Written by Dong-Cheol Kim, Jee-woon Kim
Directed by Jung Doo Hong and Jee-woon Kim

Things go wrong for a high ranking mobster when he doesn’t follow his boss’s orders. (IMDB)

Okay, I know. Before anyone writes in, this isn’t horror. Much like Conrete Utopia a couple of reviews back, but it is a cracking film, so when I get some highly rated Korean movies sent my way, I’d be a fool to not give them a spin.

Just to be clear, I am not an expert on Korean cinema by any stretch of the imagination, but the movies I have seen have always entertained, and A Bittersweet Life was no exception.

Lee Byung-hun is Sun-woo, a cool, calm and collected hitman/enforcer/errand runner for a local hotel owner/crime boss. He is a trusted soldier and an efficient one, the opening scenes clearly showing he has the skills to outmatch anyone trying to muscle in on his Boss’ territory. Which is why he is the perfect choice for his latest job; shadowing his boss’ young girlfriend, Hee-soo (Shin Min-a) who may or may not be having an affair. Sun-woo is told to “deal with them” if she is found to be cheating. She is, of course, having an affair and Sun-woo catches her in the act. But he has taken a shine to Hee-soo who has opened his eyes with a glimpse of the beauty that exists in the world, despite the dark, shadowy places in which Sun-woo exists. He spares Hee-soo and her boyfriend, effectively defying his dangerous boss whi is far from happy.

If you add run-ins with a rival crime boss and shitty colleagues, you just know that Sun-woo’s day is going to go very quickly from bad to worse and he escapes execution by a very thin margin before returning to exact his revenge on the people he has been betrayed by.

Sun-woo is the Korean John Wick. Or maybe John Wick is the American Sun-woo as ABL came out 9 years before John Wick and I would be amazed if the latter wasn’t influenced by the former in some way. This is a good thing of course as both ABL and John Wick are fantastic action movies. In the same way John Wick would have influenced Nobody, ABL sets out the groundwork for a legendary killer taking revenge. JBL wouldn’t have been the first to do this and Nobody won’t be the last, but it is a solid framework for an action thriller and JBL does it with panache!

Byung-Hun playes Sun-woo perfectly, starting out as the seemingly cold and calculating enforcer you don’t want to mess with, through a desperate man fighting for his life to a force of vengeance who finally finds peace in the unlikeliest of places, but in the most violent of ways.

There isn’t much story to ABL and there doesn’t need to be – set up (betrayal) and pay-off (vengeance) by way of tightly choreographed fight scenes and lots of bullets. Some of the fight scenes might seem a bit over the top, and it Sun-woo seemingly indestructible for a lot of the movie, but it is all filmed so well that it doesn’t matter and, ultimately it is all just a lot of fun to watch. The harsh violence is countered by some lighthearted moments (see Sun-woo’s run in with some frankly useless arms dealers) as well as some moments of beauty that lead to Sun-woo’s seeming redemption. It’s not subtle story-telling but it is kinetic and entertaining for 2 hours with no slow down.

ABL came with two other movies for me to catch up on and if this is a sign of things to come, then I am going to enjoy this little detour from horror into Korean cinema.

A Bittersweet Life is on digital platforms from 8 April