Movie: A Dirty Carnival

Okay, before I go any further, please excuse me just a second for doing this: JO IN-SEONG, SARANG HEYO! CHONGMAL SARANG HE!

Hehehe. Okay, now that I’ve got that out of my chest ;-p I can start the review for Jo In-Seong’s newest movie: A Dirty Carnival.

Byong Du (Jo In-Seong) was a third-rate gangster. He tried to live day by day with “simple” rules of the brotherhood, one of them was being loyal and faithful to one another, even though he was disrespected by his juniors and seeing no bright chances on stepping up his career in the organization. But gradually, the 29 years old guy was feeling the pressure of carrying the burden of his ill mother and two siblings. Things went tougher when his only source of extra money, a run down arcade room, was stolen by one of his associates under his eyes.

Desperate, he’s toying with an offer from Mr. Hwang (Cheon Ho-Jin), his organization’s big patron; a deal that could solve all his problems. But accepting it, would mean that he would overstepping his direct superior, violating his own principal of loyalty, and obviously, taking someone’s life—a prosecutor named Park that had began to annoyed Mr. Hwang.

An amateur’s observation: unlike Hollywood’s gangster, Korean or Japanese gangsters are pictured to be more reluctant in taking someone’s life—probably due the more severe punishment, or cultural reasons? It also seems that the usage of firearms are minimum; baseball bats, daggers, knives, on the other hand, are more popular. In this movie, in the feud between gangs’ scenes, the gangsters fought with baseball bats and only took out their daggers when the heat of the fight was escalating.

Back to the story. Eventually Byong-Du found himself without any other choice. One murder followed by another, he and his brothers took care of them all. Byong-Du was starting to enjoy a good life: seeing his old high school’s crush again, giving his family new and more comfortable lives, having new office and juniors. But guilt never left him alone.

One night, it got the best of him and made him confessed all of his deeds to his old best friend, Min-Ho (Lee Bo-Yeong), a new movie director who’s looking for a good script. After that night, everything seemed to have fallen to pieces. Even though Min-Ho had asked Byong-Du’s consent for consultations about a gangsters movie he's been making, Byong-Du never guessed that his best friend would depict his crimes in details in it, thus making a lot of people restless.


It seemed that the storyline was not as smooth as they wanted to be. The climax was kind of had reached the top when Byong-Du had to “take care” of Prosecutor Park and his former boss—played notably by In-Seong; my favorite part of the movie. So when it came to the scene where Byong-Du’s watching Min-Ho movie that pictured him committing murder almost precisely—which was supposed to be the peak of the conflict, I think—the tension was already gone. Too bad.

Lee Bo-Yeong was sadly not convincing enough to play as Min-Ho. Was it because of his scenes were not enough, hence the lack of exploration? On the first look, he didn’t really show his guilt for singing to the cops or his desperation for becoming a well known-therefore willing to do anything-director. Even though on the second, there were some thin traces of those emotions. He just listened to Byong-Do story, made a movie, and--voila!--the movie was a big hit. There were no memorable emotional struggles. The gray area on this guy was too blurred: Was he really sorry? Or was it intentionally to make him a cold character?


The ending was also a bit flat for me, looked like they trying to reach dramatic, but eventually couldn’t go there. I was expecting a wittier ending--Godfather’s like. **Yeah right, Chi!

At the last twenty minutes, I just knew my heart was going to be broken in the end. And darn, I was right. I HATE YOU, MIN-HO!!! HOW COULD YOU? You don’t know the meaning of fidelity! Poor Byong-Du… **Sob sob…

Despite all of that, watching In-Seong in his boxer (yes, girls, boxer not briefs ;-p) and displaying his impressive big tattoo that covered almost all of his back, were definitely a treat. But the scene when he scratched his property… *blushed (=’_‘=)* not really a pretty sight… hmm, well…

Oh, yeah, in this movie you’ll also get to hear In-Seong’s singing. Honestly, he’s not exactly in the range of “let’s make an album” quality, but hey, haven’t you heard? Love’s not only blind; it’s also deft. As for the kissing scene: well, it was really In-Seong’s typical--you fans out there already know what I mean, right?

To wrap this up, after seeing In-Seong in A Dirty Carnival, we certainly can see how he has gone a long way ever since Memories of Bali and Spring Days—bye bye, spoiled-rich-yet adorable-guy image! He even got "Best Actor" title at the 5th Korean Film Awards organized by the Munhwa Broadcasting Corp. (MBC) at Universal Art Center in Seoul (November 19th, 2006) for this movie. Cukha heyo, In-Seong! (^_^)v

Casts: Jo In-Seong, Cheon Ho-Jin, Nam Gung-Min, Lee Bo-Yeong, Jin Gu, Yoon Je-Moon, Ho-Jin English Title: A Dirty Carnival Korean Title: Biyeolhan Geori Director & Screenplay: Yu Ha Genre: Action Drama Distribution: CJ Entertainment Duration: 141 minutes Release Date in South Korea: 2006/06/15 Language: Korean Source: www.hancinema.net