A Bittersweet Life DVD Review (Region 3) [Archive]

Seth Gecko

15-08-2005, 7:54 AM

<IMG SRC='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/images/ABittersweetLife/ABittersweetLifeR3.jpg' ALT='A BITTERSWEET LIFE DVD cover artwork' ALIGN='RIGHT'>A BITTERSWEET LIFE Reviewed August 2005 by <A HREF='search.php?do=process&query=Craig Snell&showposts=1&forumchoice[]=107&forumchoice[]=197' target='_top'>Craig Snell</A>.The Movie : 9Every now and then you get to see a film which has had hardly any press or it is recommended to you by word of mouth. Having appreciated Asian cinema for some years now I was pleasantly surprised when the director of ‘A Tale of Two Sisters’ new film dropped on my door mat. Not knowing any real details about the film and the fact that the DVD case was entirely written in Korean, I had no idea what the film was about. I was tempted to have a quick look on the internet to see what the basic storyline was, but I relented. So I popped the disc into my player and sat back.Sun Woo (Lee Byung Hun) is an enforcer to one of Korea’s crime families. Using his cover as a bar manager he is relentless in dishing out punishment for people who cross him or his boss, Chairman Kang. Kang is a predictably unpleasant fellow who is seeing a younger woman. Kang has to go away on business to Shanghai so asks Sun Woo to ‘keep an eye on’ his woman, Hee Soo. Being rather paranoid, Kang instructs Sun Woo if Hee Soo is ‘playing around’ to kill her. Whilst away, Sun Woo witnesses something and makes a decision that will change his life forever.At the beginning of the film, Sun Woo beats the hell out of some rivals. This he regrets later in the film when the twisted Chairman Kang orders his death. Kang has a particularly nasty right hand man in Moon, who buries Sun Woo alive after torturing him in a rather horrible fashion. Sun Woo escapes his grave and plans his revenge.Lee Byung Hun’s performance as the bar manager/enforcer out for revenge is simply one of the best action performances I have seen in years. He is amazingly cool whilst wearing his snappy suits and when he goes into full ‘revenge mode’ he reminds me of a young Asian version of Charles Bronson in the Death Wish films. He coolly executes anyone who stands in his way and when a couple of yobs upset him on the freeway, he cuts them up in his car and beats the living daylights out of them on the hard shoulder. I have just mentioned Charles Bronson, but you could also compare his screen presence to Chow Yun Fat in The Killer or Hard Boiled. Yes, he is that good.Director, Kim Jee Woon has produced a stunning looking film with fantastic use of widescreen photography. The camera loves Lee Byung Hun and as mentioned above the screen comes alive whenever he is on it (which is virtually all of the film.) The supporting characters are predictably your average crime family types but Chairman Kang (Kim Yeong Chui) stands out in his role, being calm one moment and coolly ordering the death of his most trusted employee next. Downside to the film is that it isn’t all that original but with a fantastic leading man and some of the best action choreography for a long time, you have 2 hours of truly spectacular entertainment.Picture : 7A Bittersweet Life’s picture is good. Flesh tones are clear and realistic, which is good considering there are a fair amount of close up’s during the film’s running time. The blacks are deep and rich. The film contains night and murky scenes which could have been an encoding nightmare. However, the disc handles these very well and I could see no artefacts at all. Colours are bright and vibrant. For such a violent film, there is a fair amount of blood on screen. There is no colour bleeding evident and all in all CJ Entertainment have done good in their transfer.<IMG SRC='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/images/ABittersweetLife/ABittersweetLifeR3_1.jpg' ALT='A BITTERSWEET LIFE'>Sound : 9Now for the first time in ages, I watched the same film twice in a couple of days. First time out I watched A Bittersweet Life on a Dolby Digital 5.1 set up and was blown away with simply the best 5.1 soundtrack I have heard in along time. Two days later, I experienced the film in DTS. Oh dear, my poor speakers. Firstly, the differences between the two are mainly that the DTS is that little bit louder, slightly more clarity on some of the effects and when the action kicks in, the bass shakes the room. The soundtrack constantly uses all 5 speakers (and the LFE when needed) throughout the film. Dialogue mainly comes from the centre speaker, the rest of the speakers are used for the sound effects. Gun shots fly around all the speakers, wind whistles behind you in your ears, I could go on. It’s simply the most impressive soundtrack I have heard in ages. Oh yes, one more thing the film has a terrific score as well.<IMG SRC='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/images/ABittersweetLife/ABittersweetLifeR3_2.jpg' ALT='A BITTERSWEET LIFE'>Extras : 3A Bittersweet Life has a fantastic variety of different extras and special features. The downside is that every one is in Korean and with no English subtitles it’s almost impossible to watch. The trailer and TV spots are very well edited and produced, these sell the film extremely well. It is a frustrating experience to see all the people behind what is one of my favourite films in quite a while and can’t understand a word they are saying.The documentary, Style of A Bittersweet Life is watchable as it covers the sound, action and FX of the film. You can just about make out what is going on if you are a ‘veteran’ of special features on DVD’s however it you aren’t, you won’t have a clue. There are two audio commentaries, I would assume from the director and maybe some of the cast and crew. Sorry everyone, the text is in Korean on the audio screen and I couldn’t tell the two apart.I am disappointed that I couldn’t find out more about the film, well there’s always the region 2 disc (I hope) that will have subtitles and bring all the special features over from Korea.<IMG SRC='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/images/ABittersweetLife/ABittersweetLifeR3_3.jpg' ALT='A BITTERSWEET LIFE'>Trivia For user information we use Bitrate 1.4 to scan the disk for the video bitrate, which also calculates the average bitrate. Below is a graph illustrating the bitrate of the disk, including the average bitrate reading. This disk averaged at 7.55 Mbps.<IMG SRC='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/images/ABittersweetLife/ABittersweetLifeR3_br.jpg' ALT='A BITTERSWEET LIFE'>Verdict : 9If you have read the above, I hope you will have realised that I really do like this film. In fact whilst reviewing it, I realised I liked it even more on the second viewing, so the score is now higher then it was originally. Buy this move – it is simply quite fantastic.<div ALIGN='CENTER'>Review Disc Supplied by <a href="http://global.yesasia.com/assocred.asp?W7QIPXOV+/en/prdTransfer.aspx/pid-1004021183" target=”_blank”><img src="http://www.wvip.co.uk/images/dvd/SuppliersLogos/YesAsia.jpg" Align="absmiddle"></a> Please support us by using our review sponsors.</div><TABLE border='0' CELLPADDING='0' CELLSPACING='2' WIDTH='100%'><TR><TD COLSPAN='2'>A BITTERSWEET LIFE (2005)</TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Genres</TD><TD><A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=exact&searchfield=genre&search_for=DRAMA' target='_blank'>DRAMA</A>, <A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=exact&searchfield=genre&search_for=ACTION' target='_blank'>ACTION</A>, <A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=exact&searchfield=genre&search_for=CRIME' target='_blank'>CRIME</A></TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Director</TD><TD><A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=all&searchfield=director&search_for=JI-WOON KIM' target='_blank'>JI-WOON KIM</A></TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Stars</TD><TD><A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=all&searchfield=stars&search_for=JEONG-MIN HWANG' target='_blank'>JEONG-MIN HWANG</A>, <A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=all&searchfield=stars&search_for=KU JIN' target='_blank'>KU JIN</A>, <A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=all&searchfield=stars&search_for=ROE-HA KIM' target='_blank'>ROE-HA KIM</A>, <A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=all&searchfield=stars&search_for=YEONG-CHEOL KIM' target='_blank'>YEONG-CHEOL KIM</A>, <A HREF='http://www.avforums.com/dvdreviews/dvdreviews.php?include=all&searchfield=stars&search_for=BYUNG-HUN LEE' target='_blank'>BYUNG-HUN LEE</A></TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65'>Region</TD><TD>3 (KOREA)</TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='65'>Supplier</TD><TD>CJ Entertainment. Released Thursday 28th July 2005</TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='65'>SRP</TD><TD>$29.99</TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='65'>Discs</TD><TD>2</TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='65'>Format</TD><TD>DVD9</TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='65'>Time</TD><TD>120 mins.</TD></TR><TR><TD VALIGN='TOP' WIDTH='65'>Chapters</TD><TD>18</TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Picture</TD><TD>Anamorphic Widescreen 2:35:1 </TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Sound</TD><TD>Korean Dolby Digital <IMG SRC='http://www.totaldvd.net/images/EX.gif' ALIGN='ABSMIDDLE' border='0' ALT='Dolby Digital EX Soundtrack'> EX 6.1 Korean <IMG SRC='http://www.totaldvd.net/images/dtsES.gif' ALIGN='ABSMIDDLE' border='0' ALT='dts-ES Soundtrack'> 6.1</TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Subtitles</TD><TD>Korean and English</TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Case</TD><TD>Slipcase</TD></TR><TR><TD WIDTH='65' VALIGN='TOP'>Extras</TD><TD>La Dolce Vita – Cast and Crew interviews The Making of A Bittersweet Life The Style of A Bittersweet Life Why? Deleted Scenes A Bittersweet Life in Cannes Sweet Sleep (music video) Electronic Press kit comprising of music video, teaser, TV spot and theatrical trailer Audio Commentaries</TD></TR></TABLE>If you would like to comment on this review, please reply below.