A Bittersweet Life

Slick, stylish and tons of extreme tension.

Falls short of being great simply because the gunplay felt too tacked on and the emotional payoff of the end is rather contrived. Byung-Hun Lee has a very strong screen presence though and you get the feeling that the director didn't flesh out his character well enough in the writing. Overall the movie is a pretty solid gangster film. There's even a strange little nod to Fellini's La Dolce Vita in the movie. The gun assembly scene is also one of the top 5 funniest action sequences i've seen.

Nothing spectacular, and far from original, but pretty well-made and - to a certain degree - suspenseful and enjoyable.

Has a few cool fighting scenes and that gun assembly part is pretty neat, but it's sometimes slow and lacks character development unfortunately. Still it was a pretty entertaining watch

Ji-woon Kim has to be one of the least interesting directors to get acclaim in recent years.

A crusty old gangster suspects his hot young girlfriend is cheating on him, so when he goes away on business, he sends one of his enforcers to keep tabs on her for a few days. This sets off a chain of events which quickly spirals into murder, torture and bloody revenge. The action is brutal, gory and plentiful, and is nicely offset by the beautiful photography and melancholy mood. Seems like the South Koreans have the market cornered on really stylish ultraviolence recently.

It's a bit predictable and not exactly original - but wow, it looks absolutely incredible, the action sequences are great and it has a wicked sense of humour. The main character was played with an excellent sense of world-weary desperation; a guy who didn't really want to be in the game in the first place getting more and more drawn in with each wrong move he makes. By the end I was of the opinion that I had never seen a more aptly titled movie. "This is too harsh..." indeed.

It's a beautifully shot film, and the acting seems good enough, but the plot is too predictable and pointless. None of the characters are given much room to really develop, and too many of the events in the film just seem arbitrary so that there is not much to really engage with.

An atmospheric and very well done Action Thriller with some good noir Elements and a great Score.

Violent and stylish korean neo-noir -- I can dig it!

much lower than expected!!!

I like some innovation in the action sequence

This director's output is middling in comparison to other Korean films dealing with similar content.

Pros: one of the best and most hauntingly beautiful melancholic movie soundtracks I’ve ever heard. Incredible acting performances. Extremely memorable scenes and music. This movie really sticks with you. Cons: seems like the runtime could be a bit shorter

Savage revenge saga overcomes the familiarities (and ultimate superficialities) of its screenplay, thanks to Kim's graceful and elegant direction, and a lead performance from Lee that could stand toe-to-toe with Neeson, Bronson etc. in the stone-face bad-ass stakes. Apes TAXI DRIVER for the most part, but lacks the stronger characterisations and motivations that would push it into "great" territory. Still a fun and invigorating ride, studded with viscerally painful, thudding action scenes.

There is some great cinematography and a few affecting scenes, but the whole is missing a certain energy and quality that would elevate it from simply entertaining to moving. Perhaps it is the impetus that is missing or too subtle; the enemies seep in rather than escalate and the character study doesn’t find its layers until the very end.

overall worth the watch, but lacks character development.

Once it gets going, hold onto your hat.

Hot damn I love SK cinema. Video review: https://youtu.be/ZzT-WVzAnCA

slick but a tad predictable and I find mega death scenes a bit clichéd nowadays

besides the film is outstanding, soundtrack is perfect as well. it makes scenes emotional

(2nd viewing, 1st:85)

not that good if you think it over, but still a sweet movie. bittersweet.

one of the best movies I've seen good fight scenes like in the mud and the gun putting together part good shoot outs

88.500

Die already..Starts out great, ends with a whimper.

What A Bittersweet Life lacks in character development and originality, it makes up for in sheer tension, style and excitement, with a bit of emotion thrown in for good measure. Although it's probably my least favorite of Kim Ji-woon's (so far), that's by far a bad thing (his lesser films, if there is such a thing, are still better than most) and it's still an enjoyable thrill ride. Byung-hun Lee always impresses me in how he seems born to play each role he takes, especially in Ji-woon's films.

Exciting and beautiful. Would love to see it in a cinema.

This is the closest film the South Korean scene has to a Taxi Driver equivalent. Between the brutal reimagining of the common revenge tropes of the genre, the stellar acting, the gorgeous cinematography, and that goddamn pistol reassembly scene... A Bittersweet Life is definitely a favorite of mine.

after seing the man from nowhere, this had to be a letdown, and it was

An average script, but Ji-woon Kim gets every once out of it, and then some...

good

The movie is an extremely stylish action thriller. The movie is predictable but the presentation makes up for it. This a good entertainer if one wants to see.

I watched this movie without knowing anything about it and oh boy am i glad I did...absolutely amazing!

An enjoyable film that explores morality and the social and personal effects of one's choices. It is stylish and violent. It doesn't stack up with other Korean flicks, such as 'Oldboy', but it's a film worth seeing.

The movie is about one tough gook.

t has been a long time since I watched my last "score 100" movie. This was just fantastic. The actors, the creative story, the vengeance thing. I'm just so into korean movies now.

Decent, but when the master of vengeance themed movies (Park Chan-Wook) hails from the same country, you'd better make sure your film can measure up. And sadly, A Bittersweet Life cannot.

If you are not impressed by John Wick, you should've probably seen this beforehand.

A brilliant movie. I have seen few films with such a powerful sense of tension. To explain why this film is so good would probably ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it, so let's just say that this film has some of the best fight scenes I've ever seen and a genuine air of fear and anger. To tell you the truth, the plot is quite predictable after a certain point, but you won't care.

Fantastic film. Just popped up in my recommendations, so I thought I'd review it. First saw this a year ago online, and purchased it shortly afterwords. A tale of revenge and mission gone wrong with a less than perfect main character who stumbles on his way to seeing his mission through. Creative, surprising, and nigh a dull moment, the directing and acting are top notch. I was so thrilled by the end of this I stood up in my living room and applauded. Rent this if you can, otherwise buy it.

"Despite stylistic déjà vu, this is hugely enjoyable, and beautifully brutal."

Nice Movie