Gangnam 1970

Fight scenes are well timed and performed (as only Asian cinema can do) but the plot didn't surprise me. My six stars are for that reason.

I expected more about Lee Min Ho but there's not original at his acting: it feels like he always does it the sme way. Maybe the korean movies fans will enjoy this film (at the cast there are many known actors) but for the rest of us it's not that interesting.

I normally is a big fan of Korean crime movie, and most of movie I've watched before are quite satisfying. This one is really a amateur movie, the one I regret wasting my time watching it. First off, Lee Minho just doesn't suit to play in this role, apart form his face, who suit more to a soft character role, his acting for crime and fighting just weak. Don't do the mistake, leave the softer actor for soft character role. They are more suited to love/drama movie.

Secondly, the story just so not interesting, too many bosses at too little scene and time, I had difficulty to determine which is Jang, Yang, Hul, etc. The movie doesn't intro each of them well in the story line. They all shown up in a group, make it hard to identify the person in our mind in later scene when the name was brought up.

This is my first IMDb review, and the reason i decided to write this because I'm so disappointed for this movie.

what we got here is a very badly scripted clichéd screenplay with very pretentious dialog, then we got a very deadbeat director who failed to ignite those who signed up for playing the roles in it. there were several segments of this film that made me feel like watching a lousy Korean pornographic crap. those intercourse, fornication scenes are just absolutely unnecessary, yet this brain-dead director just added and inserted those love-making scenes. every time when the clueless sexual stuff suddenly showed up, i just couldn't help myself to curse. this film was trying to portray the Korean politicians using the gangsters to rip the land from the poor, and the real estates business and values in Korea were starting to boom. the storyline is very weak, and most of the acting performed by almost every actor in this film was not good, therefore it failed to get me connected. a very bad film that the Korean movie industry rarely under achieved in recent years, since most of their recent products are very good, some of them are even light-year better than what Hollywood did in recent years. i have to confess that i didn't finish it, because it's one of the worst Korean films.

South Korea, early-1970s. The government decides to redevelop the Gangnam area south of Seoul, an area that is currently essentially a shanty town. This redevelopment will mean wealth for property owners and developers and corrupt politicians waste no time in feathering their nests. Also into this vacuum steps several criminal gangs, fighting over land, and often working on behalf of the politicians. Caught up in this is a resident of Gangnam, Jong- dae, who discovers that by joining one of the gangs he can pull himself up out of his poverty.

Had heaps of potential. There are similarities with The Godfather - the turf war, the gangster connection, the unwilling civilian who becomes a crime lord, the sweeping scale of the drama. However, that's about where the similarities end. While The Godfather was a cinematic masterpiece, Gangnam Blues is mediocre.

The biggest problem is that it is unfocused. Writer-director Ha Yoo tries to cram in too many stories and sub-plots, minimizing engagement with individual characters and making the movie overly long and padded. Focusing on the lead character and keeping detours in the plot to a minimum would have made for a much better movie.

On the plus side, the movie is quite gritty and the action scenes quite good. Reasonably entertaining, in spells.

My take on this movie comes from a gut level reaction, rather than any expertise in the gangster genre movies.

I found the movie to be a gory, but realistic, portrayal of the depths of man's capacity for greed and violence. Whereas movies made in the US have watered down the showing of violence, this movie didn't. It showed graphically how men can be pushed, by despair and need, to fight with everything they have to not just survive, but to prosper.

I thought all the actors seemed committed to their character's reasoning behind their actions, so I didn't find them to be disengaged from their roles at all. I was particularly impressed with Lee Min Ho's portrayal of such a brutal character, which was so far outside of his normal romantic lead roles.

In the end, I just felt sorry for the sad state of their lives. Whether this is the intent of the creators or not, I don't know. But I was glad I took the time to watch this movie.