A small time thug collecting debts for the local triad is torn between his criminal aspirations and his devotion to family. In Seoul, Byung-Doo is a twenty-nine year old gangster that works under the command of Sang-Shui in the mobster organization of the boss Hwang. Byung-Doo is also the patriarch of his family and is having financial problems to support his old mother that is very ill and his younger siblings. When Hwang is pressed by the corrupt prosecutor Park, Byung-Doo sees the chance to prove his loyalty to Hwang, climb positions in his criminal career and improve his income, and he volunteers to get rid off Park, killing him and burying his body and the secret with his partner Jong-Soo. Meanwhile, his former high school friend and aspirant director Kim Min-Ho meets him asking Byung-Doo to be his advisor in his debut movie about gangsters. Later Byung-Doo goes to a high school reunion with Min-Ho where he meets his high school crush Hyun-Joo (and the start seeing each other. One night, after arguing with Hyun-Joo, Byung-Doo gets drunk and makes confidences to Min-Ho about his secret, affecting his relationship in the criminal organization and friendship. Kim Byung-doo is the eldest son of his family, with two more brothers and a sick mother, their responsibility to provide for their livelihoods and health pressure more and more. For some time involved in the local mafia, our protagonist even reached a certain success, being the head of a subgroup. But that's not financially enough, Kim lives a life as good as or worse than people his age, and the prospect of growing up in the mafia shrinks to the point that his "supervisor" is a chupim and fears to put him in a more relevant role.<br/><br/>While this is taking place, his classmates make a reunion. There he reviews his high school passion and also an old friend, now a young filmmaker. This school reunion will draw two more points from the story, the relationship with Hyun-ju and the resumption of friendship with Min-ho.<br/><br/>Throughout history, the Mafia president suffers with a small problem and scale Kim to solve it. The solution involves the murder of a prestigious prosecutor. The young gangster takes care of the service and immediately suffers an existential crisis. He begins to weigh his poor family, his old love that does not sympathize with being a thug and the very fact of killing an innocent person. Distraught, Kim goes to Hyun-ju's house, which readily offers a friendly shoulder.<br/><br/>Hyun-ju managed to produce some things, but nothing relevant. He has been working on a screenplay for a long time, demonstrating the life of gangsters. Its versions are discarded in sequence, lack truth in the text, according to the producer. The friend's shoulder resolves to appropriate Kim's confidences and rewrite his final script in a new outfit.<br/><br/>The death of the promoter and the final script brings problems for all involved directly and splashes in the others. Despite the existence of many films about the genre, Biyeolhan geori surprises by treating the subject in another way, with originality and script that interconnects all the subplots with harmony. As typical of Korean cinema, the photograph is beautiful and well marks the efficient direction of the film. Unlike his countrymen, the film does not gush blood or feelings, his biggest bet is on human relations and the limit to conquer what is desired. If you are looking for more in a gangster film than just violence and fights then this is the film for you.<br/><br/>This is a very well rounded film, in addition to some good scenes of violence, murder, betrayal and fights, there is a good splaterring of humour, family drama and a small bit of romance too.<br/><br/>The film centres around a low level gangster who through hard work and various violent acts begins to rise through the ranks.<br/><br/>One of the major messages of the film is about trust, friendship and betrayal.<br/><br/>The acting and directing are all very good, without the need to go over the top due to the excellent pacing of the film and a very good storyline.<br/><br/>Very highly recommended, the time to the end credits is just shy of 2H18, but it's well worth the time for the excellent twists and turns as the film goes on.
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295 weeks ago