Oh! Brothers (2003)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Yong-hwa Kim

Writer:

Yong-hwa Kim (writer)

Release Date:

4 September 2003 (South Korea)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Family

Plot:

The story of two brothers, the younger one of whom has a rare disease which causes his body to age rapidly while his mind is still in a pre-teen state. |

Cast

Jung-Jae Lee	...	Oh Sang-su
Beom-su Lee	...	Oh Bong-gu
Mun-shik Lee	...	Jeong
Seung-su Ryu	...	Heo Ki-tae
Yong-jin Ryu	...	Mr. Park
Won-jong Lee	...	Mr. Hong
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Su-Jeong Eom
In-yeong Yu

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Singapore:PG

Company:

KM Culture Co.

Warm cinematography and an inviting production design ultimately servicing a thoroughly constructed central relationship

OH! BROTHERS (2003) Directed by Kim Yong-hwa. The number 6 box office charter of 2003, this is an odd, needlessly complicated tale of a debt collector/blackmail photographer/missing person finder Sang Woo (Lee Jung-jae) learning upon his father's death that he has a half-brother - mentally deficient man-child Bong-ku (Lee Beom-su) - whose mother, if he can find her, will be legally forced to absolve him of his father's hefty debt. Not surprisingly, Sang-woo discovers Bong-ku's creepy affectations and appearance (at one point he's dressed up like the killer doll Chucky in a dream sequence), make him the ideal 'muscle' to have on the job, particularly when a sleazy cop forces Sang-woo to get staged adultery photos of the police superintendent in order to expand the jurisdiction of his extortion program.

There's also a subplot that sees the pair trying to unite a deaf woman, at the behest of her estranged sister, with their dying father and which mirrors much of the boys situation and allows for plenty of tears. Lee Beom-su's performance as Bong-ku, written as the comedic centerpiece of the film, is largely played as a grown man who ACTS like a precocious ass rather than a grown man with a mental age of 12, thus undermining much of the pathos the filmmakers try to wring from his relationship with Sang-woo.

Technical production is superb, with warm cinematography and an inviting production design ultimately servicing a thoroughly constructed central relationship that seems designed to feature as many piano-backed scenes of teary catharsis between sensitive new age Korean males. Moderate, but occasionally serious head slapping rates this a 4 on the Korean Cranial Abuse Scale. The overall movie rates a 4 as well.