it will be cool", "Okay, this is boring, when is the next fight?." And its not at all because I'm obsessed with fighting, its because the scenes between fights were really lacking.

If you want to see a great coming of age/martial arts movie about determination and deep characters, I recommend "Once Upon A Time in High School". It has everything that this movie lacked.

I watched this movie the other night, but i found it quite enjoyable. While I will agree that though there are enough fights, they aren't nearly long enough. But the length of the fight isn't what makes them good, it's how well they're done with the time given. Like if you're going to throw a punch at someone, but stop yourself only centimeters from your target, proving to everyone that you have defeated him and he was powerless to stop you, well that is pure quality right there. I loved the main character. He willingly put himself through hell with his training, and became one of the most focused and determined fighters i've ever seen in a movie The story wasn't the best, but i still found this movie fun