Watching Squid Game: Season 2 and I’m observing the man in the black mask, the Frontman, thinking, “What a handsome guy.” And Sally was reading up on the actor Lee Byung-hun, listing off his credits and little bulbs were popping off in my head, “Oh right, he was in The Magnificent Seven remake, The Good, The Bad, and The Weird, etc.” Going back twenty years to A Bittersweet Life (2005), a DVD cover I always remember, and Byung-hun is handsome and charismatic in the lead, as efficient and loyal enforcer Sun-woo.
Kim Jee-woon’s direction has heft, and this is a stylish neo-noir crime thriller. One of those standard plots about a professional who disobeys an order, due to a glimmer of his buried humanity sparked by a beautiful woman, and he is thus punished, and eventually fights back. To make an effective revenge thriller, Jee-woon knows your hero has to be put through the wringer, humiliated and tortured. What struck me most was the vulnerability in Byung-hun’s performance, fucking up in a showdown, or looking at himself in the mirror with tears, asking, “How did it come to this?” Provides a skerrick of humanity within a bloody and violent gangster fantasy. A Bittersweet Life: solid impact. Lee Byung-hun, what a star! Available to stream on Brollie and Kanopy. Recommended.
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