AKA: Chingoo
Genre: Crime, Drama,
Friendship
Origin: Korea
Release date: 31 March 2001
Cast: Yu Oh Seong, Jang
Dong Gun, Seo Tae Hwa and Jung Woon Taek.
The story follows 4
childhood friends who reunite after being separated in middle school. Joon Suk
(Yu Oh Seong) is the son of a mobster, the strongest and the leader of the 4
man gang. Dong Soo (Jang Dong Gun) is the son of a mortician, and also the second
strongest. The two are generally bad in school and usually get beef because of
their backgrounds by the teachers. Sang Taek (Seo Tae Hwa) is a middle class
person, but is really clever and does very good in school. And lastly the
groups goof Jung Ho (Jung Woon Taek) who usually gets the group free stuff
since his mother goes abroad a lot.
The story takes a turn
when the boys fall for the same girl from a band, and Dong Soo starts to feel
inferior to Joon Suk. This doesn’t split the group but when Sang Taek gets beat
up by some high shoolers from another school because of that very girl, the
boys defend him against almost the entire hord of the high school. After being
expelled from the school Dong Soo decides to join a gang, which is the rival
gang of Joon Suks father’s gang. After the death of Joon Suks father, Joon Suk
takes the spot as the mobster boss, putting the two friends against each other…
My number one reason
for watching this is because of the huge amount of reference in Korean variety
and Korean TV. This is one of the most famous Korean movies and is one of those
with high commercial success, not that I always agree with the Korean audience.
To put bluntly the movie is weird, not bad and not boring, but you somehow have
this terrible gut feeling the entire way through, either feeling bad or
confused about the results. It is one of those kinds of movies that speaks of
the Korean culture, with that I mean the ACTUAL culture and not the romantic Korean
drama version. The movie is not bad, especially if you like those down to earth
yet realistic movies (realistic is the best word for this movie).
I like that the theme ‘Friendship’
really is thorough, even though there is a lot of gangs and fighting involved,
not to mention mobsters. The general thing is about these 4 and their
friendship through the movie, also of course how they grow apart but still have
the lingering feelings of their time together.
To sum up: a real gem
and the acting is really good.
☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars
♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5
hearts
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