spvz29

Just finished. I wish that they were all this good. Great writing. Super performances from Kin Seo Hyung and Park Hoon. Both "chewed the scenery." Lee Jung Heum deserves props for his directing. This was one of my five or six favorites.

Have you ever seen The Godfather? Remember the scene in which Michael's baby is being baptized while Michael's men are out murdering the competition? There are a lot of sociopaths in the world.

I enjoy complicated stories that have all the pieces come together at the end. When they don't, I feel that my time has been wasted. The high average rating leads me to believe (hope) that I won't be disappointed.

Just finished episode 8, I am enjoying it very much, except for two things -- the acting of Ryu Deok Hwan and Yoon Jae Yong. Yoon is young and may improve, but it is time for Ryu to find another line of work. I wonder why he keeps finding work as an actor.

As I write this, the average rating is 8.2, which is not bad. My usual complaint with my fellow MDL members is that they are too generous with their ratings. However, in this case, I feel just the opposite. To me, this is nearly as good as The Man From Nowhere. The final scene, by itself, is worth the time spent. Gong Yoo is one of the finest actors in the world. Park Hee Soon is great here. I gave it a 9.5. Please read the review by imfaerae. She was reading my mind when she wrote it. :-))

An important subject, but boring. I don't understand the high average rating. Different strokes for different folks.

Thanks to mer (below), I finally got to see this. At times, the translation was difficult to deal with, but the overall arc of the story was easy to follow. I cannot imagine anyone not tearing-up at the end. It is a shame that Suleyman was not able to take Ayla back to Turkey. Many Korean children were adopted overseas during that era -- many fewer now, of course.

Many Korean films have taught me things that I did not know about the history of the 40's and 50's. This, a Turkish film, did as well. I wish that it had been in the hands of a slightly better director and screen-writer, but it is still worth watching.

Thank you. I will watch it later, but tested to see if it would load, and it did.

4/22/2020 -- Still can't find it. I am surprised that kissasian and other don't carry it. The links below did not work for me.

One of Kurosawa's best.

One of the slowest-moving movies that I have ever subjected myself to. I watched much of it at double-speed. If triple-speed had been available, I would have used that.

I saw this five months ago and gave it 4/10. Its success has me totally confused. Well, "different strokes for different folks."

Found it. Thank you. A month ago, no one carried it. Now all the usual places have it. I'll be watching it soon.

Thank you, ElBee

Thank you, Krosland

Thanks for getting back to me. I had given up hope than anyone would.

I agree with everything you said, but I feel you were too generous. I gave it a 4.0. There have been lots of movies geared towards teenagers with the same "feel" about them that were just as well made. I am totally flummoxed by the adulation that this has gotten.

Complicated story. You have to make the effort to remember the names of all the people and places, so this is not a brain-dead movie. Lee Byung Hun had the richest role, but he is a superb actor and handled it well. I saw the original cut when it came out, but enjoyed the 3-hour version more. Lee El is one of the most beautiful women in the world. There was no effort in looking at her. Worth the price of admission.

I just finished episode 1. It was depressing. Is there any happiness or justice anywhere in the rest of it, or is it like this throughout?

I enjoyed the movie until the ending. I was not convinced that the bad guys would not get away with their misdeeds, since all government officials are portrayed as evil in Korean movies. I guess that is due to their real-life history over the last 60+ years. I want to see the cell door slam before I believe justice was served.
I always enjoy Son Ye Jin's work. Sometimes I like Hyun BIn, and sometimes I don't, but I felt that he did a good job here. Kim Sang Ho usually plays a dunce, and started out that way here, but changed to a competent cop about mid-way. A nice change.