Lack of good storyline.

Brilliant and touching

Awesome Movie

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Any film which starts with a train sequence promises high doses of adrenaline rush.South Korean director Lee Chang Dong made wise use of a passenger train for his début film 'Green Fish' which depicts the tumultuous life of a young man who was forced to pay a heavy price in the form of a sacrifice partially due to his family's constant bickering.Not only is the hero a fledgling struggling to gain some foothold in a hostile environment with other gangsters,the milieu of south Korean also appears to be weak and subdued if one compares it with Japanese or Chinese criminals.Green Fish is also effective as the brutal portrayal of the lives of poor people who eke out a miserable existence close to high rise apartments.Although 'Green Fish' is full of funny sequences,one particular sequence would be remembered for a long time.It involves the hero's interaction with some corrupt policemen who cheat his brother thereby forcing him to lose his money. This sequence makes us all learn that one cannot expect even an ounce of honesty from a corrupt,dishonest person.

I purchased this movie after reading some of the very positive reviews found on this site but what a disappointment it was. It is not that the film is terribly bad, it's simply one of the many stories focused on innocent people entering the gangster world and their struggle to remain true to themselves and what they stand for in life.GREEN FISH, just simply is not very unique or particularly moving. Yes, there are a few subplots and themes that make you want to follow the story and promise it to be an interesting one, but somehow, I feel the narrative does not gather the strength that it could have achieved to make it a remarkable story. At this stage and age it is very difficult to exploit the exploited, and a simple change of setting does not work miracles. If there is something that works well for the film, it must be the character insight, however, this does not make up for all of its weaknesses. In all, not a bad movie but I would not really recommend it as enthusiastically as others have done. Korean cinema has much higher quality representatives than this one.

During his train ride back home after his term in the army has ended, Makdong decides to get some fresh air by hanging his head out of one of the train's open entrances. As he does this he notices a lovely woman doing the same. As the woman glances at him, her red scarf comes loose and lands on Makdong's face. Wanting to return the scarf, Makdong discovers that the woman is being harassed by three hoodlums. His interceding allows the woman to get away, but Makdong receives a beating for his efforts. It seems at first Makdong is going to let this slide, but when the three men get off the train, the young former soldier follows and cracks one of the three on back of the head with an award he received from the army.Makdong eventually returns to his widowed mother's home where she resides with his physically disabled older brother. Before his father died, the family home had been well kept. However, the following years had been unkind, so the house fell into disrepair. Makdong soon learns that his mother does housekeeping work to keep herself afloat. Makdong dislikes this and tells his mother to cease working as a housekeeper. He goes on to say that he will earn lots of money to take care of her. These are big words for someone without a job.Makdong's two other older brothers are not in much better shape. One sells eggs for a living and the other is a cuckolded police officer. Things seem to be going nowhere for our hero until he encounters Miae, the woman from the train, in a nightclub. It turns out that Miae is the, unwilling, girlfriend of Bae Taegon a high ranking member of the Korean mafia. Bae is impressed by Makdong's willingness to fight and later in the film, after Makdong clubs one of Bae's men on the head with a wooden post, the former soldier becomes a member of Bae's "family." _Green Fish_ is an interesting film. It has its moments of family tenderness and heartbreak and is also peppered throughout with gang violence. One of the most interesting relationships within the film is the one shared between Miae and Bae. Although Bae continuously tells Miae that he loves her, it seems that she is little more than a tool for him to use, meaning that she sleeps with whomever Bae tells her to. In one of the saddest parts of the film, Miae asks Makdong If he wants to sleep with her. She says it is okay if he wants to; everyone else has slept with her.

I see this as a film about how hard it is to do the right thing in the complex modern world. Makdong's family used to own acres of farmland that are now covered in ugly apartment buildings and now they get by selling eggs to the residents. All Makdong wants to do is make this easier for his family and in the process he becomes a gangster just to get by. Even the gangsters are between doing the right thing and doing what they must to survive. Makdong's "Big Brother" likes to think of himself as different from the other thieves and killers that make up the underworld but in the end he is no better.