By Paco McCullough
A Dirty Carnival is the third film by South Korean direction Ha Yu, following perhaps his most popular film, Once Upon A Time In High School (Youtube the end fight scene, it's great). Released in 2006, it tells the story of Byung-doo (In-Seong Jo), a young gangster trying to support his ill mother and high school age siblings. As financial pressures mount, he agrees to take out a pesky DA, setting off a chain of murder and betrayal. At the same time, Byung-doo also has an old friend hanging around, now a director who is trying to see how gangsters really act. Byung-doo is also attempting to romance an old flame from his youth.
Sound convoluted? I agree- this film has a subplot or two too many. This leads to bad pacing and an overly long film. Writer/director Yu should have been willing to see more of the script go for the sake of the overall film. The worst subplot? A love story with no real ties to the overall plot, which always brings about jarring tonal shifts and kills the suspense driven by the great scenes around it.
There is one other significant flaw- it appears that South Korean gangsters are also really into karaoke. Like really, really into it, as in probably about five minutes of this movie is various characters doing karaoke to Korean music. Remember all the ill fitting music from Drive (assuming you were one of the few non-critics who actually went to see it)? The karaoke scenes are both worse and longer.
However, when this movie is good, it's really good. While the overall plot is about as typical as a gangster film can get (this is the one genre that still seems to follow thematic elements of Hollywood's production code of the 30s-50s), there are some great moments, especially one near the end of the film involving the film screening from hell. Performances overall are quite well done, with In-Seong Jo stealing the show as the troubled Byung-doo.
And the action. Oh man, is it sweet. Remember the brutality of the hammer scene from Oldboy? Imagine several scenes of similar intensity and brutality, all involving baseball bats, knives, and whatever makeshift weapons can be found. The kinetic and naturalistic fight scenes are shot in long, fluid takes as the carnage unfolds organically, a welcome change from Hollywood's "Chaos Cinema" style of editing. While more drama than action movie, there's enough of these scenes to keep action fans alert, although the best one occurs near the beginning of the film.
Overall, A Dirty Carnival is a fun, but unsteady ride. Fans of crime films and the new-wave of Korean cinema should check it out. It's certainly not the best in either of those genres, but if you let it, you'll enjoy the time spent with this carnival.
Acting - 4.5 (out of 5)
Direction - 4 (out of 5)
Script - 3 (out of 5)
Cinematography - 3.5 (out of 5)
Editing - 4 (out of 5)
Overall - 4 (out of 5)
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