I watched this movie without knowing anything about it and oh boy am i glad I did...absolutely amazing!

It's a bit predictable and not exactly original - but wow, it looks absolutely incredible, the action sequences are great and it has a wicked sense of humour. The main character was played with an excellent sense of world-weary desperation; a guy who didn't really want to be in the game in the first place getting more and more drawn in with each wrong move he makes. By the end I was of the opinion that I had never seen a more aptly titled movie. "This is too harsh..." indeed.

This film's style and progression are incredibly smooth, and lend it an air of gravitas. However, it is difficult to say whether the film's ambitious metaphor is executed with subtlety or not at all. The film is intentionally bereft of emotion, which helps to create its unique atmosphere. This also harms makes its characters less relatable and reduces the stakes in many of the films other scenes.

good

The movie is an extremely stylish action thriller. The movie is predictable but the presentation makes up for it. This a good entertainer if one wants to see.

If I ever see a movie cooler than A Bittersweet Life I just don't think my brain is going to be able to take it.

t has been a long time since I watched my last "score 100" movie. This was just fantastic. The actors, the creative story, the vengeance thing. I'm just so into korean movies now.

An enjoyable film that explores morality and the social and personal effects of one's choices. It is stylish and violent. It doesn't stack up with other Korean flicks, such as 'Oldboy', but it's a film worth seeing.

The movie is about one tough gook.

Ji-woon Kim has to be one of the least interesting directors to get acclaim in recent years.

This is the closest film the South Korean scene has to a Taxi Driver equivalent. Between the brutal reimagining of the common revenge tropes of the genre, the stellar acting, the gorgeous cinematography, and that goddamn pistol reassembly scene, I might as well flat out call this my favorite film, since every time I think of it, I love it more and more.

A terribly formulaic but redeemably stylish mob revenge story which greatly glorifies violence in pursuit of coolness.

after seing the man from nowhere, this had to be a letdown, and it was

An average script, but Ji-woon Kim gets every once out of it, and then some...

A crusty old gangster suspects his hot young girlfriend is cheating on him, so when he goes away on business, he sends one of his enforcers to keep tabs on her for a few days. This sets off a chain of events which quickly spirals into murder, torture and bloody revenge. The action is brutal, gory and plentiful, and is nicely offset by the beautiful photography and melancholy mood. Seems like the South Koreans have the market cornered on really stylish ultraviolence recently.