FRIEND (Chingu) 2001, 2009, and 2013

친구

Director - Kwak Kyung-Taek
Writer -  Kwak Kyung-Taek
Genre -  Gangpae, Reminisce
Related titles -  Friend, Our Legend | Chingoo, Woorideului Jeonseol (MBC / 2009)
                          Friend, The Great Legacy | Chingoo 2 (2013)
Release Date -  March 31, 2001

Cast

Plot

The director's experience with his real friends, a semi-autobiographical account set in Busan. The actors speak with a strong Busan dialect.
Joon-suk, son of a vigilant gang boss; Dong-su, only son of an undertaker; Sang-taek, a diligent student; and Joong-ho, who never keeps his mouth shut. They walked the streets with their heads held high, shoulders straight, and chests out, fearing nothing when they were together. Friends who share their porn magazine fantasies and awe of Bruce Lee's Kungfu. Each life takes a different turn. Joon-suk becomes the leading henchman of his father's crime ring and Dong-su is serving for Joon-suk's rival gang. Sang-taek and Joong-ho find themselves helplessly watching their two best friends wield knives at each other.   ~DramaWiki (w/edits)

Friend was nominated for five awards and won three. At the 46th Asia-Pacific Film Festival, Yu Oh-seong and Jang Dong-gun won the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor awards.

Review

Gritty, intense, and bloody account of four young men growing up in Busan back in the seventies and through approximately twenty years, when lives climax and fade away.

It is obvious why this film garnered nominations, awards, and is one of the highest watched films from Korea.

Long-running as well, with a 2009 MBC remake, Friend, Our Legend, directed by Kwak Kyung-taek, was 20-episodes for television and starred Hyun Bin as Dong-su and Kim Min-joon as Joon-seok.

This was an adaptation of the original movie and was far more bloody and indepth than the original, with greater emphasis falling back on the personal lives of all four boys, their connection to one another throughout, and their eminent demise toward the end -- except for the narrator (writer) who chose an entirely separate path from the other three.

And Friend: The Great Legacy, Director:Writer Kwak Kyung taek (again) is the 2013 sequel where Yu Oh-seong reprises his role. It takes place seventeen years after the events of the original film. In it, Joon-seok meets the grown-up son of Dong-su (Kim Woo-bin), and is interspersed with scenes of Joon-seok's own father (Joo Jin-mo) in 1963.

친구 2

Plot

Joon seok (Yu Oh-Seong) is in prison for almost 17 years now when a woman comes to the prison and requests that Joon seok protect her son from other gang members. Joon seok then takes Sung hoon under his wing in prison.

When Joon seok is released from prison, he learns that Eun ki (Jung Ho-Bin) has gotten rid of his men and now dominates the gang which Joon seok's father (Joo Jin-Mo) started. Joon seok plots to take back control.

When Sung hoon is released from prison, he works for Joon seok in a power struggle against Eun ki.



My introduction to this story came with the MBC Television remake that starred Hyun bin, which I watched three times over the years.

This is my very first viewing of the original movie (2001), and last night I finally watched the sequel that stars Kim Woo bin.

The direction that the 2001 movie and its 2013 sequel take are more obvious about who is actually behind the scenes and calling a majority of the shots (writer, director Kwak Kyung taek) since this is his story and his childhood we're watching unfold.

A lot of the original cast (those who weren't massacred in 2001, that is) returned for the 2013 sequel, which added depth and interest.

2001 is about the four boys and their lives after coming-of-age, and the 2013 sequel centers around Woo bin's character. The sequel also delves a little deeper into the life of Lee Jun seok's father, the original gangpae wizard.

Loose ends are cleared up in the 2013 version as well, but for those of you who haven't watched either yet, I can't say anything that won't end up being a spoiler, so . . .

I thought that Yu Oh seong did a terrific job in both. He's a bad ass through and through and has that look that terrifies, doesn't he?

As for our young, brash Woo bin, he's a keeper.

Like Oh seong, Woo bin has the look, and both men use their eyes to convey a whole lot, without the need of words or a loud voice to get their message across.

It's as sexy as it is terrifying, but I love it in either case because it is so compelling.

The cigarette drop toward the end of 2001 comes up again in 2013, but after having watched both movies (in a row), I still don't see or comprehend Jun seok's knowledge of what occurred as a result.

Well, I do and I don't, and maybe that has something to do with Jun seok's reaction in 2013.

I'd recommend both movies as a 'pass some time' event, but not if you're squeamish (like me) because you'll be turning away from the screen on more than one occasion.

Woo bin's performance is worth the anxiety, though.

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Baby, Baby, Baby! / ベイビィ ベイビィ ベイビィ！

2009 Japanese movie that stars Arisa Mizuki, Yuki Matsushita, Shosuke Tanihara, Naohito Fujiki (NOT!), Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Yuki Saito, Kazue Ito, and Uno Kanda.

This is the story of an upwardly mobile, young woman with a journalism career who gets pregnant by a photographer she secretly had a crush on but was not in a romantic relationship with.

A one-night stand, in other words.

He finds out about the baby and rushes back to Japan from Vietnam, where he worked as a freelance photographer.

He's really hawt (Shosuke Tanihara)! Long, thick hair he pulls back in a ponytail, with dark skin, sexy eyes, and a decent bod.




IF that's even him, though.

The Shosuke Tanihara on Google Images looks nothing like the dude playing Tetsuya in the movie,
and it also said that Naohito Fujiki starred, which was what made me watch in the first place - but even after a second viewing, I still didn't see him, so I'm beyond confused.

Anyway, Yoko (Arisa Mizuki) isn't the only one having a baby, and she meets more preggo's at a clinic who all happen to go into labor at the same time, on the same night of a full moon.

Someone at aznv.tv tried to make this out to be a poignant, reflection piece about real life.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

yeah -

The only real-life instance I could see was Yoko's attitude about her work being tantamount to and more important than anything else going on around her - including the feelings and opinion of the man desperate to become a part of a family after being orphaned so young.

The female doctor at the clinic seems like a cold fish, but then we find out she is taking care of her senile mother in a back room and she's growing increasingly jealous of and angry about the attitudes of some of her patients, who take pregnancy, romance, and family for granted while she can have none of it for herself.

There were two actresses in this movie who drove me mad and made me want to plug my ears.
One of the nurses at the clinic, and the woman who portrayed a famous actress giving birth to a married senator's child.
Both women sucked on helium balloons before speaking their lines, and it was the most annoying sound I don't ever hope to hear again.

Because Nao wasn't in this when it said he was, and because of the totally fake babies at the end of the show, who succeeded in scaring the crap out of me, I give this one 3 stars and recommend it to anyone in need of killing a few hours - maybe before a test or while waiting for snow to melt, the rain to stop, or for your boyfriend to arrive.

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24 City / Er shi si cheng ji / Shisen No Uta

A 2008 documentary from China that stars no one in particular and tells the story of a city built around a factory that ended up being torn down shortly before the massive earthquake that destroyed Chengdu.
It was a post-communist factory that sent people from the country to Chengdu to work at the factory, which is how the city ended up growing and thriving since the early 1970's.
Everyone who knew anyone from the area knew someone who worked at the factory, so when it finally stopped production, the entire city as well as the factory ended up being destroyed.
Then came the earthquake: an after-thought as far as the movie is concerned, though.
It was part documentary and part film clip, which made it and the story all the more interesting (to me).
There were frequent, pregnant pauses where we stare at vacant faces on a bus going nowhere, or watching someone walk down a dusty street - but a majority of the time, we watch the huge factory (a few, story blocks big) being torn down along with snippets of interviews by the people who live(d) there.
If you're into history like I am, and if you're curious about learning more about that part of the world and how they live, think, and behave, then you might like this movie.

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Umizaru (2004)

Sea Monkeys

In the first half of this movie, I was laughing my ass off, and in the last half, I had tears in my eyes.

This line will probably stick with me for awhile, too: "Two divers...one tank with 30 bars...40 meters underwater. What do you plan to do?"

This one, too: "I had sex with a sea monkey?"


Um ... I wish I could say that I had!!!

I watched this because it starred Ito Hideaki, whom you all know by now is my FAVORITE Japanese actor. He joins a group of coast guard rookies (14 in all) in the hopes of graduating as a search/rescue member.

So many bared BUTTS in this flick!! Niiiice!





The scenery was beautiful, especially the sunset scenes, and I'll always appreciate the way that Japanese film-makers stick to reality when making movies. It's so, NOT Hollywood, no wonder I'm addicted to these things!!

There is a sequel to Sea Monkeys, (Umizaru II, Evolution), and it stars Ito AND Toru Nakamura!!! Can't wait to watch that one, too!

Besides Ito, there were three, other hot guys in this flick, but I can't find ANY legit information on them OR Umizaru 2004! The mistakes in cyberspace can boggle the mind sometimes.


Umizari was worth watching, so rent it or watch it online, like I did.


He's so Ke Ai!

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Can't Live Without Robbery / 도둑맞곤 못살아

This was FUNNY!!!

What a refreshing change to see my love-interest in something besides a dark, dismal drama with a predictable, unhappy ending! He actually smiled a few times, too!

Robbery came out back in 2002, and I'm just now getting around to watching it thanks to Crunchyroll. I still need to see Glass Slipper, Law Firm, We Are Dating Now, Delicious Proposal, and Models.

The movie (also known as Steal it if You Can, The Thief Maker, or Dodookmatgo Motsala) stars So Ji-sub as Choi Kang-jo, a wealthy, playboy business tycoon whose hobby it is to break into people's houses for the thrill, and not to take anything of value.

Park Sang-myun as Ko Sang-tae, the unhappy and clueless husband/father who married a wealthy woman and lives in a fancy house in a deserted area of Seoul that is generally used for military practice. (Dinosaur eggs were discovered on the property, so Ko's dream of an upper-class neighborhood went up in smoke once his home was built).

Song Seon-mi as Mari, his beautiful wife who lacks taste buds, so she can't cook.

Anyway, Robbery is a good flick if you like nonsense and So Ji-sup! He targets the lone mansion outside the big city, and he succeeds in breaking in several times. He tastes Mari's food and chokes, but the unusual flavors of her pig's ear sushi intrigue him, so he sends her an email asking for another sample dish.

Ko Sang-tae meanwhile is determined to catch the burglar, so he enrolls in a Tae Kwon-do class, and that (imho) was the best part of the whole movie. There were scenes in that part that had me rotf to the point where I had to worry about my neighbors next door & below me (I live in an apartment with very, thin walls).

Yes,Asia says that their DVDs are out-of-stock and that they don't make it anymore, which is too bad. I wouldn't mind watching it again, and again on a cold, dreary night in the dead of winter, or when I'm bored, or with my mother, whom I think would enjoy Can't Live!

I said that I would watch anything that stars SO, and I didn't expect to see anything outside the ordinary when I decided to give this flick a try. I'm glad that I watched it, and I'll bet you will be, too.

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