Never to Lose (Kangryeok 3Ban / 강력 3반 -2006)

Starring:
Jun-ho Heo - Mun Bong-soo
Hang-Seon Jang - Yuk Chul-gu
Min-jun Kim - Kim Hong-joo
Tae-wook Kim - Oh Jae-chul
Sang-mi Nam - Lee Hye-ryung
Sang-Myeon Park
Hae-jin Yu
Ji-hye Yun - Tae-hee Kim
Eung-su Kim
Jeong-tae Kim - Jae-chil Oh
Sung-ha Cho
Tae-yeong Yun - Tae-do Seo
Nae-sang Ahn - Sil-jang Park

“Never to Lose” concerns the men of Homicide Unit 3, who are in dire straits at the moment. While Unit 3’s cops are full of ambition and talent, they never seem to crack a case. The team is comprised of Detective Koh, a 15 year veteran, Detective Kim (Min-jun Kim), a rookie eager to make a name for himself, Detective Koh, a married man who spends more time on the job than with his wife, and Detective Ryung ( Sang-mi Nam ), who can’t get taken seriously by her peers because she’s a woman. While at a party with his girlfriend, Kim happens upon information about a drug deal that could get the team the respect they’ve been looking for. But what the team gets into turns out to be not just a big drug bust, but a case that makes Homicide Unit 3 the target of the largest drug lord in Korea .



This movie was a freakin' riot. I really liked it. It wasn't a blockbuster but it kept me on my toes and it was fun. Okay, I'll admit Kim Min Jun was freakin' hot!

I'll admit there were a few scenes that were funny but I don't think was really supposed to be a comedy. Okay, I cried when one particular cop was killed. I couldn't believe it. I think it was the quote that he said that made my heart hurt.

I did think that a romance was supposed to have evolved between two particular cops but I think they didn't want to make this movie into something like that. So the romance was on the downlow. Which was okay. But I was hoping.................

The movie had a great start, good middle, and a rewarding ending. So this movie wasn't half bad.

Kim Min Jun

Small Town Rivals (Yijang-gwa gunsu / 이장과 군수 -2006)

Starring:
Seung-won Cha
Hae-jin Yu
Hie-bong Byeon
Jeong-won Choi
Won-ju Jeon
Eung-su Kim

“Small Town Rivals” is the latest offering from director Jang Gyoo Seung, who previously scored commercial hits with the likes of “Lovely Rivals” and “My Teacher, Mr. Kim”. He continues here in the same broad vein with a comedy about one of the most popular subjects in modern Korean cinema, namely small town life. The film proved to be yet another success for the in-form Jang, performing well at the box office and winning a nomination for Best Screenplay at the 44th Daejong Awards.

The film begins with small town farmer Cho Choon Sam (Cha Seung Won, who played the title role in Jang’s “My Teacher, Mr. Kim” and who recently featured in “My Son”) being made village chief, mainly since nobody else wants to do the job. However, the lazy man is spurred into action when a former classmate of his called Noh Dae Gyu (Yu Hae Jin, also in the excellent “Tazza: The High Rollers”) is elected local magistrate, stirring up old feelings of jealousy. Although things start in a friendly enough fashion the two soon run into trouble, with Choon Sam trying to make his mark by preventing Dae Gyu’s plans to build a nuclear waste disposal facility nearby. Needless to say, things spiral rapidly out of control, leading to a number of crazy and increasingly high stakes confrontations. -- Beyond Hollywood



LOL! This was a really cute movie at the beginning. I've never really known Cha Seung Won to be that hilarious. He was actually a riot. So his comedic talent is a given. So used to seeing him in parts as a tough guy, mob gang member, rejected member of society. Quite refreshing.

This movie started as a competition of two old school mates who are jealous of the other but then as the movie progressed, the whole movie turned and did a 180. It was still funny at times but really got serious and it started to lose it's appeal. And the story started to crack away to the point of not making much sense to me.

All of a sudden, two rivals came out to be two best friends from school. I didn't get that. I understand competition between friends but it seemed the movie had to add more past scenes to make the two of them believable as best friends. That's all fine and dandy but then that made the first part of the movie a lie...joke. They either hate each other and then become friends. Or they are friends who start to hate each other.

I won't say it wasn't funny. It was hilarious at times and quite unique in it's own way. I just like a story to keep on track instead of taking the next rail unless there is another train coming..............

Tazza: The High Rollers (타짜/Tajja -2006)

Starring:
Seung-woo Cho ... Go-ni
Yun-shik Baek ... Pyung Gyung-jang
Hye-su Kim ... Madam Jung
Dong-hun Choi
Jong-ryol Choi
Yeong-min Ha
Sang-geon Jo
Jin-mo Ju
In-gi Jeong
Eung-su Kim ... Kwak
Jeong-nan Kim ... Se-ran
Kang-woo Kim
Kwang-gyu Kim
Kyeong-ik Kim
Sang-ho Kim
Yun-seok Kim
Tae-won Kwon
Jae-gu Lee
Su-kyeong Lee ... Hwa-ran
Jeong-eun Lim
Hae-jin Yu

Tazza: The High Rollers is director Dong-Hun Choi's glitzy, fast-paced spin on a popular comic book about Korea's gambling subculture and its assorted denizens, replete with an innocent all too eager to be corrupted, his wise mentor and the no-good woman whose main occupation is betrayal. All the familiar pieces are there but the filmmaker upends them, refreshing the conventions of crime/con films and turning his material into something of an epic journey where everyone appears to be interconnected. Tazza kicks off with a creative and virtuosic use of split-screen to showcase a game of hwatu, a card-playing session. In this tour-de-force sequence, the overlapping images are shuffled breathlessly like a deck of cards. The young hero, Goni, loses his money to a tazza, a high roller, and throws himself into a search of gambling dens to find the player who took his money. Along the way he meets the veteran tazza, Pyoung, who teaches him the tricks of the trade, and the formidable Madam Jung (the fabulous, scene-stealing Kim Hae Soo), a classic femme fatale who lures foolish men into losing games. In keeping with the material, the film looks like it's been backlit with neon, a touch that contrasts brilliantly with occasional monochromatic imagery.



That was a pretty good movie. I wasn't really going to watch it but Cho Seung Woo was cast as the lead and damn if he didn't impress me in the Classic and Marathon. So I broke down even though the synopsis wasn't my thing.

I was pleasantly surprised and amazed at how smooth and well the movie flowed. I love me a good Texas Hold'em so the game they played sort of reminded me of it. Maybe it's the same thing. Not sure.

It was really hard to see Seung-woo cast as a tough and rugged kind of guy since all the movies I've seen him in have been sweet and innocent characters. And dang if he didn't look good. I really like this guy. He's an amazing actor with major abilities in changing his character. Marathon was probably the best because playing an autistic person has got to be emotionally draining to do.

This was a fun movie. Oh, and hey......he was naked! Great butt shots. LOL!

Cho Seung Woo


Ju Jin Mo

Please Teach Me English (영어완전정복/Yeongeo wanjeonjeongbok-2003)

Starring:
Na-yeong Lee - Na, Yeong-ju
Hyuk Jang - Park, Moon-su
Supporting Cast
Angela Kelly - Catherine
In-mun Kim - Yeong-ju's grandfather
Mun-hee Na - Moon-su's mother
Seok-yong Jeong
Jae-hyeong Jeon
Doo-hong Jung
Beom-su Lee - Passenger on the subway
Hae-jin Yu
Ju-bong Choi
Yong-geon Kim
Yeong-ae Kim
Hyo-eun Hwang
Sang-hun Jeong



As shy, awkward and, frankly, nerdy as she is, 25 year old public official Na Young-ju has little hope of landing a boyfriend. But then a game of chance designates her as the member of her office staff who will take English courses—much to her horror. In the same class, she encounters show salesman Park Moon-su, who fancies himself a dashing ladies’ man. He’s studying English in part to communicate with his long-lost American sister, but mostly for the purpose of wielding exotic pick-up lines, and is soon deploying them at the less-than-impressed Cathy, the pretty Australian teaching the class. But while Park flirts with Cathy, it’s Young-ju who finds herself mooning after the handsome if self-absorbed fellow.


ROFLMAO! Is English really that hard? Imagine an English speaking person learning Korean. That's me. That's HARD!! I don't think I'll ever learn.

English being the "international" language, I'm told is taught as a primary second language in most non-English speaking countries. I took Espanol and Francais. LOL! I'm now teaching myself Japanese....slooooooowly.

This movie had me rolling on the floor laughing. It was the sweetest and cutest thing I've seen in awhile. At the end, *sigh*.....................So sweet!

This was an ingenious idea to have them learn English and fall in love at the same time. I have to admit though, poor Jang Hyuk, really doesn't speaka da English well. But it was endearing as he sputtered it out.....*sigh*


Jang Hyuk

Umm? Is it getting a little hot in here? OMG! Umm, he's getting better and BIGGER! OMG! OMG!

Mission Impossible: Kidnapping Granny K (Kwonsoonboon Yeosa Napchi Sageon,권순분여사 납치사건-2007)

Starring:
Mun-hee Na
Kang Seong-jin
Hae-jin Yu
Geon Yu
Sang-Myeon Park

Mrs. KWON has spent lifetime building a small home-made soup business into an empire with her bare hands. Now a retiring millionaire, she’s distributed most of her wealth among her children and is enjoying her life as an independent, tech-savvy granny. A band of less-than-professional criminals kidnaps her in a hope to make an easy fortune but their naïve plan goes all wrong, when the family of their difficult hostage is reluctant to pay the ransom of 50,000,000 dollars. Infuriated by this, Mrs. KWON takes the matter into her own hands and leads the pack in making the biggest kidnap case in history. Will she and her kidnappers be able to get their hands on the 50 million dollar ransom?



LOL! This movie was a hoot! Totally cool movie. Makes you want to go hug your mama! I mean it!

You fall in love with Granny and the three men who decide to kidnap her for money. The three guys aren't a malicious bunch but are having hard times. Granny being a smart cookie realizes this and eventually starts helping them out with her kidnapping.

I will say this....the very end was so damn funny. I'm still smiling! Weeeeeeeeee!

Yu Geon


Kang Seong Jin