उपयोगकर्ता समीक्षाएं

This South Korean take on a low level gangster with skills is the same old story told in an unbelievably enjoyable fashion. The anti-hero is perfectly ambiguous, at times cold blooded and calculating, at times likable, humble, and human. What's worse, as life's choices come at a price, no matter which good life one chooses, the price is almost too much to bear once ensconced in this dirty employ. The acting was phenomenal, with our lead portraying an impossibly good-hearted, cold-blooded career criminal. The story itself contains all of the requisite elements of a good mob drama. The fights scenes were brutally realistic as opposed to stylistic orchestrations of over-the-top martial arts excellence. The score was wonderfully antagonistic to the realities on the screen. The ending was left open for subtle interpretation, where betrayals and motivations are left for the imagination to fill in. Merci beaucoup.

Evil Eye Reviews

A true gangster movie. Raw and harsh. None of that over-the-top Hollywood shoot-them-up garbage. The use of bats and knives is so much more menacing than emptying clips of bullets and not hitting anything.

Good character development and good flow to the movie. It left me wondering what happens to all different characters. I wish there was a huge epilogue but that would have made the ending very soft.

I don't remember ever enjoying a gangster movie this much. I am honestly attached to the characters in this movie and wish there is a book out there (not like I could read it). Highly recommend this movie. Last gangster movies this good was probably The Godfather and Scarface.

A tale of betrayal & motivation in the Korean mob life, A Dirty Carnival concerns a 29-year old gangster working for a middle-rank enforcer whose rise begins after he takes up a job that earns him the big boss' trust & eliminates his boss to take up his position instead. But the real trouble begins when his friend, an aspiring filmmaker, asks him to be a consultant for his debut features which brings forth the events that were buried long ago.

There isn't much to complain in most of the film's aspects as everything is carried out pretty well be it the direction, screenplay, cinematography, editing or performances but the one thing I admire most about it is the action choreography for it puts on screen an impressive example of street fighting in the opening moments only & repeats itself at regular intervals throughout the film plus it's amazingly well accompanied by its electronic score.

On an overall scale, A Dirty Carnival presents a really fine effort from its cast & crew to come out as a nicely crafted crime-drama but it's also missing that X-factor that elevates a film like this to a level of greatness & the sum of the parts don't add up as well as I would've liked it to. Still, A Dirty Carnival works in many ways & steadily captures the zero tolerance principle of Korean mob life. Recommended for fans of Asian cinema.

Since I have not heard about this film before it was broadcast on the Sundance Channel, I had no expectations. This is a very good to almost excellent film about gangster life in South Korea. It features In-sung Zo in a terrific performance as low level gangster Byong-doo. He meets up with an old friend Min-ho, who is a filmmaker and picks Byong-doo's brains about being a gangster. It spirals from there, as Byong-doo gets more ruthless and violent in his quest for more money and especially power. He also meets up with another old classmate. the pretty Hyun-joo (Bo-yong Lee) and that relationship develops slowly. There is some violence in this, but if you like gangster films I liked this as much as Goodfellas. Really, it is that absorbing and highly recommended.

I'd heard a lot about this film, so I was a little surprised by the overall tone, which I felt wasn't very realistic.

The film follows a sub-commander-type gangster who starves under his immediate superior whilst he looks for the opportunity to prove the worth of himself and his men, as well as keep his actual family with a roof over their heads. That opportunity eventually arrives, but it leads to mistrust and dog learns to eat dog, which is about all I can say without ruining the plot.

A lot of users here have commented on the acting being great - and it really is! The fights are excellent (even though most men would be dead if hit with a baseball bat repeatedly to their unprotected chest - NOT a spoiler), and the flow of the story comes naturally. Wow, what's not to love, right?

Unfortunately, the film just cannot decide if it's a fanciful drama glamorising gangsters or a serious characterisation. The romance between the beautiful childhood friend and the lead lacks any kind of spark and it's not until the gangsters are scaring normal people out of their homes for the sake of their boss' stake in a housing development project that we realise they are actually supposed to be nasty people, which, until then, only seemed to be their opposition.

Overall then, A Dirty Carnival is an enjoyable enough flick, but there are better gangster films in both the Asian and Western world and given that the director couldn't seem to decide in what light to make the film, it's impossible to rate it any higher.

One of the quote in this movie describes and sums up this movie "You just need to know two things to be successful. Who you need and what he needs" and that basically sums up the gangster world. The movie really does show the nasty and dirty parts about being a gangster and trying to move up in the world. But the thing is the movie just have anything that really immersed you and can get a bit tedious at time. However the way it did not pull any punches was well done. This is a depressing gangster movie that shows the progress of a gangster who has morals but his direction causes conflict for his loved ones, although that is not his intention. This isn't really a movie that glorifies the gangster life but it doesn't really bash on it either but it does show that it's a sad life full of hurting others and backstabbing. Even when they constantly spout things like family. I think the actor Jo In Sung is alright but he fits right into this role and his character is very believable. Overall it's a good Korean gangster flick but could have been better if it had more elements to get immersed into. And the romance between Jo In Sung's character and the girl he falls for took up a bit of screen time but didn't seem all that crucial to the story. If it had bits that made it more crucial to the plot it would have added more to the movie. Still it's simply very watchable.

6.7/10

We got to see "A Dirty Carnival" at the Asian-American Film Festival here in San Francisco last week. The movie is truly amazing. The action sequences, the music, and the acting were all fantastic.

I think In-Seong Jo (lead actor) will have a very long career in movies. He'd be perfect for Hollywood movies too. His performance in this role lead me to do some research on his other movies - I'll be renting/buying them soon.

Hopefully, Hollywood will not try to re-make this film. It's perfect as is. American audiences are just going to have to get used to reading subtitles to see great movies.

Another good korean thriller, although not one of the best ones. This reminded me of those Warner Bros gangster movies, and you could easily imagine James Cagney in the lead role. It was a good movie, and kept my interest all the way through. The fight scenes are bloody brutal, and to this untrained eye, quite realistic. The performances are good.

The movie is bittersweet, reminding me of "Blow" and "Casino". I refuse to say that it is the Asian counterpart of the above-mentioned movies because I think that does not do Yoo Ha or In-Seong Cho justice.

The cast acted as though each role was made just for them and the accordion laced soundtrack simply added to the irony and hard, cold truth of the subject matter.

But most of the kudos have to go to In-Seong Cho, for letting viewers live through his character (Byung-Doo). Whether it's laughing at his karaoke rendition in the car and club.; his intense, awkward yet realistic fighting skills or the boyish charms oozing when he sees the woman he loves ~ if I knew nothing of the actor I would have thought he was cast to play himself.

It is extremely well done so just watch it and find out for yourself!

A dirty Carnival is a Korean movie and I hadn't known know any of the cast prior to this movie and I think this condition benefits the movie. I try to watch prominent movies in Korean cinema and I can say that dirty carnival is one of the good examples of Korean cinema. Story involves a man who is ambitious enough to rise his rank in the mafia world. But in the mafia world, things are dirty and repetitive for him. I liked depiction of the fights in the movie and I think that some scenes inspired 2nd Raid movie but I can't say that A Dirty Carnival is as good as The Raid 2. Protagonist is portrayed by In-Sung jo and I think he gave a good performance and supportive characters' performances were in a certain quality.

The duration of the movie could be arranged more effectively because I felt the movie was longer than it needed to be, 2 hrs could be enough for this movie. Another thing , the movie's twist was very predictable for me but it was not so bad. Everyone who likes crime & drama genres should give a chance to this Korean movie.

Let me say one thing. I give it 10 just for the apt realistic ending it is. It is not what I liked one little bit but then I give it to the director for catching us off-guard but this is a South Korean movie and this is EXACTLY what I expect from them - a twist that knocks everyone out. This is good. This is what I look for in a South Korean movie - something different from the usual "Hollywood Crafted Endings" - which I feel most of the time implanted into the movie. I saw the film yesterday night and it was running in my mind every time I woke up in sleep. I never thought that this would have such an impact on me.

About the story - this is a gangster film with lots of great violent fights - I thought initially that those fights reflected the title ...until the ending and then I felt the whole movie was like a gangster carnival.

See the movie - this will hit you...

Having a main character that is not the most loveable is one thing. Making him still not despicable and kind of relatable is another thing alltogether. South Korean crime movies and movies in general have been delivering and in 2020 Hollywood took a bow (even if Parasite is not crime and difficult to categorize, it is a superior movie to many others that have been released).

This is more predictable than that, but even so the path we take, the things we experience, even the ones we see coming are quite something. A lot of violence and almost a film school theme to the whole movie too. Know your stuff, know your story, don't just come up with stuff. Makes it all more authentic.

The ending might turn some off, but there's always danger in how to end and how people will feel about that, no matter if you're positive, negative or neutral about it. I would say the only way this could end - and the movie does not overexplain which is really good. This is a treat and I almost regret taking so long - before I finally watched it

A good movie which shown Karma , Love , Brotherhood and Family. "You can never understand other person, dont trust them". LIFE IS YING YANG 69.

Highly entertaining fast speed full of surprises drama thriller crime movie.

Absolutely loved it, the high rating is totally deserved!!

10/10

No glamorous, highly classy gangster story. No sweetening of unrealistic heroic gangsters in this movie. This shows corrupt cop, a parasitic life of gangsters. Somehow, the story deeply moves your sympathy of a human tragedy.

The main character is a 29 year old petty gangster who is burdened caring for an ailing mother, a brother who wants to become a gangster and his family is about to lose their home. He realizes that he cannot continue on like this. He finds himself in a web of murder and betrayal in a world where trust and mercy doesn't exist.

compared other Korean gangster movies, this is one of the top 5.

If you are looking for more in a gangster film than just violence and fights then this is the film for you.

This is a very well rounded film, in addition to some good scenes of violence, murder, betrayal and fights, there is a good splaterring of humour, family drama and a small bit of romance too.

The film centres around a low level gangster who through hard work and various violent acts begins to rise through the ranks.

One of the major messages of the film is about trust, friendship and betrayal.

The acting and directing are all very good, without the need to go over the top due to the excellent pacing of the film and a very good storyline.

Very highly recommended, the time to the end credits is just shy of 2H18, but it's well worth the time for the excellent twists and turns as the film goes on.

This movie show how people use you how people mean for their hidden intentions . How being humble is the biggest mistake of a humble person. Down to earth but solid grasp on characters and emotions . Awesome movie must watch for real movie lover . Not for bollywood lovers please stay away