Sin-ui hansu

This is a must-see movie. There's never been any other movie like this before.

The main line through this movie is the board game Go (also known as igo in Japan, weiqi in China or baduk in Korea). Go is a mind game and it may come to a surprise that this movie is so violent. However that's exactly what makes this movie so brilliant.

You can feel that the person who wrote the script of this movie is somebody who loves the game of Go. The movie perfectly respects the spirit of the game: the aggression, creativity, scheming, ...

As for people who are not interested in the board game at all. You will not be disappointed neither. Top actors, an exciting script, humor and blood. What more could you possibly want ?

This movie is marketed as an action movie, but it really isn't one. It only has a couple of fight scenes, and only the final one actually lasts a while (the fights are all well coreographed though, and the final fight is awesome). It is a revenge-thriller first and foremost, but the larger part of the movie actually focuses on the board game "Go", so the movie is actually pretty slow, which got kind of boring to me. The plot itself is okay enough. Standard revenge-thriller fare. The music and the acting were both good.

A professional Go player is asked by his brother to help him win a rigged, high-stakes underground match and things go bad quickly.

Sent to prison (I'm still not quite sure why), the humble Go player uses his skills to win favours from the gambling warden, and he soon uses those favours in exchange for fight training, so that he can become an absolute killing machine when he gets out! Yeah, it all sounds pretty dumb but it's a film, so carry on...

Having served his time, our Go master - now a kung fu-fighting master to boot - doesn't waste time in tracking down the men who killed his brother and swiftly exacts revenge on one... it's then that the tone of the film changes, taking a potential 8 star flick down a couple of notches.

See, so far the tone had been very dark and gritty, but the Go player opts to put a team together, woo the hot chick who plays secretly for the gangsters and the realism really goes out of the window. Had it either been somewhat lighter from the beginning or stayed bleak, this could have been really great, but with the tone hovering from this point onwards between the white-toothed smiles and happy endings of Hollywood-type films, and classic, gritty revenge thrillers, I was never quite sure what I was watching... but that doesn't mean to say it's a bad film, as I did enjoy it (it just could have been a lot better).

I'll admit though: I've never played Go and dismissed it as just an Asian version of draughts (checkers, to Americans), but the love for the game is clear in this film and might just change a few people's preconceptions. That said, please do NOT read this as being a sports film, because Go is just the unique backdrop that this unbalanced thriller has to separate it from the pack.

This film is based around the game of Go (Baduk). Go is considered to be one of, if not the hardest board game to play. It is also considered the oldest board game having originated in China approximately 2500 years ago. Go is a strategic game which requires great focus and presence of mind to capture your opponent. The game is still extremely popular and in this film it is played with high stakes.

The main character is a professional player and when asked by his brother to help him win a game, things go terribly wrong, his brother is murdered and he ends up in prison. While in prison, he makes fast friends with a mob boss by winning a game against the warden in which the mob boss gets a request granted. He asked the mobster to return him the favor by having his henchmen train him to skillfully fight so that when he leaves prison he can avenge his brother's death. That is the plot of the movie.

I don't really know much about the game of Go but the folks in this film have made the game a building stone of their criminal enterprise. There is a lot of money, talent and blood wrapped up in this game. Some of the characters are like or dislikeable enough but I think that the film could have benefited from more character building. The action sequences were the highlight. They were quick, well shot and fairly brutal keeping you on the edge of your seat.

It is a decent film. Check it out if you are looking for a bit of action.

I thought I was going to really enjoy this movie. At least more than "Tazza: The Hidden Card", but it didn't come close to meeting my expectation. And "Tazza: The Hidden Card" is simply a more entertaining movie compared to this. The story starts out like it's going to lead up to something really cool. But the movie just seem to get blander and blander as it progressed. The is a revenge story that has the board game "Baduk", not the other way around. I must say everything about this movie is just straight up predictable. If you guess what direction this movie is going to go the chances are that you are right on the money. The cinematography is good and Ahn Sung-ki's acting was impressive and he still has that genuine charisma going. There is certain elements that are added into this movie that just doesn't go anywhere. And it just seemed unnecessary for the movie as a whole. At least in "Tazza" most of the characters had significance, I can't say the same for this movie.

6.2/10.