okay...I can see both sides of the reviews below. I try to go into every movie looking for the best in it. And there is a lot of good in this one and some not so good. First of all, unless you are a fan of REALLY gritty crime/revenge movies, no way will you like it and you shouldn't even be here. I'm a huge fan of them, they comprise the vast majority of the movies I watch so I watched this with a very open mind as far as the content. The entire first 3/4 of the movie is a complete set-up for the last quarter. It spends the entire time, as the reviews say, piling on the MOST egregious, and obvious, injustices it can possibly think of. Time after time the 'system' fails to provide justice where it's needed. The last quarter is our protagonist's time to rectify this and provide his version of bloody justice. The ending moments were a nice surprise.
Sadly, what could have been a really really good crime/revenge movie was completely ruined for me by my previous viewing of and knowledge of Itaewon Homicide. Why this movie had to borrow so heavily from that event is incomprehensible to me and so unnecessary as to be idiotic. The performances and the production were quite good, but all of that was overshadowed by the blatant plagiarism of Itaewon. I cannot for the life of me imagine what the makers of this movie were thinking of. I liked everything about this movie except that. And it could so easily have been done right, that my frustration at the failure of what this movie could have been is just infuriating to me. The only thing I can think of, and it is a criticism that utterly ruins this movie if true, is that the makers were so intent on selling their movie by borrowing from those events that they purposely went this route. If so, it is disgusting beyond words. As a result, a movie that on the surface I would have given a solid 8 to for pure entertainment value, I am dropping to a 6. I hate to do it because a lot of work went into this movie, but if all that work was done just to ride on the backs of re-sensationalizing a true event to make money, I cannot abide giving it a higher rating.
(as you can tell...I'm not too happy with this one...sorry for ranting. I probably should have waited a day or 2 to write this. Thankfully I don't think many will be watching this movie nor seeing this comment!!!) :)
If you are claustrophobic, as I am, this movie will be a trip for you, as it was for me! I was so tense all through it! I HATE caves and tight places. The very thought of myself or someone I love, or anyone, being caught like that is my worst nightmare. I would have slit my wrists long before they reached me. Excellent movie for what it was trying to portray It really captured the feel of being trapped...vividly. Other than that, it was just average as far as the surrounding story was concerned. It really was just all about him and what he was going through that made this movie watchable.
Good cop/crime flick. Nothing earthshaking, just a nice fun ride to the end. It breaks my heart how good Lee Jung Jin is at playing the scumball a$$hole he seems to consistently play now he had gotten older. I loved him to death in 9 Ends 2 Outs and WISH WISH I could see him have that kind of character again. Still....he is SO freaking good at playing the scumball, I can see why he keeps getting these parts.
A quite GOOD movie. It is dated looking of course...being 2004, but I soon forgot that. The story moves slowly at first and then picks up speed halfway through (as with so many Korean films!). I had read enough synopses and comments online to know it has a confusing start, so I did some research and made sure I had some concept of the story and the players. Otherwise I think this movie would have been very irritating and I would have lost a lot of the of story having to spend my time trying to figure out who was who. It's a habit of mine to try to research as much as I can about a movie prior to watching it. If you want to know the basics, read the following movie review. It doesn't spoil anything....just makes things much more understandable so you can sit back and enjoy what is happening without the work of trying to piece it together. http://www.beyondhollywood.com/some-2004-movie-review/
This was VERY early in Song Ji-Hyo and Go Soo's careers so it was great seeing them so young. Hardly recognizable too!!! :)
The film itself has really good production and direction and the acting was great. Nothing felt overdone nor was there a feeling of any kind of poor quality. The concept was interesting and I (like the reviewer) wish that the film could have spent more time exploring Yo-Jin's abilities of precognition. Was this only a one time event? It's not that it made me think less of the movie....I just wanted more! Still it was a very well spent couple hours watching and I give it 8/10
tho not without its problems, I still cried throughout the last 2 episodes. But the neck snapping speed of the relationship crumble in ep 19 was so irritating! And sorta illogical! My biggest gripe with this was the immense cuts between scenes, time, relationships. Never enough time spend building... or destroying...the relationships in this. It's like this thing gave us snapshots of what was happening in their lives and just when we were settling in, BAM, off with another time jump, disconnecting us from the story and the relationship development. It tried to cover too much time and too many people for such a short drama. If ever a drama should have been 50 episodes, it should have been this one...tho I hate them with a passion. Still, I really enjoyed this drama for some odd reason. And despite its problems, I still wish we had a modern day sequel...which will NEVER happen with the low ratings this one had. Oh well, it's not like we all can't write that scenario to our hearts content. He's the chaebol owner of the company she works for of course!!!!! :)
Ok so i dont understand who the father of the baby is its wang so or wang jeong?
definitely So. She had only been with Jeong 6 months when the baby was born, Jeong said he would only be a friend to her, the doctor said he didn't detect the baby while she was in the palace and she said it was because it was too soon. She did not want their baby in the palace (for sure that witch would have killed her) and that's why she wanted Jeong to hide the fact she had So's baby. I'm not sure tho that So realizes it's his child.
DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE MOVIE!!!! Just know it is excellent and if you are a fan of crime drama, can stomach extremely graphic and bloody scenes, nudity, and DARK vengeance driven scenarios, you will definitely like this movie.
Very intense for me. I loved it. There wasn't a moment I didn't feel on edge. Yes there are some predictable things and yes there are some procedural gaffs that are unexplainable. HUGE SPOILER: How could a Professor/Detective with his experience not recognize immediately that the body of the victim that he was cutting up did not match the head and extremities?? HIs daughter was probably a virgin and the dead girl most certainly was not. Still, the concept of this movie alone is just brilliant to watch when most of the script is so well written and it is acted by 2 incredibly good actors like this. The ending was very hard...I honestly didn't think they would go there and the horrific realization of what was done washed over me in waves as my realization of everything that had happened sunk in second by second in exact pace with the father's. Horrifying and sickening and overwhelming at the unbelievable and un-understandable cruelty committed against such an innocent girl...no matter what. The killer's explanation of how hatred consumed him was logical in his mind, but it's incomprehensible that he and his friend could actually do what they did to that child. No wonder he egged the father on to kill him...I'm sure he did not want to continue to live knowing what he had done. Like he said...living with the memories is impossible. The father should have realized that and only taken his own life. That guy should have gotten life in prison to live with what he did. SKG's performance was amazing. 9/10 for me It's on Viki.
For me.............The most I can say is it's a low budget try at saying something that it thinks is profound. It ends up just being a low budget porn movie that is glaringly badly done. Horrible sound track with the noises of the footsteps and doors and floors being so loud and distracting. Mediocre acting that I blame on an awful script. Everything about it screamed B film. The newly hatched assistant to Kim Ki Duk tried to ride this one through by borrowing KKD's name. KKD seemed underwhelmed in his remarks about it. In his hands this would have been gut wrenching and even more horrific than it already was. In the hands of this newbie director, not so much.
For me, both of these had things about them I didn't like. Shine was never great for me. The genres felt too mixed up..rom/com or drama? And that hair on Im! Talk about Mane of Shame! That was just cruel. But it seemed to stick with the history pretty well and the costumes of Honey Lee were AMAZING. And I am SO with you on the age thing! Jang Hyuk was way too old, looked it too, to be playing that character at this point of the character's life. If they wanted him to play So, they should have written the story for a later time in So's life.
I think SH has problems too. For me, it seems like they are trying to put too much history in this for 20 episodes. Years are going by and no one is aging. It's not like we can't fill in the holes though, so I give it some slack there. Still, the biggest part of watching a drama is living the characters lives WITH them and the drama keeps disconnecting us and then popping back into their lives for a bit. And why even bother with the time travel thing, other than to remove her from the story at the end when she wakes up! And sorry, LJK deserves a better partner! I like her fine, but not here, not this role and NOT with a man with his experience.
I love LJK, but, honestly, he is getting older and he seems to be stuck in this rut of romance and sageuks. The younger actors around him are passing him up right and left, getting major roles in dramatic, award winning dramas and movies. They get to play bad guys, guys who die (poor guy has actually asked to have a character where he dies in the end...can you imagine the fan girl outrage?). They get to play characters with layers that aren't out of a comic book. Where are his Misaengs and Dongju like Kang Ha Neul? His Grapevine, Gap Dong, Rough Play like Lee Joon? And there are even younger ones taking on diverse and challenging roles...like D.O and Park Bo Gum as serial killers. And then there is Yeo Jin Goo! I LOVE LJK. I think he is a great actor. But he is too typecast in these roles as demanded by the fan base. And I fear he is going to lose his edge as an actor as a result. Ugh. I have way too many thoughts on this. Got to stop.
I couldn't wait for Shine to end and it was only a 7 for me. Scarlet will probably be an 8 for me and I will miss it. Though it may be a struggle for me to not click on the 7.5. That puts them in the good enough to have sat through their run, but never a rewatch, and I'm left with a lingering sense of disappointment at what should have been. Especially with Scarlet.
dark, dark retelling of the fairy tale. Variety says in their review: " the rat infestation symbolizes any of Korea’s political, social and cultural maladies — cronyism, xenophobia, subjugation of women and a fundamental lack of trust and honesty between individuals. The ending reiterates this moral of honoring promises with a skin-crawling scene of children, who represent the future generation, blindly following the leadership of an untrustworthy adult."
Rats and spiders are my 2 most hated horror movie tropes. Also one of the reasons I don't watch horror. But, Lee Joon and Lee Sung Min and Ryu Seung Ryong as a cast are hard to resist. There are definitely horror movie aspects to this with the rat thing, but, since it's expected, knowing the tale, it doesn't go overboard much. The rats were actually secondary in the horror aspect to the people in this. It's also an overused cliche about the isolated, inbred villagers as more monstrous than the rats, but it was true enough here that the rat thing paled.
The cinematography in this was lovely. And it was a pretty quick watch. I can't say it was the best or most unique film, but it was good. I struggled giving this an 8 and settled for 7.5 a bit guiltily. It seems they worked quite hard in this movie ...both to build the allegorical lesson and the visual. Even so, it's not anything new really. Just a couple hours of nice entertainment.
Soon....Hae Soo will wake up in her hospital bed, back in the future, all of this only a dream, her existence…
Other than Nine, which stands above all the rest as the Best, my fav time travel drama will always be Queen InHyun's Man. I think in Faith it was a bit of back and forth time travel, but I could not abide that drama so never finished it. I agree there will not be a second season. I know the Chinese version has a movie as a sequel, set in modern times, but I don't think this will get even that. Korean drama rarely does sequels. King So rules for 25 years and was only 25 when he ascended the throne, so he won't be leaving Goryeo. I always thought they could use the standard "sudden mysterious illness and death and quick burial" as a way to hide a king disappearing into the future. I also am disappointed they didn't use the time travel thing at all well in this. She should have had some kind of protection with her power to predict the future, but they completely ignored it as a method for her to gain power and protect herself.
Soon....Hae Soo will wake up in her hospital bed, back in the future, all of this only a dream, her existence in So's life never having happened. I, for one, would be thrilled with a sequel set in the present! I hope we see at least a shot of LJG and KHN in modern times! Really want to see LJG in a modern days drama like Two Weeks again! Praying for a quality script for his next drama. It's time he got away from the romance based drama and moved up into serious drama. He is a really good actor. I want to see him get roles that challenge people's preconceived notions of him...and challenge him. When you see the kind of serious roles Kang Ha Neul is commanding, it is clear that not only his peers, but his younger co-stars are by-passing him. Why are the big directors and producers not looking at him for these roles? He is more than capable. I see the kind of roles Lee Joon is getting with Grapevine and Gap Dong, or Lee Je-Hoon with Signal and his movies...both of them years younger. It's very discouraging.
Oh and I honestly am surprised that the show is actually going to 'go there' with So marrying his half-sister, which is true to life of course, but these historical dramas like to gloss over that kind of thing usually. They have 4 children together so must have gotten along really well!! So's second wife is his niece, daughter of his oldest brother.
Lovely movie. Sadly I have to find fault A BIT. Just a Bit. The true story itself is so dramatic, so heartbreaking that the obvious and slightly overdone melodramatic and highly fictional scenes they somehow felt necessary to add took away just a bit from the story for me. This penchant for piling on the violins and the made up portions of this story were unnecessary...the very cliche cartoon character villain in particular. The movie also does not address the tragic and mysterious disappearance of her daughter, a presumed suicide. Nor does it go into her marriage to a Japanese man who, it seems, must have loved his wife. He was well known for : " a poem by So missing his “silent, beautiful, but insane” wife, revealing the agony of the man next to a woman who does not recognize him. " He wrote many poems about her and tried to visit her once after her return to Korea, but was turned away. There is a sad, tragic story there too. One on a far more intimate, personal basis. All in all a good film that will elicit a few tears. It had me spending hours researching articles on the internet!!! :)
A lovely, thoughtful, adult,reality movie. No easy solutions...no solutions. Just lives lived, day to day, as best they can. Not a movie for everyone, no fairytale story. It's about the difficulties of real people leading real lives and doing their very best to survive and not let life destroy every moment. What beautiful moments they can find and use to get through the hardships of their lives is what keeps them fighting day to day to day. This is not a grand emotional ride. It is a very quiet movie. You drop in and visit these people, watch them for a while, then leave knowing they have, at least for now, the strength to endure and fight on.
Just a lovely drama. Full of sweetness and the cutest, most adorably depicted love affair I think I have ever seen in kdrama. Joo Sang Wook was spot on in his character and this, for me, is his best performance ever. He is so lovely to look at, but I had to laugh at the description of foot actor, because he has always been not a very good actor to me. The only other one of his dramas I liked him in was Cunning Single Lady. He needs to stick to rom com...he was absolutely terrific in this.
Sadly, what could have been a really really good crime/revenge movie was completely ruined for me by my previous viewing of and knowledge of Itaewon Homicide. Why this movie had to borrow so heavily from that event is incomprehensible to me and so unnecessary as to be idiotic. The performances and the production were quite good, but all of that was overshadowed by the blatant plagiarism of Itaewon. I cannot for the life of me imagine what the makers of this movie were thinking of. I liked everything about this movie except that. And it could so easily have been done right, that my frustration at the failure of what this movie could have been is just infuriating to me. The only thing I can think of, and it is a criticism that utterly ruins this movie if true, is that the makers were so intent on selling their movie by borrowing from those events that they purposely went this route. If so, it is disgusting beyond words. As a result, a movie that on the surface I would have given a solid 8 to for pure entertainment value, I am dropping to a 6. I hate to do it because a lot of work went into this movie, but if all that work was done just to ride on the backs of re-sensationalizing a true event to make money, I cannot abide giving it a higher rating.
(as you can tell...I'm not too happy with this one...sorry for ranting. I probably should have waited a day or 2 to write this. Thankfully I don't think many will be watching this movie nor seeing this comment!!!) :)
http://www.koreanmoviereviews.com/2014/05/review-outlaw-2010.html
opposing opinions and detailed synopsis of the film
This was VERY early in Song Ji-Hyo and Go Soo's careers so it was great seeing them so young. Hardly recognizable too!!! :)
The film itself has really good production and direction and the acting was great. Nothing felt overdone nor was there a feeling of any kind of poor quality. The concept was interesting and I (like the reviewer) wish that the film could have spent more time exploring Yo-Jin's abilities of precognition. Was this only a one time event? It's not that it made me think less of the movie....I just wanted more! Still it was a very well spent couple hours watching and I give it 8/10
Very intense for me. I loved it. There wasn't a moment I didn't feel on edge. Yes there are some predictable things and yes there are some procedural gaffs that are unexplainable. HUGE SPOILER: How could a Professor/Detective with his experience not recognize immediately that the body of the victim that he was cutting up did not match the head and extremities?? HIs daughter was probably a virgin and the dead girl most certainly was not. Still, the concept of this movie alone is just brilliant to watch when most of the script is so well written and it is acted by 2 incredibly good actors like this. The ending was very hard...I honestly didn't think they would go there and the horrific realization of what was done washed over me in waves as my realization of everything that had happened sunk in second by second in exact pace with the father's. Horrifying and sickening and overwhelming at the unbelievable and un-understandable cruelty committed against such an innocent girl...no matter what. The killer's explanation of how hatred consumed him was logical in his mind, but it's incomprehensible that he and his friend could actually do what they did to that child. No wonder he egged the father on to kill him...I'm sure he did not want to continue to live knowing what he had done. Like he said...living with the memories is impossible. The father should have realized that and only taken his own life. That guy should have gotten life in prison to live with what he did. SKG's performance was amazing. 9/10 for me It's on Viki.
I think SH has problems too. For me, it seems like they are trying to put too much history in this for 20 episodes. Years are going by and no one is aging. It's not like we can't fill in the holes though, so I give it some slack there. Still, the biggest part of watching a drama is living the characters lives WITH them and the drama keeps disconnecting us and then popping back into their lives for a bit. And why even bother with the time travel thing, other than to remove her from the story at the end when she wakes up! And sorry, LJK deserves a better partner! I like her fine, but not here, not this role and NOT with a man with his experience.
I love LJK, but, honestly, he is getting older and he seems to be stuck in this rut of romance and sageuks. The younger actors around him are passing him up right and left, getting major roles in dramatic, award winning dramas and movies. They get to play bad guys, guys who die (poor guy has actually asked to have a character where he dies in the end...can you imagine the fan girl outrage?). They get to play characters with layers that aren't out of a comic book. Where are his Misaengs and Dongju like Kang Ha Neul? His Grapevine, Gap Dong, Rough Play like Lee Joon? And there are even younger ones taking on diverse and challenging roles...like D.O and Park Bo Gum as serial killers. And then there is Yeo Jin Goo! I LOVE LJK. I think he is a great actor. But he is too typecast in these roles as demanded by the fan base. And I fear he is going to lose his edge as an actor as a result. Ugh. I have way too many thoughts on this. Got to stop.
I couldn't wait for Shine to end and it was only a 7 for me. Scarlet will probably be an 8 for me and I will miss it. Though it may be a struggle for me to not click on the 7.5. That puts them in the good enough to have sat through their run, but never a rewatch, and I'm left with a lingering sense of disappointment at what should have been. Especially with Scarlet.
Rats and spiders are my 2 most hated horror movie tropes. Also one of the reasons I don't watch horror. But, Lee Joon and Lee Sung Min and Ryu Seung Ryong as a cast are hard to resist. There are definitely horror movie aspects to this with the rat thing, but, since it's expected, knowing the tale, it doesn't go overboard much. The rats were actually secondary in the horror aspect to the people in this. It's also an overused cliche about the isolated, inbred villagers as more monstrous than the rats, but it was true enough here that the rat thing paled.
The cinematography in this was lovely. And it was a pretty quick watch. I can't say it was the best or most unique film, but it was good. I struggled giving this an 8 and settled for 7.5 a bit guiltily. It seems they worked quite hard in this movie ...both to build the allegorical lesson and the visual. Even so, it's not anything new really. Just a couple hours of nice entertainment.
Oh and I honestly am surprised that the show is actually going to 'go there' with So marrying his half-sister, which is true to life of course, but these historical dramas like to gloss over that kind of thing usually. They have 4 children together so must have gotten along really well!! So's second wife is his niece, daughter of his oldest brother.
NOTE: Quiz King, is a 2005 South Korean film starring Suk-kyu Han. AKA-Mr. Housewife.
AND: Quiz King, is a 2010 South Korean film starring Kim Su-Ro.
The pictures, description, and cast on Gooddrama are for the 2005 movie, but the link to the movie is the 2010 movie with Kim Su-Ro. Unfortunately.