As an exhilarating gangland epic, A Bittersweet Life chews up the neon-glazed scenery it so gleefully illuminates. Director Kim Jee-woon (Tale of Two Sisters - review here) serves up as violent and hard ass a film as they come. With unbelievable moments of bare-knuckled machismo, multi-layered shoot outs and car chases, A Bittersweet Life relies not on realism or grittiness for its effectiveness, but a glossed over comic book style tale of revenge that's anything but natural.

Referred to as an 'enforcer,' Seon-woo (Lee Byeong-heon) runs an upscale restaurant called La Dolce Vita. With his exquisite attention to detail, he's quickly become right hand man to crime boss Kang (Kim Yeong-cheol). When Kang suspects that his much younger girlfriend may be cheating on him, who better to turn too that Seon-woo? Told by his boss to 'take care of them' if he finds the infidels together, Seon-woo takes a more sympathetic approach and decides to let the star-crossed lovers go, as long as they promise to never speak of the incident or see each other again.

Bad decision on the part of a hit man sent out on such a personal mission. Naturally someone speaks, so Kang and his men go absolutely apeshit on Seon-woo. Really the only flaw in their plan is that they may have underestimated their opponents capabilities and perhaps have finally met their match.

Not So Bittersweet After All?

Block of fiery wood. Meet face. (Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Film Society)

A Bittersweet Life manages to strike a much-needed balance between its raw emotion and over the top almost comic book like violence. Such a mixture could surely spell disaster if placed in the wrong hands, but Kim Jee-woon manages to combine these elements to near perfection. The plot elemeents are fairly common, to an extent this is a story that we've seen many times. The film remains morally ambiguous and I certainly wouldn't go so far as to call it a cinematic triumph by any means. However, A Bittersweet Life stands as one hell of an entertaining exploration of these emotionally charged characters lives. And lots of kick-ass action, of course!

Performers are all at the top of their game in this film, especially Lee Byeong-heon as Seon-woo. His haunting performance displays that of a lost soul or of a deer caught in the headlights. Somehow he seems to know that he has to always have his poker face on, allowing friends and enemies alike to know full-well that he understands exactly where he is heading...even if he admittedly doesn't.

While the onscreen action doesn't ease up for even a minute characters reactions do, curiously towards the tail end of the film. Characters seem to freeze in their tracks, waiting for a bullet or a block of wood to split their skull wide open, which struck me as kind of odd. It's not certain if this was an artistic choice, however it did bring me out of the moment as I took notice. It's a minor complaint however, within the confines of such a slick production.

Thumbs Up Colorful characters and colorful design palette. This movie is just so gosh darn colorful!