Let's be realistic.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

How sad is this?

Absolutely Fantastic

The fights are pretty much what I enjoyed in Soo. Raw, brutal fight using baseball bat, knives and metal pipes. This fights looks like they're not acting at all, it's a brawl out with chocking, eye-piercing, ducking, rolling, etc etc. Like Chaser, Bittersweet and Oldboy, I can only put the fight to be very realistic, imo.The rest are just bad and close to decent. I didn't try to scrutinize the story when I realized the plot holes keep getting bigger and bigger, enabling me to enjoy the movie.The revenge story is nothing new but the progress isn't noteworthy at all, not enjoyable really. Male lead is just bland as vanilla, female lead was given the ridiculous role of making advances to the male lead which she sees as a replacement. And the male lead just 'accepts' it, despite being seen as an image and not as himself. This scripted part just annoys me.The ending is just terrible and confusing. despite being sliced up pretty badly, the hero still managed to walk away from the bloodbath. Why did the female lead started shooting? And all of the sudden she started weeping, as scripted as that can be.The movie didn't end beautifully or epicly, just at some dark dirty corner! Soo is a sadly mediocre compared to other revenge tales like Sympathy from Lady Vengeance, Oldboy, Bittersweet Life and Chaser. If you like a good fight though, go ahead!

The idea of the film is nice, but it's only good until the one brother dies. We also get some well shot cut-back scenes on how the brothers were separated in the first quarter of the film. Although some would call these scenes pathetic the don't fail to attract. But when the vengeance story starts the film gets bad. The reason is simple: logic leaves the story. The reaction of the dead brother's wife may be perhaps plausible for Koreans, they seem strange in European eyes. But OK, watching a film from a culture I am not really familiar with makes me overlook that problem. What I am really complaining about are major plot holes and a very unrealistic amount of injuries the main character can take without being really affected from them: After he is hit with baseball bats (among other things), subbed several times and shot at he can still walk and fight on. It also annoys me that in every fight scene the hero is almost always attacked only by one opponent. That's not the way gang thugs would do it.------SPOILER AHEAD------------------These are some of the plot holes: 1. How did the mobsters find out that the carpenter revealed the name of the firm? ( *assuming* he had to die for this betrayal) 2. Was knowing the firm's name plus the meager tip from the guy at the rooftop enough to really find out the mobster's location? We see how the female lead puts the facts together with a map, but what did your hero do? 4.Why does the hero return to the carpenter? What did he still want from him? 5 How did the police find out that the dead brother was involved with the mobsters ? 6. Where did the mountain climbing equipment for rappelling from the roof near the end of the film suddenly come from ?

This movie is a total waste of time. it tries so hard to be dramatic in action and romantic sense but ended up stupid. the dialogs and the acts are just senseless. I don't know if that's the way Korean speak or it's just the moronic script. I guess it's the latter.Then the Soo who is supposedly a professional killer turns out to be just a mindless freak who can't die after numerous stabs and shots. no well-planned attack? always prefer choking than using his knife and letting himself got stabbed from behind? Even I could fight better when I was in junior high gang. Professional killer my ass. And what's with the annoying girl? The only good thing is he knows how to effectively stop downward cut from his opponents which is by locking the movement of the down-swinging upper arm. while the rest are just stupid. Whatever you do, don't watch this movie!

I like Korean movies in general. They have a certain style to them, but they also have some mannerisms, that are new (maybe even alien) to me, but are always great to watch. One of those things, is the violence that is portrayed in a gritty way. Not stylized and most of the time it doesn't even look like it's choreographed, but this raw power/energy has a vibe that translates great onto the big screen, like in this case.The problem here though is the story. It's a shame, because it could be a real great movie (especially with that showdown/ending), but it misses out on some points (at least for my taste). It makes for a nice viewing then, but never achieves grand status (in my book)