S. T. U. P. I. D. Oh my god, I thought it would never end, and the longer it got the more it felt like an overwrought TV-movie. Over-acted, melodramatic scenes, one after the other after the other, god help us. I'm really shocked so many commenters seem to think this is some kind of masterpiece. I just saw lots of people smoking instead of acting, making sure to have a tear or two trickling down their cheek as they delivered a bit of final dialogue per scene. The lead actress especially...I've now seen her in a few things and I find her primary acting trick to be a kind of dead, lack of affect, stare into the middle-distance thing. She is boring as hell to watch. And her character here is just psycho but in an uninteresting, predictable way. I had no idea what was going on most of the time until the big reveals toward the end. MILD SPOILERS: Dumbest scene of all was the middle-of-the-street phone conversation. I wanted him to go over and punch out her lights. Stone cold bitch. And it was never established WHY and WHAT as to this hold she had over him...what was its source? Where was her fiancee at the grand opening? How does she get to just walk...or glide, shall we say, up the escalator? And how does a dude fall that far through a ceiling and land on a rock-hard marble floor without his brains being splattered everywhere? And to top everything off...NO ONE CALLS 911! They stand around and look at him.
minsoo is such a useless f*cking idiot and inchul is a piece of trash they both deserved what happened to them.…
Excuse me, but...the piece of trash mother set this entire chain of events in motion and then ran like a screaming idiot when her husband got knocked out cold at the arcade, yelling for the cops. She was ready to blame everything on the Inchul and Minsoo. They're no angels, but give me a break. If you want to blame one person, it is HER. Inchul and Minsoo had zero intention of hurting anyone. As for Hyun Tae, he hadn't spoken with his parents in a long time; didn't seem to care much until one was dead and the other almost.
George is my hero. Just try to imagine doing such a thing for the sake of others.
This is a good flick, despite the presence of Christian Bale, who I just can't stomach for some reason. Never have been a fan. But lots else about it is very good. Lots of powerful stuff, from selfless tenderness to animalistic barbarity. I wish more of it had not been so on-the-nose with the symbolism and there were too many predictable, near-misses, just-in-the-nick-of-time type things throughout that took me out of the story Really? You wait to try to start the truck for the first time until everyone's loaded up and ready to go and all lives depend on it? Please.
Thank you for your comment. Yes, indeed, I have my own theory regarding Kang Eun Pyo letting the sniper go, but…
hmmm...yeah, no that doesn't work for me either. lol He also knew her by then as a cold-blooded killer who was taking out his fellow troops one by one and was already responsible for 30 kills. He then became responsible for everyone who she shot after he let her walk away, which I believe includes that young singer who she picked apart shot by shot as well as KEP's buddy (or whatever the hell that relationship was) who made the wise choice to waste that idiot commander and take over. His choice to let her go was some monumental statement that just didn't work for me I guess.
Thank you for your comment. Yes, indeed, I have my own theory regarding Kang Eun Pyo letting the sniper go, but…
??? Please share. I don't care if it's your biased opinion. Everybody's theories are biased, right? :) Cause right now I have NO theory at all; it just doesn't make any sense to me.
So...any idea WHY KEP let the sniper go when he should have killed her? I don't get that at all. He had to know she would kill more of them, and she did. The barbaric part of me was glad to see him put that knife in her near the end. See...war really does bring out the worst in us, including me.
Why the hell did the CIC guy let that b***h sniper who was killing everyone go when he had the first chance to off her? That choice cost a lot of SK soldiers their lives and I don't get why he did it.
War is insane, has always been insane, and will still be insane centuries from now when humans somewhere will still be killing each other. As war films go, this one feels like it drove that point home better than most. Taking, re-taking, losing, re-taking, losing, taking, my god the insanity in this case is uber-insane, just like any war. Battle scenes were awesome, special effects painfully realistic. As gruesome as some of the body-destruction got, especially toward the end, I was glad to see a film that didn't flinch from showing exactly what happens to human bodies during all-out, barbaric battles to the death. People get ripped to shreds. Not like in older American war films where soldiers die with barely a trickle of blood to be seen. Fewer death-scene speechifying would have been a better choice. Not everything has to be said out loud when all that's being shown is making the point just fine. I only recently discovered Lee Je Hoon, who is amazingly talented. Here he is as a kick-ass, morphine-addicted commander and just the other day I saw him as a gangster who sings like an angel in "My Paparotti." He is incredibly gifted as an actor with wide range.
I can't bring myself to watch this. When I heard about it in history, and watched a video talking about it, it…
All the more reason to watch it. We must never FORGET how war brings out the animal in human beings, and there is NOTHING glamorous or patriotic or pretty about it.
I'm 64 so I already know how depraved and animalistic human beings have been to each other since there WERE human beings. That said, this is one of the very best non-strategic-focused WW2 movies I have seen out of any country, and I have seen a lot of them. My dad was in the U.S. Army Air Force, shot down over Germany and spent 18 months in a POW camp at the age of 19, so I have always been interested in that war in particular. The Nazis were as bad as it gets but the Japanese were their equals in barbarity, cruelty, amorality and cunning. Which is what makes an important character in this film extra-fascinating.
I spent this two hours sick at heart with occasional involuntary moments of tearfulness. It's a hard watch. Everything about war sucks. Which is why it is so important that films like this keep getting made and seen. Every generation seems to forget how obscene and pointless war is. This is another good reminder.
WRECKED ONCE AGAIN BY A KOREAN, MUSIC-CENTERED MASTERPIECE
This was a joy to watch! So what if my assumptions about the ending were generally proven out...sometimes it's OK not to be surprised, and I felt every emotion along the way. The movie does not come off preachy or saccharine, but along with beautiful music and gorgeous young voices, it has an important story to tell about how anywhere, in any time and for the same old reasons, human beings will ALWAYS find excuses for prejudice and bigotry. But we can also rise above those primal urges and do the right and more evolved thing in the end. It is always a choice.
Ji Dae Han, the angel come to Earth who is Glory, is just the best thing ever. What a doll with acting chops to match. Kim Rae Won is excellent, playing everything from arrogant to humble with grace and originality. I kind of liked him even when he was still more than a bit of a douchebag.
Another Korean film blows my socks off. Korea does gay-themed, thriller, horror, romance, high school/college, mystery and musicals like no other place on earth. Who needs Hollywood?
LOVED IT! As far as cheesy, feel-good sports dramas go, this wasn't bad at all. I laughed, I cried a little, it was sweet and funny and pretty much what you would hope for from this kind of flick. The actors were committed and appealing; I didn't feel a lot of false notes so I'm down with an 8.5/10.
If you're looking for dramatic achievement awards, go watch something else.
Asian films/series continue to wreck me for Hollywood stuff. There is something, a depth of feeling, an innate passion that is present even in comedic moments, I don't know entirely what it is, but I connect with Asian cinema and dramas as I have never connected with nearly anything made in my own country, the U.S. And I never thought I'd say this: Korea has become my favorite source for feature films. For a long time; it's been 18 months since I found Asian cinema, the intensity, the near-violence of the language when used in anger toward others really put me off. It seemed almost base, primitve, dangerous to me. I'm now thinking maybe that is exactly what anchors the verbal expression for all the layers above it and makes the rest possible.
Hell, I don't know...I am babbling. This film wrecked me but in a good way, which is the best possible way for me to feel after a movie
Specific to this film, ten minutes later and I'm still shaking with emotion, tears streaming down my face. For reasons I'll not bore you with, this movie reached me at my core and stayed there the entire last 45 minutes. I found it emotional and heart-warming without being maudlin or cloying, with just the right amount of humor and smart-ass to balance the heavy feelings being dealt with here.
Lee Je Hoon...I can't say enough about his excellence in this role. I've seen him in a couple of other things and had no idea he could help carry something like this. There was never a doubt. Han Seok Kyu...near-perfection as the teacher. The supporting cast, in particular the principal and the odd-duck couple, along with the almost-girlfriend, were wonderful. I'm so happy to have found this movie.
Just a half hour left but I have to get some sleep...will be right back here tomorrow. My god, what a wonderful, uplifting, funny movie that's also earning honest tears Bravo!
I mean why did Yun-heng do that in her old school? I know, psychology speaks, blah blah blah... Still, I wanted…
I can't agree with Yun-heng being a side-story but totally agree there is no explanation for why she was apparently such a monster before. A little exposition on that would be nice.
Little slow, sometimes almost dull but I watched until the end. The Yun-Heng who showed up after the transfer seems entirely different from the one who did what she did before the transfer and I don't see that explained.
I'd love to see one of these movies deal with one of the biggest injustices surrounding bullying and lots of other issues: after these videos go viral it's always the girls who are shamed and vilified, who transfer schools or who kill themselves. When are we going to see a cyber-revenge flick that deals with that? When will we see one where the boy(s) involved are humiliated, disgraced and made the objects of derision? I know the male/female power imbalance makes that challenging because boys are off the hook for the same sexual behavior that gets girls labeled sluts for life, so the screenwriter would have to get creative.
Oh my god, I thought it would never end, and the longer it got the more it felt like an overwrought TV-movie. Over-acted, melodramatic scenes, one after the other after the other, god help us. I'm really shocked so many commenters seem to think this is some kind of masterpiece. I just saw lots of people smoking instead of acting, making sure to have a tear or two trickling down their cheek as they delivered a bit of final dialogue per scene. The lead actress especially...I've now seen her in a few things and I find her primary acting trick to be a kind of dead, lack of affect, stare into the middle-distance thing. She is boring as hell to watch. And her character here is just psycho but in an uninteresting, predictable way. I had no idea what was going on most of the time until the big reveals toward the end.
MILD SPOILERS: Dumbest scene of all was the middle-of-the-street phone conversation. I wanted
him to go over and punch out her lights. Stone cold bitch. And it was never established WHY and WHAT as to this hold she had over him...what was its source? Where was her fiancee at the grand opening? How does she get to just walk...or glide, shall we say, up the escalator? And how does a dude fall that far through a ceiling and land on a rock-hard marble floor without his brains being splattered everywhere? And to top everything off...NO ONE CALLS 911! They stand around and look at him.
6.5/10 Pretty bad.
This is a good flick, despite the presence of Christian Bale, who I just can't stomach for some reason. Never have been a fan. But lots else about it is very good. Lots of powerful stuff, from selfless tenderness to animalistic barbarity. I wish more of it had not been so on-the-nose with the symbolism and there were too many predictable, near-misses, just-in-the-nick-of-time type things throughout that took me out of the story Really? You wait to try to start the truck for the first time until everyone's loaded up and ready to go and all lives depend on it? Please.
I'm glad I saw it but won't watch it again.
Battle scenes were awesome, special effects painfully realistic. As gruesome as some of the body-destruction got, especially toward the end, I was glad to see a film that didn't flinch from showing exactly what happens to human bodies during all-out, barbaric battles to the death. People get ripped to shreds. Not like in older American war films where soldiers die with barely a trickle of blood to be seen.
Fewer death-scene speechifying would have been a better choice. Not everything has to be said out loud when all that's being shown is making the point just fine.
I only recently discovered Lee Je Hoon, who is amazingly talented. Here he is as a kick-ass, morphine-addicted commander and just the other day I saw him as a gangster who sings like an angel in "My Paparotti." He is incredibly gifted as an actor with wide range.
8.5/10
I spent this two hours sick at heart with occasional involuntary moments of tearfulness. It's a hard watch. Everything about war sucks. Which is why it is so important that films like this keep getting made and seen. Every generation seems to forget how obscene and pointless war is. This is another good reminder.
9.5/10
This was a joy to watch! So what if my assumptions about the ending were generally proven out...sometimes it's OK not to be surprised, and I felt every emotion along the way. The movie does not come off preachy or saccharine, but along with beautiful music and gorgeous young voices, it has an important story to tell about how anywhere, in any time and for the same old reasons, human beings will ALWAYS find excuses for prejudice and bigotry. But we can also rise above those primal urges and do the right and more evolved thing in the end. It is always a choice.
Ji Dae Han, the angel come to Earth who is Glory, is just the best thing ever. What a doll with acting chops to match. Kim Rae Won is excellent, playing everything from arrogant to humble with grace and originality. I kind of liked him even when he was still more than a bit of a douchebag.
Another Korean film blows my socks off. Korea does gay-themed, thriller, horror, romance, high school/college, mystery and musicals like no other place on earth. Who needs Hollywood?
BRAVO! 9/10
If you're looking for dramatic achievement awards, go watch something else.
Asian films/series continue to wreck me for Hollywood stuff. There is something, a depth of feeling, an innate passion that is present even in comedic moments, I don't know entirely what it is, but I connect with Asian cinema and dramas as I have never connected with nearly anything made in my own country, the U.S. And I never thought I'd say this: Korea has become my favorite source for feature films. For a long time; it's been 18 months since I found Asian cinema, the intensity, the near-violence of the language when used in anger toward others really put me off. It seemed almost base, primitve, dangerous to me. I'm now thinking maybe that is exactly what anchors the verbal expression for all the layers above it and makes the rest possible.
Hell, I don't know...I am babbling. This film wrecked me but in a good way, which is the best possible way for me to feel after a movie
Specific to this film, ten minutes later and I'm still shaking with emotion, tears streaming down my face. For reasons I'll not bore you with, this movie reached me at my core and stayed there the entire last 45 minutes. I found it emotional and heart-warming without being maudlin or cloying, with just the right amount of humor and smart-ass to balance the heavy feelings being dealt with here.
Lee Je Hoon...I can't say enough about his excellence in this role. I've seen him in a couple of other things and had no idea he could help carry something like this. There was never a doubt.
Han Seok Kyu...near-perfection as the teacher.
The supporting cast, in particular the principal and the odd-duck couple, along with the almost-girlfriend, were wonderful. I'm so happy to have found this movie.
BRAVO!!!!
Just a half hour left but I have to get some sleep...will be right back here tomorrow. My god, what a wonderful, uplifting, funny movie that's also earning honest tears Bravo!
The Yun-Heng who showed up after the transfer seems entirely different from the one who did what she did before the transfer and I don't see that explained.
I'd love to see one of these movies deal with one of the biggest injustices surrounding bullying and lots of other issues: after these videos go viral it's always the girls who are shamed and vilified, who transfer schools or who kill themselves. When are we going to see a cyber-revenge flick that deals with that? When will we see one where the boy(s) involved are humiliated, disgraced and made the objects of derision? I know the male/female power imbalance makes that challenging because boys are off the hook for the same sexual behavior that gets girls labeled sluts for life, so the screenwriter would have to get creative.
I'm sure someone can do it!!!!