Having a main character that is not the most loveable is one thing. Making him still not despicable and kind of relatable is another thing alltogether. South Korean crime movies and movies in general have been delivering and in 2020 Hollywood took a bow (even if Parasite is not crime and difficult to categorize, it is a superior movie to many others that have been released).

This is more predictable than that, but even so the path we take, the things we experience, even the ones we see coming are quite something. A lot of violence and almost a film school theme to the whole movie too. Know your stuff, know your story, don't just come up with stuff. Makes it all more authentic.

The ending might turn some off, but there's always danger in how to end and how people will feel about that, no matter if you're positive, negative or neutral about it. I would say the only way this could end - and the movie does not overexplain which is really good. This is a treat and I almost regret taking so long - before I finally watched it

One of the quote in this movie describes and sums up this movie "You just need to know two things to be successful. Who you need and what he needs" and that basically sums up the gangster world. The movie really does show the nasty and dirty parts about being a gangster and trying to move up in the world. But the thing is the movie just have anything that really immersed you and can get a bit tedious at time. However the way it did not pull any punches was well done. This is a depressing gangster movie that shows the progress of a gangster who has morals but his direction causes conflict for his loved ones, although that is not his intention. This isn't really a movie that glorifies the gangster life but it doesn't really bash on it either but it does show that it's a sad life full of hurting others and backstabbing. Even when they constantly spout things like family. I think the actor Jo In Sung is alright but he fits right into this role and his character is very believable. Overall it's a good Korean gangster flick but could have been better if it had more elements to get immersed into. And the romance between Jo In Sung's character and the girl he falls for took up a bit of screen time but didn't seem all that crucial to the story. If it had bits that made it more crucial to the plot it would have added more to the movie. Still it's simply very watchable.

6.7/10

We got to see "A Dirty Carnival" at the Asian-American Film Festival here in San Francisco last week. The movie is truly amazing. The action sequences, the music, and the acting were all fantastic.

I think In-Seong Jo (lead actor) will have a very long career in movies. He'd be perfect for Hollywood movies too. His performance in this role lead me to do some research on his other movies - I'll be renting/buying them soon.

Hopefully, Hollywood will not try to re-make this film. It's perfect as is. American audiences are just going to have to get used to reading subtitles to see great movies.