Review of A Dirty Carnival (2006) by Sohyun P — 04 Apr 2007

This is a film about a gangster who falls in love with a childhood friend, and tries to escape his profession with tragic results. Yes, another one of those. The romance part of the story is unbelievable. At first, Hyun-Joo (In-jae Heo) is scared off by Byung-du (Jo In-Seong), but they soon start to date. The transition between her fearing him and loving him seems awkward and forced. The ending is also predictable, but it's done well and lends to the tragedy of the story.

Because of the underlying romance sub-plot, I'd expect more scenes in which the actors get to show their chops, but there are very few. Jo In-Seong does manage to turn in an excellent performance, breathing some life into a generally generic plot.

None of the gangsters in the film carry guns, which I didn't understand, but as a result, gang fights are raw, street-fight style brawls using bats and knives. This gritty style of fight is actually referenced at one point in the film when Byung-du visits the movie set of another childhood friend-turned-movie-director.

In all, this film was nothing special (with the exception of Hippo's tattoos), but it wasn't bad, either.