The Accidental Gangster and the Mistaken Courtesan (Chinese title: 1724 妓房動亂事件 (1724 Disturbance in the Courtesan's Quarters) (Korea, 2008)

I have no idea what the Korean title is, but I like the English title because it's more descriptive and intriguing, and amidst all the gangland scheming and posturing in the film, it brings attention to the fact that a love story underpins the whole thing. It's kind of a period comedy with healthy doses of drama and action to make it difficult to pigeonhole. It's hip and stylized with a modern score and I found it a lot of fun.

It's about a lowly street fighter in an environment where organized crime lays down the law. He accidentally runs into and falls in love with a courtesan who is being delivered to a gangster brothel. He also has a run in with the local gang, one of two main gangs, and gets propelled into the heart of the gangland world. Turns out the gang he gets pulled into, the Odd Ear Gang, is the rival of the Big Gun Gang that runs the brothel to which his beloved is taken.

The street fighter may be lowly, but he's down-to-earth and has the heart of a lion which makes him likable. The courtesan is played by Kim Ok-Bin, who redefined gorgeousness for me. I kept missing reading subtitles because of her. Her character is a little uneven, and a viewer not as smitten as I was may find further faults with her.

The other characters are all sorts of colorful and even with a defined dramatic plot, the comic elements range from quirky to slapstick funny. The entire final fight scene is stylized with animated elements which I felt worked because as exaggerated as the scene is, it keeps the kinetic momentum of a fight scene (unlike failed action scenes in the later Matrix films which had no kinetic feeling and were therefore bo-ring and pointless).

It's not a perfect film, but I give it a strong 8 out of 10 fresh tomatoes.

There aren't many opportunities to see Korean films here that have English subtitles. Recently, it has just been this one and "The Good, the Bad, the Weird", which I also rated high. And these two films share the characteristic that they are period pieces, but are fresh, hip and vibrant, and have a modern feel which makes it easier to be entertaining. Korea appears on the cusp of the new hip, if it isn't already. Which is odd and great since 10 years ago I was calling Korean films the French films of Asia. Not a good thing.



Forever the Moment (Korean title translation: The Best Moment of Our Lives) (Korea, 2008)

This film is a fictionalized version of the South Korean Olympic handball team leading up to their participation in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Handball? What the hell is handball? Needless to say, many dramatic plot elements are created for a story, but since the Athens Olympics is a historical event, the outcome of the story is set in stone.

I really liked this film. It's not a perfect film, it has a lot of unevenness in the characters, and the time spans don't seem right in training up to a major athletic event. There are a bunch of subplots I would best describe as "curious". I guess there's a reason for them being there, but they don't get fleshed out very much. Not a fatal flaw.

This is sort of an underdog triumphant sports film. At the start of the film, a corporate handball team gets dismantled and various players are drawn into the national team that will go to the Olympics. The main characters of the film, however, were on the medal-winning teams of the 1992 and 1996 teams. Read: they're considered old-timers.

The national team is in a bit of shambles with all sorts of problems, and naturally this film is about how they get their act together to perform as well as they did in Athens. I think the film was successful in that regard. I think it is making a point that to be successful in an endeavor, there needs to be heart, there needs to be humanity and understanding, not just cut-throat ambition and analysis to figure out the best way to win. A feel-good bit of cliché, I suppose.

A scene that I thought summed up the film, and this isn't a spoiler, is when one of the players visits her old coach, who has retired to coaching handball to high school students in a small town, and he is truly happy in a Zen-like way. While visiting her former coach, she asks one of the student athletes, "Do you find handball fun?", and with a big smile, the girl answers, "Yes, it's fun", and runs back to practice. It's that simple.

Of course, that's not the world of competitive sports, which is cut-throat and the thrill of victory and the agony of the feet create the best moments. It's a strange juxtaposition because the film doesn't seem to be criticizing the modern sports ethos.

Strong 7 out of 10 fresh tomatoes.