Gangnam Blues

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.

Fans of Lee Min Ho may want to tune into this watchable violent explicit gangster movie set in the 1970s corruption world of Seoul property development. At first it may seem hard to imagine the romantic comedy drama actor in such a gritty role. But he is quite good. Kim Rae Won is better here than in more romantic roles. His face isn't right for romance. There are some out of place explicit love scenes.

Main fault is that there are too many characters. Don't like that couldn't keep straight which gangster or politician was doing what to whom. Fewer cast members would have been better. The property deals were interesting.

The fight scenes are quite real looking except the top especially funeral scene feels laughable.

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.