The Big Scene (Baksu-chiltae deonara/박수칠때 떠나라 -2005)

Starring:

Seung-won Cha - Choi Yeon-gi
Yeong-nam Jang
Dong-hwan Jeong
Gyu-su Jeong
Jae-yeong Jeong - Bully
Ji-su Kim ... Jung Yun-jung
Hyeong-gwon Lee
Jeong-ah Park - Han Mu-suk
Goo Shin
Ha-kyun Shin - Kim Young-hun
Han-wi Lee
Seung-yong Ryoo

In a posh hotel room, the body of a beautiful woman, a high-ranking employee of an advertising firm, is found in a pool of blood. The police quickly nab the most obvious suspect near the scene, a young man clutching a canister of gasoline. What initially seems like an open-and-shut case for hard-as-nails prosecutor Choi and his team quickly unravels – not only does the suspect, Kim, refuse to confess and moreover pass a lie-detector test, other suspects with very strong motives for the crime start to surface. And then there’s the highly unorthodox new television program that attaches itself to the investigation, broadcasting every development in real time across Korea, putting even greater pressure on Choi and his crew of quirky colleagues. As the hours slip by, the autopsy reveals startling new evidence, witnesses provide complicating testimony and lack of sleep takes its toll on the investigators as internal tensions begin to mount. Then matters take a turn for the weird when the TV producers bring in a spiritualist and her daughter to summon the victim’s ghost…

Okay, this was a totally wigged out movie. I didn't expect this to be like Real World/24/CSI/Law and Order. LOL!

This was a criminal investigation that was live broadcast all over the station to the people in Korea or Seoul or wherever they may be. It was just weird because they even had the producers script the real suspects and everything. Weird. Totally different in every genre I can think of.

Surprisingly enough this was a murder mystery that Sherlock Holmes would have thought was psychotic. LOL! And the end, let's just say I was bumfuzzled and everything. So confused. Okay, we know who stabbed her...but her brother...well, WTF? Was he innocent or not. I'm confused still......Aaaaaaagh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Someone Special (Aneun yeoja/아는 여자 -2004)

Starring:
Jae-yeong Jeong ... Dong Chi-seong
Na-yeong Lee ... Han Yi-yeon
Yeong-nam Jang
Gyu-su Jeong
Hye-na Kim
Seung-hyeon Oh
Mi-suk Park
Ha-ryong Lim
Il-hwa Choi
Min-jung Lee

Despite having dated a number of women, professional baseball player DONG Chi-sung has never had a first love. "I always think it's love, but sooner or later I find out it's not..." Sure enough, his latest girlfriend dumps him, and then on the same day, he goes to the doctor and finds out he has a malignant tumor, with only three months to live. It's September now, so he won't even live to see the new year. With his mind in a tailspin, he goes to a friend's bar to drink away his pain.

Not a heavy drinker by habit, Chi-sung passes out, and wakes up to find himself in a hotel room with the bartender, a rather quirky woman he's mostly ignored until now. "How did I get here?" he asks her in confusion, and she tells him she folded him up and carried him in a box. Then she starts telling him about how he acts when he's drunk, before leaving him alone in the hotel room. What a strange woman...

The next day he goes to baseball practice, completely unable to concentrate. Formerly a successful pitcher in university, he was moved to the outfield after a shoulder injury, and then demoted to the minor leagues. On his way home, he hears an oddly familiar story being told on a radio program devoted to "confessional love stories." Someone calling herself "Writing Princess" is talking about carrying a man in a box to a hotel room, and talking to him there. What kind of woman is this, anyway?...

HAN Yi-yeon works part time in a bar and at a coffee shop, and listens to radio programs as a hobby. Ten years earlier, a young student in a baseball uniform moved into her neighborhood, and from that day on she has slowly fallen in love with him from afar. But she had never found the opportunity to talk to him, until the night when he came alone into the bar where she works. She is shocked to see him start crying, and then after just three drinks he passes out.

Without much choice she takes him to a nearby hotel and looks after him there. Seeing him sleep so peacefully, she just wants to stay together with him for as long as she can. But when he wakes up, all the words she wants to say get stuck in her throat, and all she can do is tell him that he's a well-behaved drunk. Frustrated and embarrassed, she leaves him there and goes back home. She decides to send a postcard -- or five -- to her favorite radio programs...

Although Chi-sung angrily confronts Yi-yeon about the "radio incident," it provides her with an opportunity. One radio station sends her a free mobile phone as a gift... Chi-sung has recently lost his, so she stops by his home to give it to him. Another radio station sends her free movie tickets, so she takes him along. While at the theater, Chi-sung runs into his old girlfriend and describes Yi-yeon as "just a woman I know." Is that all?! Is there any way that she can become "someone special" to him?...




This was a good movie. Not great. Sort of boring in parts. The script was a little haggard. I think the premise was a smart one...too bad it couldn't have been written better.

The actor Jeong Jae Yeong, I don't think, was right for this part. He is more of a tough, action guy. This sort of seemed out of his realm....romantic comedies, that is. I'm not saying he's a bad actor but this wasn't his part even though he looked pretty darn good in a baseball players uniform. LOL!

If you have nothing better to do, you might give this a try. Someone I'm sure might like it better than me. This just wasn't what I was in the mood for........

Guns & Talks (Killerdeului suda~2001)

Starring:
Shin Hyun-Joon~Sang-yeon
Shin Ha-Gyoon~Jung-woo
Jeong Jae-Young~Jae-young
Won Bin~Ha-yeon

"Guns & Talks" revolves around four young professional killers. Sang-yeon (Shin Hyun-joon of "The Siren") is the leader, Jung-woo (Shin Ha-gyoon of "Joint Security Area") is the demolitions expert, Jae-young (Jeong Jae-young of "Ghost Taxi") is the resident sniper, while Sang-yeon's younger brother Ha-yeon (Won Bin) eagerly awaits the day when he is allowed to carry a gun. The foursome work out of their shared house, and their claim to fame is following the wishes of their clients down to the very last detail-if the client only wants someone's left hand blown off, they will do it, no questions asked.

Despite their cold-blooded work, they are actually quite harmless and congenial when they are not being assassins. In addition, for all things not work-related, they are pretty dense (one telltale scene has the quartet misinterpreting the English warning "I will never miss you" as "I am never Miss Yu"). This, of course, in addition to contributing to their charm, leads to some absurd situations. They find themselves harassed by a high-school girl who knows their true identity and insists that they kill someone who broke her heart-- Ha-yeon eventually falls for her. Jae-young is given the distasteful task of killing a pregnant woman, though he finds himself incapable of going through with it when he begins falling in love with his intended target. Meanwhile, Sang-yeon accepts a risky job from a pretty television anchorwoman (Ko Eun-mi) whom they all worship. And if things weren't complicated enough, a public prosecutor named Cho (Jeong Jin-young of "Ring Virus") is hot on their trail for the assassination of a witness.


How do I put this? Let me count the ways. This movie was bad-ass. Sugoi! Awesome. One of the top films I've seen so far. Definitely a top three. Sheesh, I highly recommend this to everyone. It's not gory. Just enough comedy, humanism, drama to keep anyone interested. Hell, if that don't get you....Won Bin is in it. Damn! I love, love, loved this movie.

Won Bin


Shin Ha-gyun