4 out of 5

Director: Kim Ji-Woon

Tonally, ‘Bittersweet’ was very similar to ‘I Saw the Devil,’ a single-minded pursuit of a killer, a revenge story where the pursuant is troubled by their inability to understand the motivations of their prey.  ‘Devil’ took a more bent turn with things, though, which can be seen as a response to more, dare I say, romantic angle Ji-Woon adds to ‘Bittersweet.’

Here we have the same lead, Byung-hun Lee, playing Sun-woo – an enforcer for a mob boss.  We establish from our first few scenes that he’s the de facto go-to-guy for solving problems – he’s very black and white, very cut and dry, and pretty effing dangerous.  His boss tasks him with something a little unusual – to watch his girlfriend for three days.  She’s a much younger girl, and the boss is pretty sure she’s shacked up with a much younger guy.  If she has, well, ‘take care of it.’  And she is, but – the crux of so many of these types of stores – Sun-woo hesitates on taking care of it.  Why?  This is question one.  But he does keep his reason in that he understands he still has to solve things, so does a pretty convincing job of making it clear that she can’t be hangin’ around her age-appropriate beau anymore, or even see him, or even acknowledge his existence.  Alas, the boss figures most of this out, and though Asian mobs vs. the American version definitely have their cultural differences, one core thing remains the same: you can’t disobey family.  So let’s put a hit out on Sun-woo.  And though we get this in that abstract “I’ve never been in a mob but the movies explain how it is to me” kinda way, the torturous and prolonged method with which Sun-woo is forced to face his mistake cause him, and us, to question Why? again.

Ji-Woon keeps a lot of this vague for most of the picture.  It is expertly shot, and some of the battle scenes are brilliant for their realism.  We believe in Sun-woo’s abilities (though Byung-hun Lee is a good common cast member for Ji-Woon, always bringing an element of dedication to his parts) and can similarly believe in his one misstep, thanks to well-placed moments of this contemplative enforcer sitting alone in his apartment, just staring at the ceiling, drinking, turning the light on and off.  As was the case with ‘Devil,’ for better or worse, the feelings are left so much in our hands that you’re not glued to the screen out of any complicit film-need – you’re watching because you are interested in a well-told, very well-made story, with good characters and good actors, but there’s not a sense of thrill or adventure, really – just that this is playing out in front of you and it’s your choice whether or not to watch.  By the same token, the drive of things is much more focused here than it was in ‘Devil,’ and the last few moments of the film (which give us some reasons for both ‘Why’ questions, but still manage to leave how we interpret those reasons up in the air) are a beautiful combination of violence and reactions to violence, following threads to their logical conclusions… but, and this is stupid, but, an after-credits shot of the film title in Italian, which is cleverly used in the background of the climactic scene and then… not cleverly used here… sort of dumbed things down one gibble for me.  It’s not the only reason, as maybe supported above, but the end scene was what I want from thinking-man actiony film endings – not just a battle but an attempt to reflect on what’s come before – and if I hadn’t watched the credits fully (which I only do when the film has convinced me to sit and do that reflecting), I would’ve been all set to extoll the awesome virtues of the flick.

I said it was stupid.

Anyhow, lastly, Kim uses a different d.p. here – Kim Ji-yong – than he has for some of his other main flicks – The Good The Bad, Devil, Two Sisters (Lee Mo-gae)… and it’s a wise decision, as Mo-gae’s look is to have very warm, very blown-out colors.  This tips the movies onto a surreal edge, which worked for and against Devil.  Kim Ji-yong seemed to lean toward a fleshier palette, and the scope of the shots seemed bigger in general.  Color was also withheld, mostly, except for the last sequence, all of these decisions helping to weigh Bittersweet down appropriately into a more realistic world than the ones lensed by Mo-gae (or whatever the term is… d.p., cinematographer, I don’t know.  I just read wiki pages.).