Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Beautiful, moving film.

Am I Missing Something?

Blistering performances.

Having read all the bad reviews, somehow I was still too curious to resist watching this movie. Starting full of "ready-to-forgive-the- shortcomings" expectations I soon found myself spellbound by a beautiful piece of powerful on-screen poetry. This movie impressed me as profoundly as I have not been impressed by a film for a long time.I do understand, however, that it received so much criticism, because it is a piece that went too far ahead of its time, and so it does not easily find its proper audience simply because, most of the people watching it are not, themselves, that far ahead, and so do not actually understand what they see and why. Strong emotions and values may seem fake to a jaded viewer, yet they are basic to man, and without them, we would not survive. I loved this movie because it is moving, beautiful, and because watching it made me feel more alive.

"Bichunmoo" is a love story between "Jinha", a lowly son of a Korean migrant worker, and "Sullie", the daughter of a Mongolian leader's concubine. Sullie's father has designs for her to marry "up" in class, and tries to kill Jinha, as the description on the DVD goes, "for his Bichun (Bitchin'?) Secret Arts".It's an uninteresting Romeo and Juliette tale, the two "star-cross'd" lovers of different families and classes, who are destined for only one night together, before being torn apart.This is a Korean movie attempting the Chinese "wuxia" (fantasy swordplay) genre, but it's not done well. It does not approach the level of other recent films of the genre such as Crouching Tiger, Hero, Seven Swords. It feels like the producers are merely trying to cash in on the recent popularity and rise of the genre.The DVD claims that it is the "highest budget in Koren film history".. I find this very hard to believe considering the average acting, average costuming and below average props... I laughed out loud at one of the huge swords in a fight near a river... it looked like a plastic child's toy! I found the many of the fight scenes too fast and too visually confusing to enjoy. I noticed some reviewers loved the musical score. I thought it was terrible, maybe I was influenced by the cheesy 80's electric guitar that accompanied some of the action scenes...I'm a huge fan of kung fu/martial arts genre but this one really missed the mark. I do not recommend it.

This film was probably one of the best Asian movies that I have seen. Bearing in mind the low budget, this film was spectacularly visual and excellently laid out. The plot has depth and style, and you know from the first scenes that this is an enchanting film with great actors and superb martial arts moves. Standing on the verge of fantasy, the film is beautifully tragic and not one scene in the film is inconceivable.I recommend that it is watched in it's original language (Korean), with English subtitles, the dubs are not at all effective and the Korean dialogue gives the movie a whole new tone.Definitely worth watching, a superb cinematic work.

This is one of my favorite movies. The musical score is superb(where can I get it)and the characters are fantastic.The only shortcomings with the film were the scenes deleted from the 2 hour version I saw which would explain the gaps in the story line more fully. LIke how did the main character Jinha get a band of ten assassins?How did he come upon the name Jahalong.Who were and where did some of the enemy characters fit in to the story. Where did the other love interest (unrequited) come from? Aside from this I love this film. JInha himself is not your typical hero character in appearance. Sullie the heroine is beautiful and the other characters are great. It would interesting to find out from which films got ideas from this film.