Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Yang Ik-June does a spectacular job writing, directing and starring as Sang-hoon in "Breathless". The almost pessimistic approach of the film is more complimented by its original Korean title "Ddongpari", which literally means "Shitfly".The film is said to be semi-autobiographical with inspirations for the story coming from the abusive childhood of the director. He even had to sell his house for the completion of this film, which shows how important this film was for him. The portrayal of raw violence in the film is so authentic and shocking that even while showing glimmers of hope the viewers are left with a pessimistic outlook towards the film. Almost in every single scene, there is some kind of use of cursing. The obscene language along with the violent and bloody nature of the film makes it a film that won't be suitable for every kind of audience. Full review at http://www.asianfilmvault.com/2017/08/breathless-2008- by-yang-ik-june.html

this is my first movie review in IMDb,usually I'm just a regular silent reader on this site, but somehow this movie Encourage me to write the reviews on it .. i first found this movie (again) on IMDb list Because its glowing review,but the first impression when I saw this movie not as nice as one might imagine, either because the lighting is less uncommon than the movie in general, unsympathetic character,etc.but somehow this movie finds me again, so Im kinda forced myself to watch it, probably thought I could use this movie as a "sleeping pill", remembering when I watched this movie at 3 in the morning ;p, but you know what? I end up watching this movie straight to end .. SLOWLY but sure it drags u into it .. its brutally honest, rude, raw and real .., sometimes in the middle movie Im thinking, "is this a movie or a documentary?" remember this film looks very real and not contrived, every character look alive, despite the main character's love interest from the beginning looked a little bit awkward, but ultimately they could co-exist .. brilliant performance by Kkobbi Kim! Made me wanna look at the films she starred ;), anyway even though sometimes there are ups and downs of the sympathy towards the main character, but that's what makes it look real and natural ..SPOILER ALERT: So far I have not had any problems with the movie that does not end happily, if the movie turns out to be sad ending, its fine by me.. as long as its believable. But for this movie alone, somehow I really wish the main character will eventually have a better life, a normal life, given he's been through a lot of bitterness of his life, although I got a feeling he has to pay what he did before.. and as predicted it ended like I didn't want to.. even though I'm disappointed, but maybe that's life, a reminder that its not a fairy tale, its real.

Let me start by saying that this piece of art took me by surprise. I didn't feel that I was watching a movie, Instead the acting was so realistic that I felt I was part of it. Please watch this movie and feel the greatness of Asian Cinema. It is also a tearjerker!!!! This can be a very sad film as well. I doubt if I've ever watched this without a few tears in my eyes at certain points. PS: I would like to recommend this to every movie buff who admire Asian Cinema."In this life, it's not what you hope for, it's not what you deserve -- it's what you take." Thank you

(MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS) Arguably, extreme violence – or ultra-violence as Burguess would put it - has been one the most prominent traits of Korean cinema in the last decade, to the point that for many mainstream cinema-goers, it came to define it. The worldwide success and broad critical acclaim of Park Chan-wook revenge flicks, filled with gore and stylised perversity overshadowed the diversity of one of the most productive and inventive national film industries to create a stereotypical sub-genre: the extreme Korean thriller. Thematically, Breathless does not seem to disappoint the viewer's expectation: from the opening frame to the last scene, the film is relentlessly violent – but its depiction and meaning could not be more remote to Park Chan-wook's universe. Yang-Ik Jook, the director who also displays an impressive intensity in the leading role of his first feature, opts for a naturalistic approach to filming – all close-ups, simple shots and hand-held camera – light years from the complicated, westernised, post-Fight Club aesthetic of Park's vengeance trilogy. The epitome of Park Chan-Wook's visual style when dealing with violence can be found in Old Boy, with the infamous brawl in the jail corridor, where the lone hero overcomes one by one all his attackers in a virtuoso tracking-shot directly inspired by the beat-'em-up video games. Violence here is unreal: "just fun" - like in a Tarantino movie. In contrast, Sang- hoon, the main protagonist of Breathless, a debt collector spending his days beating to a pulp every single human being in sight, doesn't even know what a Playstation is (which he actually calls a "Play-shit"), until he agrees to buy one to his nephew, in a rare display of kindness. In a film saturated with symbols and totemic items (western child toys, knifes, phones, hammers), the introduction of the Playstation can be read as a departure from this insensitive, immature and virtual approach to the issue that is violence; and more specifically in Breatless' case, domestic violence. A moral tale about domestic violence and its consequences, the film reproduces the cyclical nature of child abuse. The bullied child becomes the bully; the victimised mother produces a traumatised daughter, a beating follows another beating and so on. This makes the film structurally repetitive and quite predictable, but remarkably, it also gives a forceful depth to the directors' hard-hitting argument about the responsibility that victims have in perpetuating the cycle originated by their tormentors. After an uncompromising first hour letting the viewer astonished and weary of Yang-Ik Jook shock and awe approach, the director suddenly introduces a sentimental edge to Breathless with an unexpected touching montage of the two main characters (the thug and the high school girl) taking the gangster's nephew to the fair, where he can, at last, be a child again. This passage, with its cheesy oriental music, is very reminiscent of Takeshi's Kitano similarly tender moments in his romantic gangster chronicles. This is also the only time, along with another pivotal twist taking place later on in the film (the father's suicide attempt), that Yang-Ik Jook uses mood music – the rest of the soundtrack containing only diegetic sounds of incessant kicking, punching, slapping and screaming noises, which provide, like a percussion set, the internal rhythm of the film.Littered with more swear words than a vintage Scorsese epic, Breathless, whose original title Ddjongpari could be translated "fly-shit", is also a study of the social alienation that comes with the lack of education that often originates in the trauma of child abuse: its main characters don't have the words to express their frustrations but only their fists and can only mimic what they have witnessed. Even marks of affections are sent through play-fighting (Sang-Hoon and his nephew) or verbal abuse (Sang-Hoon and the adolescent girl he calls "crazy bitch"). School education is regarded as important by all characters (the wannabe gangsters are always asked if they graduated from high-school by the mob boss) but remains a vacuous, distant, superficial dream, alien to their world of poverty and violence. The ending works superbly in a series of symmetrical narrative motifs, leaving room for hope as seen in the concluding flash-forward. The transformation of Sang-hoon is brutally quick, but remains believable. A martyr of child abuse, his will to change his ways and break the cycle will eventually kill him but save his family. It is a powerful conclusion to an overly brutal film that leave bruises like a punch in the face, but also handles its gentle moments with a disarming sincerity.More film reviews at ggendron.wordpress.com