Gangnam 1970

This film avoids the trap of trying to make the great mob movie by flying low, and it works, it is a rich experience. I will be watching it again. The biggest similarity with the Godather is that Gangnam can evoke what it wants just through the visuals. The meaning, and meanings, of the story are interlayered in what you see and how you see it. The lighting was I thought great, I rarely do. If you've known crime, criminals, cities, politics, family, hard times this film will speak. You get a tapestry of human personalities, and the faces speak about life, choices, chances, death. Pretty violent but surprisingly gentle. I guess it is because it is all symbolic of life's struggles and of cultural changes during the 1970's. It gave me the feeling of a (the) true story of Gangnam. Novelistic. Music, A-1. Acting, too. It's the only mob movie since the Godfather which could be compared to it.

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.

Though it isn't the best gangster movie ever made but surely it is one of the best because it makes you sit on the seat and think what's gonna happen next. Plus it isn't fancy at all, that's the best part of it. Despite the story has its flaws especially the ending, the character portrayal by the actors were outstanding.

I just started watching this movie as a fan of lee min ho, and every scene of this movie showed his great potential as an actor.

So as a normal viewer as well as a fan girl this movie is worth spending time..

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.

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.