Friend (2001)

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

My husband enjoys movies produced in Asia and the Orient. We watch a fair amount of those. The old "seven samurai" ranks as one of his favorites. I say that as an explanation that despite some familiarity with some foreign movies (not that we're experts by any means), and acceptance of some things as inexplicable cultural differences, I wanted to like this movie more than I did. It seemed well acted, the settings seemed authentic and interesting, the situations seemed real and sincere. But as my husband and I watched it there were a lot of times when we would look at each other in total confusion. "Now what just happened? Can you 'splain that to me?" I mean, I expect a certain amount of cultural differences, but often the character's reactions and motivations seemed completely baffling to us. We just shrugged and figured that if we knew the culture better we'd have understood. As it was, a lot of it went right over our heads.

A friend of mine who grew up in Korea recommended this movie to me a couple years ago. He said it "reminded him of friends he had when he was young." I thought about that and remembered my friends who I watched my first porno with and who fought by my side win or lose and who I parted ways with sometimes on not so good terms. I ended up thanking him because the movie is a treasure trove of memories of coming of age. It reminded me of elder brothers who showed me honor in martial arts and gangsta life and my close friends who went their separate ways. Just like my friend said it reminded me of friends and growing up.10/10. Great story. Great Acting. Great Characters. Stylish Violence. Well produced. Awesome Gangsta Drama. Right up there with "Failan" for impact.

I have never seen a movie from Korea before. After this, it made me realized the deep influence of Confucius. If I am not wrong, he is the one who said that everyone should be royal to his friends. It is quite similar to some of the movies made in Hong Kong. Whenever they have gangsters in the movies, those gangsters always seem to be tough towards their nemesis, but nice, tender, royal towards their own friends. I think that it is dangerous to present that idea to the youth. Sure, gangsters are human; they have friends, parents, etc. It does not matter what kind of background they come from, once they become members of gangsters. They are the enemies of the society. When teenagers see the movie, they will have wrong impression that it is ok to be gangsters as long as you are still royal to your own friends. One of the guy really looked like one of the Chinese dissident – Wei JingShen. They all look a little older to be high school students. Their acting skills are quite good. I think the first hour was boring. There were no ups or downs. The last hour was a little too graphic. You can see blood, killing with knives, etc. It is an emotional movie, however, I don't want to watch again.

As mentioned in the earlier comment here, this movie is beautifully filmed with great cinematography, but...The first half (before two of the friends went to colleges elsewhere) of the movie brilliantly portrayed the relationships between these four friends and their differences. However, the second half of the story is not as good as the first. Sure, it illustrated the friendship between "Sang-taek" and "Joon-suk" and the parting of "Joon-suk" and "Dong-su" in great details, but we never see the two college-goers involve in the conflicts between "Joon-suk" and "Dong-su".I'm disappointed that "Joong-ho" did not get a chance to further develop the character and the involvement in the conflict (e.g. which side of the conflict did he sided with?). He became just a comic relieve type of character in the movie, which is sad. They movie could have developed all four characters around their life-long bond in a more balanced and thorough way.The friendship between "Sang-taek" and "Joon-suk" can be touching at moments. "Joon-suk" took care of "Sang-taek" took care of each others from time to time, and at the end "Sang-taek" never leave his friend (obviously "Joon-suk" was heading for an execution) even though he killed one of them.At the end of the movie "Joon-suk" said something like: "... I thought Joon-suk and Dong-su were together on the same path..." (I watched the movie with Chinese subtitle... so hopefully the translation did not loose the original meaning). They are until the end. "Dong-su" always want to be at the same position of "Joon-suk". That's the tragedy of the four.I'm relieved that it doesn't emphasize around the action scenes (they are brief but stunning none the less) as some of the Hong Kong movies of the same sort. This movie is not just about gangsters' war.This is a good movie to watch if you are tired of the usual Hollywood flicks. However, it lacks just a little bit to make it into a truly great movie.