Sem Misericórdia para os Rudes

Flick was reasonably competent until an absolutely disastrous final 10 minutes (actually the final 10 minutes felt more like an hour, and the music, dear lord the music...)

NO MERCY FOR THE RUDE starts out as a confident, fast-talking, self-referential black comedy.. with what would seem like some genuine potential.. Although not terribly original at all, the movie has a charm which so many Korean movies share. Unfortunately, repetition sets in around midway.

Ha-kyun Shin, so great in films like SAVE THE GREEN PLANET and MURDER, TAKE ONE is more than capable of carrying a film, and does not disappoint here either. His character was eerily reminiscent of the actor's role in SYMPATHY FOR MR VENGEANCE, in which he also suffers from a disability of one of the senses. Oddly enough, the love interest also seems to resemble the anarchist-chick from SYMPATHY.. anyhow, similarities between the two films end there.

Ultimately, the movie thinks it's smarter than it actually is. The snarky voice-over, although initially endearing, eventually begins to grate. All said, i'd have given the movie a respectable 6/10, but that would have been before i suffered through the atrocious ending. Only in Korea can emotional melodrama become so pandering and drawn-out (well, on second thought there's always Bollywood)

5/10

Why is this movie so underrated, I can't understand. It is a superb film: it is very cool, but ironic on itself at the same time, letting every people enjoy it (the ones who are not keen on the coolness itself only, too). It has a good sense of humor, sometimes nice, sometimes dark, sometimes grotesque humor. It has excellent action scenes, but not much enough to be boring. It is dramatic, but just as much as necessary. Of course, there are lots of similarities to movies like Bittersweet Life or A Dirty Carnival or Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. But it doesn't matter, because inside the texture of the movie - or should I say the "world of the movie" - everything fits perfectly: I daresay that No Mercy is maybe even more coherent and "harmonic" than Lady Vengeace (which is also an excellent movie) and because of this - better. Maybe if this is among the first Asian movies you see you'll find it weird how they change between the funny and light and bloody and dramatic (and so on) scenes, but if you're into Asian movies (Korean in the first place, because they have a distinctive aura), watch this by all means!

Ha-kyun Shin(The Killer) the main character and the narrator is a mute Hit-man who desperately want to speak so he was collecting money through this assassin business for his tongue surgery. The way he narrate the story was amazing. He loves only two things Bull Fighting and the sea food. There are lots of twist in this movie lots of drama and every character plays his role fabulously. Ji-hye Yun(The Girl) was outstanding. I don't want to reveal much because it will ruin the taste. One more thing we couldn't compare it with Kill Bill because that was a revenge movie & this is different. Of course highly underrated movie, must watch and enjoy the ART....

This South Korean character driven assassin movie has more to offer than most. The main character is a mute who is driven by his need to speak, and the characters around him are more quirky than that. The true impact of this director is the way he takes basic human foibles and create realistic and interesting characters who engage and enthrall you. From the broken down ballet dancer to the down and out karate instructor, you instantly get a feel for who they are and like them. The fact that they are assassins is irrelevant. If you had wished that Kill Bill actually brought you characters worth being the least bit interested in, then this movie is for you.

Great movie, though I think that Asia has all but over-killed the gangster genre. It's the typical plot we've seen time and again, though there is a little bit of character development throughout the film. The few action sequences were over pretty quickly, with one or two lasting a bit longer (re: 20-30 sec). I did enjoy the film, though I think I went into it expecting too much.

As to the previous review stating that this is better than Kill Bill... don't believe it. We went to see Kill Bill for the action (which it was loaded with), so comparing this film to Kill Bill is akin to comparing Star Wars to Star Trek Deep Space 9, or Pulp Fiction to 21 Grams; yeah they (my example) may follow some similar plot themes, one set a space theme, or the other set following disjointed time-lines, but that is where the similarity ends. This film was nothing like Kill Bill except it has assassins in it.

Bottom Line: It was a good movie, but don't go into it expecting anything but an Asian gangster cum assassin movie; there is nothing special beyond that.