A Bittersweet Life (2005)

☆ ☆ ☆

A Bittersweet Life (2005) – J.-W. Kim

Character study of a meticulously ruthless “enforcer” (Byung-hun Lee) working for a gangster who feels a moment of compassion and ends up paying for it.  This came advertised with high ratings and I was initially sucked into the stylish drama (which has some cool camera shots by director Jee-woon Kim and cinematographer Ji-yong Kim). But as the movie wore on, the reticence of the protagonist kept him largely opaque and difficult to identify with (perhaps the model is Delon in Melville’s Le Samourai? His compassion is also toward a female musician).  After his “mistake”, things descend into a series of violent, even sadistic, incidents, as the enforcer suffers the consequences and then seeks revenge.  This quickly became boring, especially when so much of the violence feels gratuitous.  I’m not necessarily a shrinking violet – I have enjoyed the admittedly violent films of John Woo (such as The Killer or Hard-Boiled starring Chow Yun-Fat)  -- which leads me to wonder whether this film crossed a line or whether I am losing my tolerance for this kind of exercise. (That said, I never was one for horror films involving gore either).