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It is possible to confuse the director with the movie star. Severe in a knitted hat and sunglasses, director Kim Jee-woon, 41, starts the banter by saying, "If we pose together you might get buried in the picture.¡± Lee Byung-hun, 35, in ripped jeans, counterattacked: "You make fun of my ideas, but you always end up incorporating them in your work.¡±
The movie ¡°A Bittersweet Life¡± created by the director of the blockbusters ¡°The Quiet Family¡±, ¡°The Foul King" and "A Tale of Two Sisters¡± and the ambitious actor who watches movies he stars in for more than 20 times, is a story of the wretched crash of a gangster who once seemed to have everything going for him. Here we introduce you to the movie and the story that lies behind it.
Espresso or Style
¡°There really was a gangster like that in real life. ¡°There really was a gangster like that in real life. He graduated from a very prominent university, only wore black suits and was the epitome of good manners. He was greeted with bows and called ¡°big brother¡± everywhere he went," says Lee Byung-hun. ¡°The espresso Lee Byung-hun enjoys in the movie contains both sweetness and bitterness. That is life, and that is what our movie is about,¡± Kim Jee-woon adds.
What separates ¡°A Bittersweet Life¡± from other genre movies is its style. While wearing a tailored black suit and insisting on drinking espresso, Lee Byung-hun declares, ¡°I¡¯m not a bum.¡±
Violence
¡°It must be a scene never seen in any other Korean action movies. The intense visual impact of the blazing timber enthralled me.¡± (Lee Byung-hun) ¡°As the movie progresses, so does the level of violence. It parallels Byeong-hun¡¯s emotional state in the movie. Paradoxically, through violence I wanted to evoke sympathy towards these men, with its recklessness and meaninglessness.¡± (Kim Jee-woon)
The characters' only method of communication is violence. In the same way he portrayed the anxiety of the girl in ¡°A Tale of Two Sisters¡± through the flower patterned wallpaper of primary colors, the director reveals the inner state of the wrecked man through the intensity of the blazing lumber and the dampness of a deep pit.
Shadow boxing or noir
"Choosing the genre is like choosing the subject. It is the genre that can best express what I wish to convey.¡± (Kim Jee-woon) ¡°Honestly, I wanted to watch that movie. So I willingly participated.¡± (Lee Byung-hun)
Shadow boxing in the Sky Lounge Hotel, Lee in the movie admires his reflection in the window. But his dark shadow is contrasted with the city¡¯s lights. It is a scene that emphasizes the noir genre's focus on the dark inner self and its collapse.
A 38-caliber revolver and a fall
¡°Starting his revenge, he leaves the traditional weapon behind and chooses the gun. We start with his awkward expression when making a deal with an arms dealer until we reach his heroic but tragic fall from power.¡± (Lee Byung-hun) ¡°A gun is a masculine form of power. Doesn't it symbolize both the glory and the fall?¡± (Kim Jee-woon)
The noir gunfight in the latter half of the movie using an arsenal of Russian and American guns sets a stark contrast with the first half.
La Dolce Vita or A Bittersweet Life
Much of the movie is set in a hotel bar called La Dolce Vita. As Federico Fellini made clear in the movie of the same title (1960), bitterness too often follows a sweet choice. This is Kim Jee-woon¡¯s aesthetic pessimism.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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