I watched this movie just because I really love Kim Beom as an actor and want to see his whole filmography. I did not know what to expect and was super baffled going into this movie by the other reviews that are all saying this movie makes no sense, because to be honest, a lot of times when I see reviewers say a story made no sense, the story did make sense but people just struggled with comprehending a complex but otherwise fully explained plotline. But nah, the other reviewers are right in this case LMAO. I truly have no idea what’s going on in this film. This movie is proof that acting cannot save a film if the writer and director (which in this case it was the same person, and the person never made another film after this, which isn’t shocking) don’t know what they’re doing. I kind of feel bad for all actors involved because they probably thought the premise sounded interesting and wanted to give a new filmmaker a chance with no precedent to work with in order to gauge the person’s talent beforehand. I also feel bad for Kim Beom because he really deserves to be the main lead, but in a story better than this one.

What’s sad about this film is I can kind of see how it could have been interesting if it only had a better script and director. The storyline is essentially a tragedy of someone who was otherwise probably intended to be a decent person experiencing a downfall and point of no return due to excessive unconditional love. I can see some semblance of a motif and meaning in this film with the phrase “fly high” and the little angel we see in the story, representing Sibum’s rise in the gang at the cost of his humanity and acting dreams. The mood-setting, the dark and gritty atmosphere, and the emotions of Sibum are all immersive, it’s just that the point A to point B of the storyline makes no sense and there’s little to no fleshing out of any plot points whatsoever. It’s not REALLY an authentic silent film in an artistic sense, but the scripted dialogue is so bare that the actors cannot even work with it enough to make the plot progression any clearer. There is not enough explanation at any given moment for what is going on. That being said, you can generally deduce a loose idea of what is going on, but there is a sense that the writing almost feels unfinished. It feels like someone wrote a few sentences explaining the concept for the story instead of creating a fully crafted plot full of details and then just started filming on a very loose and incomplete outline. You can grasp at straws for what is happening and its meaning or what the writer may have intended, but not a single idea in this movie was fully fleshed out. Scenes did not go on enough, there wasn’t enough exposition or development, we’re just thrown into dramatic events without any proper build up, which makes all the characters’ actions seem sudden and excessive. It really feels like someone’s school art project instead of a proper film that someone reviewed and was like “yes, this is it, this is finished, let me release this to the world.” I understand now why the reviews are all confusing and why my own review is also probably confusing is because the problems this film has are somehow not problems I've ever seen any other film have, therefore it is difficult to articulate them.

That being said, the film is visually pretty and I’d still recommend Kim Beom fans to watch it in order to see his whole filmography if they want, if not just with subtitles off LOL. Kim Beom looks very beautiful in the lighting and styling of this film and I would love to see him film a modern day, good story with this kind of dark and gritty visual.