Am I Missing Something?

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

One of the great qualities about many Korean filmmakers is their ability to reinvent Hollywood genres. Drawing upon the intellectual and moral sensibilities of their own culture, they transform genres that in America traditionally consist of incredibly simple-minded narratives into something far more human, complex and literary. In the film "Crying Fist," it is the boxing movie genre that is wonderfully reinvented. Rather than presenting the audience with gratuitous action scenes involving a hero and a villain--as American audiences are so used to seeing--"Crying Fist" carefully and sympathetically develops the lives of both fighters. In the end, we are left with not only empathy for both fighters but a thoughtful drama that seeks to deepen our insight into the human condition.

This is a emotional and uplifting film that revolves around two characters. They both have separate stories but they come down to one goal at the end. And both fighting for different reasons. One of the main aspect that stands out about this movie is how it shows the two protagonist being pitiful and despicable. And as the movie progresses you get to know more about both characters and they become likable or at least sort of understandable of why they are the way they are. One main gripe I have is how the movie moves along in a way where the relationships and bonding isn't really clarified sometimes, it just happens. Which makes it seem like the movie is missing few scenes or just not well developed. Also if there was at least some connection between the two characters besides them both hitting rock bottom it would have been better. Especially when they both face each other in the ring. What is really hard to watch is how you care for both characters one maybe slightly more than the other...But the point is you want both of them to win, but only one can come out winning.7.5/10

Another day, another Corean film, but another good one. This one is a boxing movie. But it's not really a boxing movie in the sense that Rocky is a boxing movie. It's rather a drama foremost, about down-and-out losers and their sad pathetic lives, and then a boxing movie: boxing being the means by which they can lift themselves out of their conditions.The two characters are quite different in some sense, one being a former silver medal winning Asian Games champion with no job and on the brink of losing his marriage and family and the other being a troubled street youth with a compassionate family. At some point, both characters lose out and find their hope in boxing, whether on the streets as a human sandbag or in the prison gym. And then a greater hope is found.Of course, unlike a typical boxing movie, you have two protagonists and when their paths cross, you don't know who to root for. Both are sad sacks and hard to love people, but have enough humanity still in them that you can't help but wish for them to make it in the end. But... the movie brings up the strange conflict of... who? All the same, that sort of conflict is fairly realistic in any one vs. one story when you think about it. There's hardly a truly villainous villain like the villain of Rocky IV.The film is shot in two different styles, for each characters stories, although they're tied together well by overarching style elements and the characters are fairly well developed and superbly acted. I will admit that the younger character's story is a little incredulous sometimes and a small bit contrived for extra sympathy, but the movie is generally so watchable overall that I was able to ignore it. With mostly solid writing, great acting, excellent direction and high production value, I'd have to say that Crying Fist has turned out to be one of my favorite boxing films and possibly even sports film. Which isn't to say it's one of my favorite films.Some of the contrivances are still glaring, and it's hard to fully ignore, but all the same, this is a solid effort and a film that I could recommend highly. Good stuff! 8/10.

There was a lot to like in this movie, particularly some strong acting on the part of the two leads Ryu Seung-beom and Choi Min-suk (of Oldboy fame), and an unusually bleak tone throughout. I gave it some credit for going beyond the good boxer / bad boxer stereotype that seems to come up in a lot of boxing movies, and for making the leads somewhat human in their foibles.Ultimately, though, it didn't really seem to add much to the genre. It was a little original in showing the two boxers as equally desperate sad sacks, but beyond that, the melodrama in the third act seemed like it could have come out of any number of boxing films over the years, and there wasn't quite enough non-melodramatic elements to interest me.***SPOILERS*** Really, if you have to drag one character's grandmother out of the hospital and have another character's estranged son run away to watch the final match, you know something has gone badly wrong with your character arc, right? By the time the audience has sat through hours of backstory and training montages to get to the third act, they should already care enough about these characters that their emotions don't need to be manipulated by cheap tricks like these.***END SPOILERS*** Overall, I don't think it's a bad film, and I imagine fans of the boxing genre will find it refreshing (I'm not one). For casual viewers, I don't find much in Crying Fist to recommend it over any number of other excellent films.