Ba-bi

I thought Barbie was a great movie. In a seaside resort lives a fractured family; a mentally challenged father with two daughters and his morally bankrupt brother. The youngest daughter is sickly, spoiled and dreams of going to America, the oldest does her duty taking care of most of the day-to-day chores associated with running a humble beach resort, more like a beach motel really. The uncle of the girls has brokered a deal of some sort with an American businessman and his daughter. This begins a conflict between the two sisters as it is revealed that the oldest will leave Korea for the States.

(I don't want to share to many details as that would give the movie away, and I hate spoilers.)

At first I thought I had the movie figured out...turned out the motives of American were different but equally appalling. It's a drama with thriller elements but mostly you hang in there to see what is truly going to happen...I was rooting for the relationship between the two girls (the eldest sister Soon-Young and Barbie) but I was relieved that it ended the way it did...and that makes me sad and makes me question my own moral compass.

Watch it then tell me who you rooted for...

Firstly, I thought Barbie was a thriller movie or some psychological mental twist movie.

It is not. I hate sad movie. I shed tears through this movie.

I did not hate it though. Because it was not totally sad from the first like Grave of the Fireflies - it messes with your emotion.

You feel bad for one person and then feel sorry for them. You feel hate for one character and then feel pity for her/him. It is pretty cool to see a tragic movie made this way.

You will not see GORE, CRAZY INSANE TEARS, SCREAMS, and all that stuff. This is totally a cool movie.

I think of it like an indie movie (cool and not spoiling anything) for people who do not like drama / sad movies. I like this movie. I give it an 8 for the casting and the plot at the end.

Great, great, great job. And Barbie, i mean... so 2000 late.

It is very hard to review this film and trust me, it is even harder to stay calm while it lasts... Urge to either correct, or punish some atrocious acts by the characters was so strong, that I felt irritated during the movie... I guess it is a good thing.

As you could have guessed, this is a very intense tragedy, (not the contemporary meaning of the word.) which tries to justify some unimaginably inhuman acts by the characters. That being said, I was surprised to realize that in the end, story makes sure to leave no room for such "justifications" whatsoever.

Some of the themes might look familiar to the viewer.

Listed:

Life is hard; Two sisters; Mentally challenged father; Complete a**hole of an uncle; A dream.

Generic eh? NOT QUITE. It's the opposite! Not sure how Mr. Sang-woo Lee achieved this, but I don't think that the same effect can be experienced elsewhere.

Acting and story are superb. While the film is slow and lighthearted, it still keeps on to the idea of punching the viewer in the face, and for me it happened in a very theatrical manner.

The thing is that, both the imagery and the story are very humane, slightly beautiful and immensely simple. I am pretty sure that the most horrifying, unbearable and mildly disgusting part of it, is the fact that it's VERY VERY

SIMPLE.

Cinematography compliments the mood perfectly. While mostly it's generic "daily life" shots, there are moments which are so graphical, (I don't mean violence) that somehow i got the feeling that the operator was mocking the viewer.

In the end, I feel that this might be one of the best movies in its genre (if such exists). Shove the melodrama aside, prepare to be violently gutted, and enjoy the pure awesomeness of a human behavior which is called: "I am not human anymore."

Definite recommend for everyone who wants to see something original in a simplistic, and almost theatrical way.

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+10 for Lee cheon-hee, actor who plays the role of an uncle guy.