"Yu-Jeon-Mu-Jwae, Mu-Jeon-Yu-Jwae" - Innocent if rich, guilty if poor.

This is a movie about a prisoner escape that occurred during the heyday of Korean nationalism and international image-consciousness, the Seoul World Olympics of 1988. The movie exposes the contemptuous practice of lengthening prison sentences for petty crimes by decades at the whim of the prison warden, juxtaposed against the light sentences given to corrupt bureaucrats. The basic message is that Korea has a long way to go before it can step up to 1st world standards in human rights and equality, starting with its criminal justice system.

As noble as the message is, there is just way too much melodrama and over-the-top clichés to take this movie seriously. The one-dimensional warden goes out of his way to be cocky, snide, and evil with every spoken syllable and every gesture. Pick any villain in your favorite Saturday morning cartoon and he is it. The prisoners are portrayed with a schoolboy-like innocence obviously meant to draw viewer sympathy. The music, the pacing, the agonizingly long death scenes, all serve to squeeze as much viewer sympathy for the prisoners as possible. The point could have been made more powerfully if it were made with more subtlety. If you watch this, be prepared for a head pounding to make sure you get the point.

Holli-dei - ok I have to check what that actually translates to. Does not sound accurate to what the main characters have to endure and go through in this movie. Based on actual law(s) and things that happened in Korea. At the beginning it does seem like the movie will be about one thing, when it does turn around and is about something else.

Being criminalized for something minor and having put on a sentence that is far worse for the "crime" one has commited ... if you have a sense of righteousness, you may feel some anger towards the laws and even more so to our main "bad guy", who enforces that law. There certain aspects of this that are overly dramatized and certain decisions being made by our characters that the viewers may not agree with ... but it makes for an interesting story to say the least ... and something that keeps the tension up for the running time of the movie. Not a feel good movie, but that is quite apparent from the start

Everything reviewer ajlee3 said I totally agree with.

Let me just add that without the talent of the movie's "hero" Lee Sung Jae, this movie would have been totally forgotten within weeks of its release. As it is, it actually sold quite well. That is likely due to the fact that Lee was able to salvage something with his superb acting skills (all 4 points I give to this movie go to Mr Lee),and also because the director milked every imaginable angle from Mr Lee's fantastic Bruce-Lee-like physique.

Lee apparently realized this movie wasn't destined for greatness, as he said in an interview that with two movies in a row that were box office flops, he didn't feel nervous about being in this movie; i.e., he wasn't stressed out from pressure. However, Koreans greatly appreciate movies like this one, as so many of them have suffered from the injustices depicted therein. If only they found a better way to get the message across.