#A Bittersweet Life

[twilightronin]

A Bittersweet Life - Kim Jee-woon 2005

[nine-frames]

"Life is about suffering. Didn't you know that?"

달콤한 인생 (Dalkomhan insaeng / A Bittersweet Life), 2005.

Dir. & Writ. Kim Jee-woon | DOP Kim Ji-yong

[cappedinamber]

A Bittersweet Life (2005)

Directed by Kim Jee-woon

Cinematography by Kim Ji-yong

[nxvermore]

[bigyikes97]

If the idea of Goncharov's *story* appeals to y'all (like, outside of the meme, if you were like, 'oh, I would watch that movie if it existed'), "The Merciless" should probably be on your watchlist

It's a complicated angsty relationship gangster tension plot-twisting ride of a tragic violent shoot-em-up heartbreak-fest and I have so many feelings about it hhffsdfghhghghhhhhh

(and it got like an 8 minute standing ovation at Cannes if that is convincing to anyone)

ALSO in the running for "existent gangster movies that are literally earth shaking in scope and layers of analyses" is my all-time favorite "A Bittersweet Life"

(100% on Rotten Tomatoes btw)

Both movies are SO MUCH MORE than generic "shoot-'em ups", although there are definitely many shots fired and lovers of action will not go away disappointed! I cried, I thought about them for days, it's a whole experience...if gangster movies are your thing and you HAVEN'T seen them, advance!! Go!! Scour the internet!! You won't regret it!! (Unless you hate good movies in which case you will! lol)

[outof1emons]

Bittersweet Life (2008)

[b-oovies]

O Gosto da Vingança, 2005.

aqui apenas legendado.

[khuantru]

song: A Bittersweet Life OST - 12. Fairness - Dalparan movie: A Bittersweet Life - 2005

[yellodisney]

[wonderrosss]

Thalia and Grover hanging out years in the future.... 😁

[twilightronin]

A Bittersweet Life - Kim Jee-woon 2005

[chloesimaginationthings]

Friendship never dies in FNAF..

[witchothewest]

Ough, spicy chickpea curry good for ears, bad for tummy.

[nxvermore]

[bigyikes97]

A Bittersweet Life: SS TIER MOVIE

it's about a gangster who encounters love not of a person, but of beauty as a concept--he doesn't even understand it when he encounters it, but his heart is so moved that he gives up everything he knows because nothing he has achieved could ever be as wonderful as that fleeting glimpse of a softer, kinder world...

It's not a romance. The girl in the movie is actually not a good person! She doesn't love him, and he doesn't love her. He says so himself and is visibly confused because he means it. He didn't go out of his way to help her because of who she was--he had killed many people before, all gangsters like him, all bound by the same rules of conduct and 'deserving' of their punishment; she was also deserving of punishment by the same code. He helped her because of what she represented to him. She was the first person he had met since childhood outside of that world of grit and blood and machismo that was organized crime. He was awed by what she represented: a world of peace, beauty, music, art, light, and life.

After a betrayal, he discards all he ever knew in a torturous, tormented quest for something he can't even define. He thinks it is revenge, but at the same time, he knows that it's NOT--but that revenge is the only thing he can come up with to put his longing into action. He knows it will not get him what he wants. However, as it is the only way he knows, he barrels down that road at 100 mph with bleak despair and resignation in his eyes. It's a blind, desperate, dying-animal kind of rush for a trace of an idea that he knows he can never attain; a beautiful dream over which he cries because it can never come true. My heart probably hurt more at this movie than any other one!

I also love the symbolism of the trees, which are the only subtle splash of green in a sepia-and-red palette; they symbolize his soul's awakening and his tiny, tentative steps towards grasping at something for his own sake. He knows he can't have it and that he's going about it all the wrong way, but he doggedly and despairingly does all he knows to do anyway. You can see the dual layers of blankness over maddening desperation in his eyes at the end; so drenched in blood he has forever severed himself from that world of peace, too locked in his path to do anything else but speed forward towards a final explosive collision with the consequences of his actions.

the director had AMAZING interviews on it too:

An Interview with Kim Jee-woon (koreanfilm.org)

To me, it is so mind blowing. That one touch of beauty was worth throwing away everything he had before. In a truly bittersweet way, I believe he believed it was worth it for him. The message I feel is this: As bitter as it is, a short brush in pursuit of what one truly wants and loves and needs is sweeter than a long, drawn-out, soulless trudge through empty wasteland towards a grave that will come one way or another. One brilliant flash of pure, sweet happiness is worth an entire lifetime of stumbling in the darkness without ever having really lived.