A Man Who Went to Mars (Hwaseongeuro gan sanai / 화성으로 간 사나이 -2003)

Starring:
Hee-seon Kim - So-hie
Ha-kyun Shin - Seung-jae
So-hyeon Park - Seon-mi
In-kwon Kim - Ho-geol
Jae-yong Lee - Sueng-jae's Father
Geum-ju Lee - Seung-jae's Mother
Deok-hyeon Jo - So-hie's Father
Won-jong Lee
Gyu-su Jeong
Min-jun Kim - Sung-ho

Little Seung-jae stays up all night and writes letters to So-hee, pretending to be her father in Mars. Leaving Seung-jae's innocent heart behind, So-hee leaves for a big city. Both grown up to be adults, Seung-jae is a postman who writes letters to So-hee's grandma - the letters that never came from So-hee. So-hee's heart hardens after hardships in life and she comes back to her hometown and Seung-jae's heart swells up again at seeing her again...

Hmm? The synopsis of the movie drew me in. I thought I hit the jackpot to another good Korean romance. Okay, I prepared myself for the end....because they always go bad.

Well, I didn't disappoint myself. The ending left me dazed and confused. What the hell? Did he kill himself? Did he run away? What the.....??

He had a girl who loved him in his hometown but he didn't love her since his heart is all for So Hee. Okay. I get that. So Hee loves him when they were children but as an adult when crap happens she's by his side for comfort. But is it love? Hell if I know. She hurt him. He still leaves his heart open for her.

I don't know the ending is what really through me off. It was really going good. The story at the beginning was quite unique. It actually started off as a good plot to get the movie spiralling onward. But damn if it didn't piss me off to no end when it finished.

If you watch this, someone tell me your explanation to the end so I don't spend my days trying to beat my head open figuring it out. I don't like loose ends and open endings. The End means...THE END. Not maybe............

My Brother (Uri hyeong /우리형 -2004)

Starring:
Ha-kyun Shin ... Sung-hyun
Bin Won ... Jong-hyun
Hae-suk Kim ... Mother
Bo-young Lee ... Mi-ryeong
Jeong-tae Kim
Tae-wook Kim
Jin-ung Jo

The story is narrated by the younger brother of a cleft-lipped boy, who is the runt of the family and thus gets all the attention from his doting mother. The boys’ father left them because of his son’s disfigurement, and shortly after that, the mother discovered she was pregnant (with the narrator).

The father leaves little behind - except an old camera. The show begins and ends with that camera. As the boys grow up, there is rivalry for a girl, and the older son’s heart is broken as his brother plagiarises his love poetry for her, and ends up going out with her instead. Still, the older son shows love and patience to his brother, despite getting constantly abused by him. Eventually they start to get along. But there is one thing the narrator is unable to do - call his disfigured sibling ‘his brother’. His whole life has been filled with jealousy towards his older brother, and resentment towards his mother for the unequal treatment.

While the older son goes on to medical school, the narrator falls out with society, his mother, and even his brother, becoming a debt-collector. Ultimately a string of unfortunate misdeeds which he commits, comes back to haunt him, and it is finally then that he can call his cleft-lipped sibling ‘his brother’.

I'm going to start off with my review before I add the "scenery". I'm still crying my heart out. This was the most beautiful movie about siblings I've ever seen. I'd heard it was tear-jerker but I didn't realize how much so.....until now.

This movie is a definite box of Kleenex type of movie. Be prepared to weep to your hearts content.

Won Bin and Shin Ha Kyun were exceptional in their portrayal of Jung-hyun and Sung-hyun. This movie compels me to get out my stationary and write my brother and sister and tell them how much they mean to me before it's too late. Reminiscent of my life with my siblings and to others as well, this movie will throw in curve balls and make you realize how much family really means in the long run. We've all been jealous of a sibling before and probably have fought over those feelings as well. But as we get older, we either part our separate ways or bond closer together as we never did before. This movie tells that tale.

Geez, all I can do at this moment is control the over flow of tears and snot running out my nose. This movie is a must watch by all accounts and don't say I didn't warn you about the Kleenex!!

Won Bin

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Surprise Party (Seopeuraijeu/서프라이즈-2002)

Starring:
Ha-kyun Shin - Kim Jeong-woo
Yu-won Lee - Wang Ha-yeong
Supporting Cast
Min-hie Kim - Hwang Mi-ryeong
Hyeong-jin Kong - Du Hyeong
Hyo-jin Kong - In-ju
Hak-cheol Kim - Mi-ryeong's husband
Young-jin Lee
Seung-su Ryu
Yeon-ju Lee

How do you go about detaining a total stranger for 12 hours? This is what Ha-young (Lee Yo-won) has to do for her best friend, Mi-ryung (Kim Min-hee). Mi-ryung has been planning for a surprise party for her overseas boyfriend Jun-woo (Shin Ha-gyun), but her plans are stopped short when her father finds out that Jun-woo is half-Hawaiian, and forbids the party from being held. Mi-ryung is put under even greater pressure when Jun-Woo tells her that he would arrive early, and she pleads with Ha-Young to intercept Jun-Woo at the airport, and to keep him from turning up at Mi-ryung's place before she can iron things out.

Thus begins Ha-young's misadventures, as she gets herself and the intercepted Jun-woo into increasingly absurd and embarrassing situations, and only in the movies would she not have been proclaimed insane and carted off to the nearest jail cell to contemplate her actions.

However, Jun-Woo is mildly amused by the whole affair, and he finds himself won over by Ha-young's shenanigans. The duo starts to develop feelings for one another over the day, but Ha-young is constantly mindful of the fact that this is her best friend's boyfriend she is falling for. However, she cannot deny the feelings she has for Jun-woo, and it's threatening to wreck the friendship between her and Mi-ryung.

This was a cute movie. At first, it annoyed me. I was like "just tell him who you are because no person in their right mind would follow along with this stupid idea!" Finally after about 30 minutes it started making sense. I do have to say that I sort of figured it out during the middle of the movie. This wasn't a mystery movie by far so if you figure it out don't turn away because it has a sweet ending.

Again this could be considered another "fate" movie. Sometimes these types of movies go wrong....tragically. I'm happy to say this doesn't but you have to wonder if life isn't controlled by you but the strings that bind you.....................

Shin Ha Gyun

No Mercy for the Rude (Yeui-eomneun geotdeul, 예의없는것들-2006)

Starring:
Ha-kyun Shin - Killer
Ji-hye Yun
Han-wi Lee
Su-hee Go
Ye-rin Han
San Kang
Byeong-ok Kim
Eung-su Kim
Ju-ryeong Kim
Kwang-il Kim
Min-jun Kim
Tae-won Kwon
Kil-soo Park

Park Chul-Hee’s debut feature tells the story of a man who thinks he’s on a straight road but finds--too late?--that it’s actually quite bent. This is a Korean movie, so of course he’s working as a hitman, and No Mercy for the Rude seems to shape up as one more determinedly wacky ultra-violent hitman comedy to add to the ever-lengthening list. Our nameless protagonist is mute (actually he has a speech impediment and is saving up for an operation to fix it) and his two obsessions are bullfighting and seafood; his working principle is that he kills only the rude and ugly--those who deserve to die, such as goons who were fascist thugs in the martial-law 1980s.


This movie suprisingly was a very, very, very good movie. I wasn't expecting to be so moved by it. This movie with comedic and romantic undertones is overpowered by the blood from the hired assassin.

This movie was so revealing with Shin Ha Gyun having only maybe 2-3 words out of the whole movie. He is a mute assassin who was born with a small tongue and is embarrassed to talk because he talks with a lisp. So he voluntarily doesn't speak. So the whole movie he is actually "acting" and listening throughout. Oh, we do hear him talk throughout the movie because he narrates the story as we go and we hear his thoughts minus the lisp because you can't talk with a lisp in your mind.

This show isn't for the young. I was shocked to see a lot of sex scenes, revealing sex scenes at the beginning. But now that I look back on it....the story becomes more tender and revealing between the two protagonists. This was a wonderful story and yes, have some tissue at the end because it has a shocking twist at the end but I figured it out halfway through. *snickers*

Yeah, watch it. Total sleeper hit with me.

Shin Ha Gyun

Kim Min Jun

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