A Dirty Carnival (2006) User Reviews

Family, Friendship, Ambition and Betrayal

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 14 May 2008]

In Seoul, Byung-Doo (In-sung Zo) is a twenty-nine year old gangster that works under the command of Sang-Shui (Yoon Jae-Moon) in the mobster organization of the boss Hwang (Ho-jin Chun). Byung-Doo is also the patriarch of his family and is having financial problems to support his old mother that is very ill and his younger siblings. When Hwang is pressed by the corrupt prosecutor Park, Byung-Doo sees the chance to prove his loyalty to Hwang, climb positions in his criminal career and improve his income, and he volunteers to get rid off Park, killing him and burying his body and the secret with his partner Jong-Soo (Ku Jin). Meanwhile, his former high school friend and aspirant director Kim Min-Ho (Min Nam-Koong) meets him asking Byung-Doo to be his adviser in his debut movie about gangsters. Later Byung-Doo goes to a high school reunion with Min-Ho where he meets his high school crush Hyun-Joo (Bo-young Lee) and they start seeing each other. One night, after arguing with Hyun-Joo, Byung-Doo gets drunk and makes confidences to Min-Ho about his dark secret, affecting his relationship in the criminal organization and friendship with the ambitious director.

"Biyeolhan Geori" is a great Korean movie of gangsters. The story about family, friendship, ambition and betrayal is engaging and disclosed in an adequate pace. The choreography of the fights is impressively realistic, giving the sensation that the cast is fighting for real. The ambiguity of the lead character Byung-Doo is very well developed in the screenplay and performance of In-sung Zo Zo that gives the necessary credibility to his character, a family man and cold blood killer. This feature has indeed the true spirit of the gangster's movies like for example "Godfellas" and "Casino", and the plot is open to interpretation since it is never clear who might be the mastermind of Min-Ho's betrayal. Based on the last scene, I believe Jong-Soo forced Min-Ho to snitch out Byung-Doo to take over his position in the family. The music score is also excellent and gives a touch of high-quality to this great feature. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Caminhos do Crime" ("Ways of the Crime")

Wonderful S. Korean crime drama

[evileyereviews · 8/10 · 17 August 2010]

This South Korean take on a low level gangster with skills is the same old story told in an unbelievably enjoyable fashion. The anti-hero is perfectly ambiguous, at times cold blooded and calculating, at times likable, humble, and human. What's worse, as life's choices come at a price, no matter which good life one chooses, the price is almost too much to bear once ensconced in this dirty employ. The acting was phenomenal, with our lead portraying an impossibly good-hearted, cold-blooded career criminal. The story itself contains all of the requisite elements of a good mob drama. The fights scenes were brutally realistic as opposed to stylistic orchestrations of over-the-top martial arts excellence. The score was wonderfully antagonistic to the realities on the screen. The ending was left open for subtle interpretation, where betrayals and motivations are left for the imagination to fill in. Merci beaucoup.

Evil Eye Reviews

Raw and Harsh very well done

[sbbchang · 8/10 · 28 August 2010]

A true gangster movie. Raw and harsh. None of that over-the-top Hollywood shoot-them-up garbage. The use of bats and knives is so much more menacing than emptying clips of bullets and not hitting anything.

Good character development and good flow to the movie. It left me wondering what happens to all different characters. I wish there was a huge epilogue but that would have made the ending very soft.

I don't remember ever enjoying a gangster movie this much. I am honestly attached to the characters in this movie and wish there is a book out there (not like I could read it). Highly recommend this movie. Last gangster movies this good was probably The Godfather and Scarface.

A Tale of Betrayal & Motivation in the Korean Mob Life.

[CinemaClown · 20 March 2014]

A tale of betrayal & motivation in the Korean mob life, A Dirty Carnival concerns a 29-year old gangster working for a middle-rank enforcer whose rise begins after he takes up a job that earns him the big boss' trust & eliminates his boss to take up his position instead. But the real trouble begins when his friend, an aspiring filmmaker, asks him to be a consultant for his debut features which brings forth the events that were buried long ago.

There isn't much to complain in most of the film's aspects as everything is carried out pretty well be it the direction, screenplay, cinematography, editing or performances but the one thing I admire most about it is the action choreography for it puts on screen an impressive example of street fighting in the opening moments only & repeats itself at regular intervals throughout the film plus it's amazingly well accompanied by its electronic score.

On an overall scale, A Dirty Carnival presents a really fine effort from its cast & crew to come out as a nicely crafted crime-drama but it's also missing that X-factor that elevates a film like this to a level of greatness & the sum of the parts don't add up as well as I would've liked it to. Still, A Dirty Carnival works in many ways & steadily captures the zero tolerance principle of Korean mob life. Recommended for fans of Asian cinema.

Imagine Goodfellas as a documentary.

[DionysoReal · 7/10 · 13 October 2006]

Very realistic in tone but with the film makers perspective tacked on, this gangster flick doesn't take itself too seriously. It sure seems like it could be happening somewhere in Korea right now and that's what may be the gimmick that will hook you.

Imagine a hungry, low level gangster on the rise and the murders and betrayals that go along with it. Throw in an old friend, who happens to be a scriptwriter, who picks the gangster's brain for authenticity for a script he is working on and there you go. After watching it a second time around, I was impressed by the portrayal of the Gangster Byung Doo. When he kills it kills him inside, when he fights he unleashes a fury and when he plots he is quietly cold. He is loyal to his boys to a fault; but those who stand in his way, no matter what their position or rank may be, better watch their backs. Watch the story of the gangster on the rise and then see the consequences unfold before your eyes. The clean cut killer has his day in the sun and his heart of gold is stained with blood. The backs he stabbed return to him in a "novel" way in this one, literally. "What goes around comes around," so they say.

The fight scenes are chaotic and violent instead of ultra stylish. Pace is a little slow and of course there is the obligatory love interest and sad upbringing back story that tries to garner sympathy for the tragic anti-hero. "Running Wild(Ya-Soo)" is more intense a drama and "Bittersweet Life(Dalkoman Insaeng)" is better in the action department. Those two movies had me pumped throughout but this one required a bit more patience. This is more of a brooding type of film that comes at you with the unique angle of the film maker as an actual character who is pivotal to the story that unfolds.

A Very Good Gangster Film

[crossbow0106 · 9/10 · 27 November 2008]

Since I have not heard about this film before it was broadcast on the Sundance Channel, I had no expectations. This is a very good to almost excellent film about gangster life in South Korea. It features In-sung Zo in a terrific performance as low level gangster Byong-doo. He meets up with an old friend Min-ho, who is a filmmaker and picks Byong-doo's brains about being a gangster. It spirals from there, as Byong-doo gets more ruthless and violent in his quest for more money and especially power. He also meets up with another old classmate. the pretty Hyun-joo (Bo-yong Lee) and that relationship develops slowly. There is some violence in this, but if you like gangster films I liked this as much as Goodfellas. Really, it is that absorbing and highly recommended.

Lacks grit

[grandmastersik · 6/10 · 4 January 2016]

I'd heard a lot about this film, so I was a little surprised by the overall tone, which I felt wasn't very realistic.

The film follows a sub-commander-type gangster who starves under his immediate superior whilst he looks for the opportunity to prove the worth of himself and his men, as well as keep his actual family with a roof over their heads. That opportunity eventually arrives, but it leads to mistrust and dog learns to eat dog, which is about all I can say without ruining the plot.

A lot of users here have commented on the acting being great - and it really is! The fights are excellent (even though most men would be dead if hit with a baseball bat repeatedly to their unprotected chest - NOT a spoiler), and the flow of the story comes naturally. Wow, what's not to love, right?

Unfortunately, the film just cannot decide if it's a fanciful drama glamorising gangsters or a serious characterisation. The romance between the beautiful childhood friend and the lead lacks any kind of spark and it's not until the gangsters are scaring normal people out of their homes for the sake of their boss' stake in a housing development project that we realise they are actually supposed to be nasty people, which, until then, only seemed to be their opposition.

Overall then, A Dirty Carnival is an enjoyable enough flick, but there are better gangster films in both the Asian and Western world and given that the director couldn't seem to decide in what light to make the film, it's impossible to rate it any higher.

Top of the line gangster flick

[vze32kxa · 9/10 · 6 January 2007]

Dirty Carnival is a story about a sergeant level member of a organized crime gang. At 29 he has little to show for his age and worse, has no prospects. While he seemingly has the utmost loyalty from his subordinates he is constantly put down by the under boss. He reluctantly seizes a murderous opportunity which would surely promote him to lieutenant to the big boss. All goes according to plan but he is anything but happy and in a drunken confession he pours his heart out to a filmmaker friend looking for the perfect plot to his movie.

I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything when I say the ending is not a happy one. It has become the trademark of Korean cinema, or to be cynical, a cliché. At first such endings were fresh and different but these days I could do without them. Nonetheless A Dirty Carnival is one of the best movies I've seen since, well, Once Upon a Time in High school. The movie achieves a gritty yet realistic tone I rarely see in movies. I can honestly say I enjoyed every moment of this movie and I have the attention span of a 3rd grader. Many people are interested in the fight scenes so I will say that there is one major brawl scene comparable to the one in "Chingu". Violence is scattered throughout the movie, at least enough to please action fans.

A world without trust and mercy

[KineticSeoul · 6/10 · 14 January 2012]

One of the quote in this movie describes and sums up this movie "You just need to know two things to be successful. Who you need and what he needs" and that basically sums up the gangster world. The movie really does show the nasty and dirty parts about being a gangster and trying to move up in the world. But the thing is the movie just have anything that really immersed you and can get a bit tedious at time. However the way it did not pull any punches was well done. This is a depressing gangster movie that shows the progress of a gangster who has morals but his direction causes conflict for his loved ones, although that is not his intention. This isn't really a movie that glorifies the gangster life but it doesn't really bash on it either but it does show that it's a sad life full of hurting others and backstabbing. Even when they constantly spout things like family. I think the actor Jo In Sung is alright but he fits right into this role and his character is very believable. Overall it's a good Korean gangster flick but could have been better if it had more elements to get immersed into. And the romance between Jo In Sung's character and the girl he falls for took up a bit of screen time but didn't seem all that crucial to the story. If it had bits that made it more crucial to the plot it would have added more to the movie. Still it's simply very watchable.

6.7/10

One of my favorites....

[eggartrealty · 10/10 · 30 March 2007]

We got to see "A Dirty Carnival" at the Asian-American Film Festival here in San Francisco last week. The movie is truly amazing. The action sequences, the music, and the acting were all fantastic.

I think In-Seong Jo (lead actor) will have a very long career in movies. He'd be perfect for Hollywood movies too. His performance in this role lead me to do some research on his other movies - I'll be renting/buying them soon.

Hopefully, Hollywood will not try to re-make this film. It's perfect as is. American audiences are just going to have to get used to reading subtitles to see great movies.

Good

[martin-fennell · 6/10 · 15 October 2017]

Another good korean thriller, although not one of the best ones. This reminded me of those Warner Bros gangster movies, and you could easily imagine James Cagney in the lead role. It was a good movie, and kept my interest all the way through. The fight scenes are bloody brutal, and to this untrained eye, quite realistic. The performances are good.

In-Seong Cho finally blossoms...

[hokensongirl · 9/10 · 26 November 2006]

The movie is bittersweet, reminding me of "Blow" and "Casino". I refuse to say that it is the Asian counterpart of the above-mentioned movies because I think that does not do Yoo Ha or In-Seong Cho justice.

The cast acted as though each role was made just for them and the accordion laced soundtrack simply added to the irony and hard, cold truth of the subject matter.

But most of the kudos have to go to In-Seong Cho, for letting viewers live through his character (Byung-Doo). Whether it's laughing at his karaoke rendition in the car and club.; his intense, awkward yet realistic fighting skills or the boyish charms oozing when he sees the woman he loves ~ if I knew nothing of the actor I would have thought he was cast to play himself.

It is extremely well done so just watch it and find out for yourself!

The movie does not gush blood or feelings, his biggest bet is on human relations and the limit to conquer what is desired.

[ikatupe · 7/10 · 22 August 2017]

Kim Byung-doo is the eldest son of his family, with two more brothers and a sick mother, their responsibility to provide for their livelihoods and health pressure more and more. For some time involved in the local mafia, our protagonist even reached a certain success, being the head of a subgroup. But that's not financially enough, Kim lives a life as good as or worse than people his age, and the prospect of growing up in the mafia shrinks to the point that his "supervisor" is a chupim and fears to put him in a more relevant role.

While this is taking place, his classmates make a reunion. There he reviews his high school passion and also an old friend, now a young filmmaker. This school reunion will draw two more points from the story, the relationship with Hyun-ju and the resumption of friendship with Min-ho.

Throughout history, the Mafia president suffers with a small problem and scale Kim to solve it. The solution involves the murder of a prestigious prosecutor. The young gangster takes care of the service and immediately suffers an existential crisis. He begins to weigh his poor family, his old love that does not sympathize with being a thug and the very fact of killing an innocent person. Distraught, Kim goes to Hyun-ju's house, which readily offers a friendly shoulder.

Hyun-ju managed to produce some things, but nothing relevant. He has been working on a screenplay for a long time, demonstrating the life of gangsters. Its versions are discarded in sequence, lack truth in the text, according to the producer. The friend's shoulder resolves to appropriate Kim's confidences and rewrite his final script in a new outfit.

The death of the promoter and the final script brings problems for all involved directly and splashes in the others. Despite the existence of many films about the genre, Biyeolhan geori surprises by treating the subject in another way, with originality and script that interconnects all the subplots with harmony. As typical of Korean cinema, the photograph is beautiful and well marks the efficient direction of the film. Unlike his countrymen, the film does not gush blood or feelings, his biggest bet is on human relations and the limit to conquer what is desired.

A Dirty Carnival review

[hakan_respect · 7/10 · 20 November 2021]

A dirty Carnival is a Korean movie and I hadn't known know any of the cast prior to this movie and I think this condition benefits the movie. I try to watch prominent movies in Korean cinema and I can say that dirty carnival is one of the good examples of Korean cinema. Story involves a man who is ambitious enough to rise his rank in the mafia world. But in the mafia world, things are dirty and repetitive for him. I liked depiction of the fights in the movie and I think that some scenes inspired 2nd Raid movie but I can't say that A Dirty Carnival is as good as The Raid 2. Protagonist is portrayed by In-Sung jo and I think he gave a good performance and supportive characters' performances were in a certain quality.

The duration of the movie could be arranged more effectively because I felt the movie was longer than it needed to be, 2 hrs could be enough for this movie. Another thing , the movie's twist was very predictable for me but it was not so bad. Everyone who likes crime & drama genres should give a chance to this Korean movie.

What happens if you are a gangster?

[BhagavathyPadmanabhan · 10/10 · 2 September 2013]

Let me say one thing. I give it 10 just for the apt realistic ending it is. It is not what I liked one little bit but then I give it to the director for catching us off-guard but this is a South Korean movie and this is EXACTLY what I expect from them - a twist that knocks everyone out. This is good. This is what I look for in a South Korean movie - something different from the usual "Hollywood Crafted Endings" - which I feel most of the time implanted into the movie. I saw the film yesterday night and it was running in my mind every time I woke up in sleep. I never thought that this would have such an impact on me.

About the story - this is a gangster film with lots of great violent fights - I thought initially that those fights reflected the title ...until the ending and then I felt the whole movie was like a gangster carnival.

See the movie - this will hit you...

masterwork

[witster18 · 9/10 · 29 March 2014]

WIth just over 3,000 ratings on IMDb, "A Dirty Carnival" probably qualifies as my #1 film most people have never heard of. This film encapsulates just about everything I love about foreign film: Action, oddball comedy, revenge, uncomfortable-love, and gangsta-stuff.

THere's something quite genuine about the lead character here. It's more of a mediocre rise to the top compared to say "Scarface", and the comedy really sets an entirely different tone compared to all other gangster films with heavy themes and/or endings.

The film is an absolute gem. The acting, the fight choreography, the laughs, and evolution of the lead character in the storyline will keep you glued to the screen.

"Twilight Samurai" is a 10 for me, but it has 15,000 votes, and a bit more notoriety. A Dirty Carnival is a total departure. WHereas Samurai is dead serious and slow burning, "Carnival" is light-hearted and fast-paced.

This is one to move to the top of your list.

91/100 FOr what it's worth - I loved the ending - couldn't have been any other way. Sleeper gem. There's just something special about this.

I usually include a list of "You'll like this if you liked___,___,___", and I say whether I liked them better or not, but if I make that list and then say I like it as much or more than say Casino, Scarface, State of Grace, or whatever - it wouldn't do justice for my "useful" ratings, or for what is a truly original, great film here. Rent it, heck, BUY it.

It's the journey

[kosmasp · 9/10 · 22 March 2020]

Having a main character that is not the most loveable is one thing. Making him still not despicable and kind of relatable is another thing alltogether. South Korean crime movies and movies in general have been delivering and in 2020 Hollywood took a bow (even if Parasite is not crime and difficult to categorize, it is a superior movie to many others that have been released).

This is more predictable than that, but even so the path we take, the things we experience, even the ones we see coming are quite something. A lot of violence and almost a film school theme to the whole movie too. Know your stuff, know your story, don't just come up with stuff. Makes it all more authentic.

The ending might turn some off, but there's always danger in how to end and how people will feel about that, no matter if you're positive, negative or neutral about it. I would say the only way this could end - and the movie does not overexplain which is really good. This is a treat and I almost regret taking so long - before I finally watched it

Yet another excellent Korean film

[sgcim · 9/10 · 2 May 2014]

I'm surprised this one only has fourteen reviews; for a film as entertaining as this one was I would've expected a lot more people to have seen it. I only review films that have a small amount of reviews on IMDb, because after the 20th review, pretty much everything has been said about the film that needs saying. I just want to comment about the fight scenes. On the DVD, they showed how they staged each one, and one of the reasons they look so realistic is they weren't choreographed in the standard way. Rather than that unrealistic Tarentino style of carefully worked out 'dance moves', these were gritty, intense street fighting-based scenes where it seemed like the actors were getting hurt on each one, because they put so much into them. Even the lead actor had to be out on medical care for fifteen days, because he got seriously injured in one fight scene. Could you imagine that happening to one of those prissy Hollywood actors? They achieved a much more realistic effect, because they used no stunt men, CGI or endless shooting matches where everyone keeps missing the stars over and over again. The overuse of technology is destroying the arts in general; let's hope the Koreans don't fall into the same fetish with spectacle that the US and Japan (other than Miike and Sono) have fallen into. It was nice to hear the beautiful song, "Old and Wise" for the final karaoke scene, but I'm not sure it made made that much sense...

69

[temkatj · 8/10 · 18 December 2018]

A good movie which shown Karma , Love , Brotherhood and Family. "You can never understand other person, dont trust them". LIFE IS YING YANG 69.

Without a doubt better than The Godfather!!!

[darrylwad · 9/10 · 26 November 2010]

If you are looking for more in a gangster film than just violence and fights then this is the film for you.

This is a very well rounded film, in addition to some good scenes of violence, murder, betrayal and fights, there is a good splaterring of humour, family drama and a small bit of romance too.

The film centres around a low level gangster who through hard work and various violent acts begins to rise through the ranks.

One of the major messages of the film is about trust, friendship and betrayal.

The acting and directing are all very good, without the need to go over the top due to the excellent pacing of the film and a very good storyline.

Very highly recommended, the time to the end credits is just shy of 2H18, but it's well worth the time for the excellent twists and turns as the film goes on.

A Dirty Carnival Review: Quite perfectly made and well written with strong performances and action.

[Achyut_Prashast_Singh · 9/10 · 14 November 2017]

Movie: A Dirty Carnival (18)

Rating: 4.5/5

To be straight and honest: A DIRTY CARNIVAL by director Yoo Ha is a masterpiece of its genre. The film's very well made, and there's a lot more than what you would've expected. Yes, it was a little slow burning in places, but the overall impact made by the film was quite a strong one. Jo In-sung is a terrific actor, and I'll look forward to more of his movies.

The screenplay is the real hero of A DIRTY CARNIVAL. Not for a moment does it let go of the grip on the viewer. The film has, apart from this, a lot more things to admire. The director has depicted everything very well. The character development is quite good, and it's quite easy to be connected to the lead character played by the very talented Jo In-sung. He's superb throughout the entire film and he rules alone with his act. Rest of the cast does a great job but he's alone enough to impress the viewers.

The action scenes are extremely well choreographed, and quite realistically executed on screen. The cinematography is also very good, and the production values are quite good.

The film, however is quite long and doesn't really justify this long duration. It could've been trimmed a little bit, almost close to 10 or 15 minutes for a better experience. But still, the film is a delight to watch. It had me excited to know what would happen in the end. The end was really very astonishing as well as impressive at the same time.

A DIRTY CARNIVAL is a well made action drama with a lot of offer as a treat to the viewers. You don't really need to have a very strong heart to watch this film. What all you need...is to watch this film!

Most realistic and somber tale of a gangster living around us

[xpf3838 · 10/10 · 29 April 2014]

No glamorous, highly classy gangster story. No sweetening of unrealistic heroic gangsters in this movie. This shows corrupt cop, a parasitic life of gangsters. Somehow, the story deeply moves your sympathy of a human tragedy.

The main character is a 29 year old petty gangster who is burdened caring for an ailing mother, a brother who wants to become a gangster and his family is about to lose their home. He realizes that he cannot continue on like this. He finds himself in a web of murder and betrayal in a world where trust and mercy doesn't exist.

compared other Korean gangster movies, this is one of the top 5.

WOW !!

[JonanthanNewOrleans · 10/10 · 5 November 2020]

Highly entertaining fast speed full of surprises drama thriller crime movie.

Absolutely loved it, the high rating is totally deserved!!

10/10

Totally realistic gangster movie

[himanshurai-11039 · 8/10 · 21 March 2021]

This movie show how people use you how people mean for their hidden intentions . How being humble is the biggest mistake of a humble person. Down to earth but solid grasp on characters and emotions . Awesome movie must watch for real movie lover . Not for bollywood lovers please stay away