Lee Byung Hun is Sunwoo, a resourceful and intimidating “hotel manager” for mob boss Mr Kang( Kim Yeong-cheol), sorting out any “problems” for the gangster when needed. Skilled to the extreme in taking care of himself and his employer’s problems, Sunwoo has honed himself to perfection and is loyal to the end. When asked to keep an eye on Kang’s new young girlfriend while he is away, Sunwoo soon finds emotion stirring within himself, falling for his boss’ mistress Hee-soo (Shin Min-a). However, she is in love with a different man and, after some emotional struggle, Sunwoo decides to give Hee-soo and her new lover a chance and to help them get away from Kang. But as is always the case, Kang has eyes and ears everywhere and discovers Sunwoo’s deception. Hunted down, Sunwoo is tortured, tested and given a chance to prove his worth to Kang and make up for his mistake. Yet Sunwoo has other plans: plans that involve killing pretty much everyone who has turned against him.

For a change, style and substance merge perfectly, the cool, crisp look never over shadowing the tumultuous events the characters are put through. Lee Byung Hun brings an understated intensity to his character, able to defend his life at one moment and then lost for words when presented with a beautiful woman the next. His Sunwoo character is the picture’s heart, a man once turned cold now warming up to life again. Never cocky but confident, never showy but capable of getting “the job” done, Sunwoo brings an emotional core to the film and to the type of character that rarely gets the chance to be human. Kim Jee Woon is the other star, keeping an assured hand all the while, expertly switching from scenes of quiet intensity to ones of ferocious violence. The flick never loses its gritty edge no matter how crisp the visuals become, Sunwoo’s journey keeping momentum pulsing as we eagerly await what he is going to do next.

Woon also stages some impressive battles as Sunwoo takes on various groups and gangs. An extremely tense set piece that involves being buried alive, a phone battery to the eye and an escape by using a piece of wood on fire, is staged with such verve and convincing realism you begin to wonder if Sunwoo will actually make it out alive. Same goes for the epic gun battle come the finale, the best set piece since John Woo quit making eastern films. Violence is often brutal and in your face but, along with action, spaced out and always important to the narrative.

There is so much to say about A Bittersweet Life but the best thing to do is to just see it. Ignore anyone that complains the story is too simple as that is part of the charm and why the film works so well. It will probably be unfairly overshadowed by the likes of Oldboy and misleadingly compared to the likes of Scorsese, Leone and such likes. No offence to that great film or those great directors, it’s just that A Bittersweet Life is just as good if not better and ultimately a beast all of its own. A true gangster epic with brilliant performances, direction and action and not a mockney geezer or wideboy in sight. Simply: great.

There's this one scene about midday through in which these two dorks, full of themselves and not too pleased with driving of our protagonist, ungraciously spit on his shiny black car and throw a cigarette butt at his window. Sun Woo, being the badass that he is (and considering his current mood), abruptly stops his car in front of theirs, gets out, and proceeds to beat the two punks to a pulp. In the coupe de grace, he grabs their keys and tosses them off the bridge. For a moment there I forgot I was watching a movie and simply empathized with the character, his anger just about palpable and real.

If only the rest of the movie kept pumping the adrenaline to the same level, this might have been a classic. As it stands, it's pretty good, but on the whole, doesn't really add much of anything new to the genre. The supporting cast, including Kim Young Cheol and Shin Mina (who slightly resembles Jeon Ji Hyun) turn in fine performances, and the direction by Kim Jee Woon is super slick, if by the book. The set design was supposedly done by the same guy(s) as OLDBOY, and it definitely shows. Likewise, the music work is commendable.

I've heard a rumor that another [longer] cut of the movie exists, and that's something I'd be genuinely interested in. Some subplots in this version are a little rushed, and the movie could use a bit more characterization and dialogue to help set it apart. As much as I love gun battles, we've pretty much seen it all done before, and arguably done better (although the one here is certainly decent). Ditto with some of the torture scenes and the hand to hand combat of the one versus twenty variety, a lot of which I felt could've been shortened or removed altogether without much of a loss (besides a nagging sense of dŽjˆ vu). That's not to say none of the violence is striking, some of it is, but next to the innovative sequences showcased in Park Chan Wook's films of late, I couldn't help but want for more.

Nevertheless, this is a solid film. If you are at all into this type of thing, then by all means.

This is one of those movies that might be talked about for some time. At least I hope it is. The film is called A Bittersweet Life because the main character, Sun-woo (Lee Byung-hun), is the manager of a bar called La Dolce Vita (Italian for A Bittersweet Life). In addition to being the manager, he's also the right hand man to a local mob boss.

When Sun-woo fails to carry out a specific order, because his conscience gets the best of him, he's put on the boss' hit list. From then on it's a struggle to survive, and get answers. This bloody, violent and noir movie ends up with an ultimately ambiguous ending. Did everything really just happen or was it a fantasy concocted by Sun-woo because he's bored with his life?

A Bittersweet Life was a very interesting movie to watch, and painful to look at in certain parts. Not as graphic as a film like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance or Save the Green Planet, but just as striking. What I really liked was Sun-woo's journey to obtain a gun. It wasn't like America, where you can just walk into a store and walk out armed like The Terminator. Sun-woo had to go through a rigorous process in the underworld to get a gun. Of course, this added to his ultimate downfall. Plus, having never fired a gun before, his aim is not as perfect as "in the movies", this adds to the realism and, to be quite honest, the enjoyability of the film (which also adds to the ambiguousness of the ending).

I would have to say that my thoughts on the film are that it was all a fantasy. Not just because of what is said at the end, but also because of how much punishment Sun-woo takes and stays on his feet (after dozens fall before him, after taking much less in the way of physical bodily damage). This doesn't make it any less enjoyable, it just makes it more fantasy than an attempt at realistic gunplay action. A Bittersweet Life is highly recommended.