Bingwoo (2004) User Reviews

Two men climb a mountain out of memories and love.

[Velerion_Damarke · 12 October 2004]

This is a story of lost love, a common theme for Korean movies and TV dramas. Most of the story is told in a series of flashbacks from the alternating perspectives of the two main characters. One is a mountaineer with a day job that just isn't as fulfilling as climbing mountains, which is his true love. The other is a college student who plays baseball and hates the idea of climbing mountains. They both find themselves on a mountain together though.

The 'present day' events of the story take place on Asiaq mountain in Alaska, where two men share stories of the women that changed their lives, not knowing how closely connected they actually are. During the climb, difficulties arise and they're forced to wait out a storm together in a cave, where they get to know each other. They're both there on the mountain for different reasons, but at the same time they're both there to reconnect with a part of their lives they'd lost.

Beautiful scenery can't save this loser

[Simon_Bocanegra · 1/10 · 21 January 2005]

If you want to waste 2 hours watching predictable and boring cliché'd movie, this is the one. That's the spoiler.

I suppose I've gotten spoiled myself, by some great and sensitive Korean flicks that have come down the pike lately- ha, ha- Sassy Girl comes immediately to mind. Bingwoo cures that with every mistake a movie director should avoid.

The plot is a typical love-triangle with some mountain-climbing tragedies, people dying conveniently, and no one in the audience is fooled or taken in by any of it. The emotions are false, the acting is wooden, even the soundtrack is kitschy and trite, so the poor movie never gets a chance to be properly delivered. Verdict: stillborn. And the majestic mountains don't care. Fittingly enough.