A Bittersweet Life

This slick, ultra-stylish and ultra-gritty neo-noir action thriller from South Korea won much appraisal upon its initial release in 2005, while Empire Magazine named it third in a poll of the ’20 Greatest Gangster Movies You’ve Never Seen’. This is no exaggeration either, for this sordid tale of a young enforcer who falls foul of his gang when he refuses to carry out an order from his ruthless crime boss.

Kim Sun-woo (Lee Byung-hun) has his hands in co-running a nightclub with his boss Kang (Kim Yeong-cheol) and his gang but that’s just half the story. In reality, Kang is involved in smuggling young girls from Russia into the country for them to work as prostitutes and Kim really is a high-ranking enforcer and Kang’s loyal subordinate (or underdog, if you will). In the opening scene, we learn just how loyal Kim is when he beats up members of Baek Dae-sik’s (Hwang Jung-min) gang – he is the son from a rival gangster family. Reason for the altercation? Baek’s men had the gall to stay on in Kang’s establishment after closing time! It is an altercation which will come to haunt Kim.

Meanwhile, Boss Kang, an elderly and extremely wealthy man, is suspicious of his much younger mistress Hee-soo (Shin Min-ah) as he suspects she might be having an affair with a younger man… and who could blame her. And so he asks Kim to play detective while he’s away on business and follow Hee-soo around, who has ways of deceiving him. She has no objections when he escorts her to a classical music recital (she is a cellist). Enthralled by her talent and her looks, he momentarily forgets that he is nothing more than a hitman. One evening, when Hee-soo’s young lover is in her apartment and the two are certain that no one is watching them, Kim breaks through the door and catches them ‘in flagrante’. Kim’s orders are to kill them both but instead of killing them he tells the young woman that he will spare her and her lover (after having beaten him up) if they promise never to see each other again. Fearing for her and her lover’s life, Hee-soo agrees though we know that she won’t stick to her promise… Kim has no idea that by letting the two young people go, he’s opened Pandora’s box!

A short time later, Kim runs into a man who demands an apology for the altercation with Baek’s men back in the club but when Kim refuses, some of Baek’s henchmen kidnap him, string him up in an empty warehouse and start torturing him. It is a scene worthy of five Tarantino movies thrown together! Just as the henchmen are about to kill Kim, the phone rings and of all people, it’s Kim’s boss Kang on the other end at the line who has intervened in the nick of time to save Kim’s life. Or so he thinks… In truth, Kang, back from his business trip, found out that Kim spared the life of Hee-soo and her lover, more so, he is furious that Kim had lied to him about the whole cover-up. Now it’s Kang’s men who continue to torture Kim although Kang does give his enforcer a chance to redeem himself. Kim does no such thing and instead, he manages to escape and now vows bloody revenge on all those who did him wrong, including his boss. What follows is a tour-de-force vendetta which will have you at the edge of your seat until the film’s shocking conclusion.

Lee Byung-hun is terrific in the role of the stoic young enforcer who, through meeting cellist Hee-soo, discovers a side of himself he never knew existed, namely that of a human being with feelings. The action sequences might be gritty and overtly realistic but the films also has tender moments, for example when Boss Kang sends a gift to Hee-soo, which is a desk lamp with two little owls on the lamp stand – a present which she chucks in the corner as just another one of Kang’s presents. Later on, when she walks through a shopping mall with Kim and spots a red desk lamp which she actually likes but can’t afford to buy, it is this very lamp which Kim mysteriously sends to her apartment some time later. Although the emphasis is on Kim the hitman, the story also delves into the lonely side of a man who has never had any time (nor any reason) for emotions thanks to his loyalty to the ungrateful Kang, until now…

It also features a particularly interesting soundtrack: a hybrid composition of classic and modern Flamenco-inspired tunes and even more surprisingly, it works extremely well!

A BITTERSWEET LIFE is available in Standard UHD/Blu-ray format and also as Limited Deluxe Edition 4K UHD/Blu-ray box set. All releases come with bonus features including audio commentary, Making of… featurette, Archive featurette, two music videos, teaser, trailer and TV-Spot. In addition, the Deluxe Edition offers a 120-page booklet, six collector’s art cards and is presented in a rigid slipcase.