Killerdeului suda (2001)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Jin Jang

Writer:

Jin Jang (writer)

Release Date:

13 October 2001 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Comedy

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Love | Friendship | Assassin

Cast

Hyeon-jun Shin	...	Sang-yeon
Ha-kyun Shin	...	Jung-woo
Bin Won	...	Ha-yeon
Jae-yeong Jeong	...	Jae-yeong
Jin-yeong Jeong	...	Detective
Seung-hyeon Oh	...	Office Worker 1
Hyo-jin Kong	...	Female Office Worker
Ju-sang Yun	...	Mr. Ju
Hyeon-ju Son	...	Tak Mun-bae
Won-hui Lim	...	Bride
Eun-mi Ko	...	Oh, Young-ran
Gyu-su Jeong	...	Kim, Bang-jang
Yun-jeong Min	...	Jin, Hyang-sa
Hak-cheol Kim	...	Choi Bu-jung
Seung-dae Lim	...	Office Worker 2

Also Known As:

Guns & Talks

Runtime:

South Korea:120 min | Hong Kong:123 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:15 | Australia:M | Hong Kong:IIB | Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | Germany:16

Company:

Cinema Service

A good intro to Korean films

If you listen to all the promos and previews, you'll be told to expect a "Reservoir Dogs" clone. And you'll be disappointed. This movie is meant for people who like their violence semi-realistic and totally screwball. Fans of "Buckaroo Banzai", "Six String Samurai" or "High Risk" will love this. (I'm *not* saying it's wrong not to like "Guns and Talks"; I'm saying it's the wrong movie for you.)

The film is a lot of fun, with characters of varying morality that you never hope to be, but sometimes want to be. Leader Sang-yeon (Hyeon-jun Shin) is likeable and charismatic, a good moral opposite of the Detective (Jin-yeong Jeong). The rest of the cast are funny and well acted. The only flaw with how people are used is the strong and silent assassin, Ha-yeon (Bin Won) who is horribly underdeveloped.

Humourous bit worth watching: of the two men hiring the group at the end of the film, the man with glasses is the director in an uncredited cameo appearances (his imitation/homage to Alfred Hitchcock, who made cameos in all his films). ("How do I kill a man from cancer? Make him smoke?") Some bits are implausible (the escape, for example) but this is comedy, not high art.

A note on the Korean movie scene: prior to 2001, foreign films revenues were used to subsidize the Korea movie industry. But in 2001, Korean-made films *outgrossed* Hollywood and other foreign films. The quality of story, acting, direction, action, and effects have equalled European and Hong Kong films, and I think are worth watching, having seen a few.