DVD: A Dirty Carnival
Submitted by Kwan on Wed, 2008-05-14 09:55.
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DVD Reviewed by Kwan
Starring: In-sung Zo, Ho-jin Chun
For those who remember and cherish those late night re-runs of classic Hong Kong styled gangster cinema, A Dirty Carnival does a great job of showing just how much East Asian film has grown and changed.
Although Korean in origin, the roots of this film possesses unmistakably Hong Kong style elements in character development, action sequences, and the love of gangsters in fly suits.
What sets this title apart from its predecessors of the similar genre, however, is its inability to accommodate any sort of light heartedness in the storyline. This is a good or bad thing depending on how much you enjoy watching those classic Jacky Chan or John Wu films – where although the general plot was serious in nature, there were always moments for a stupid joke or candid triple back flip onto a street stand.
As a result, A Dirty Carnival is the most down to earth and “grimy” Asian gangster film this reviewer has ever seen.
Byung-du, our main character, is a career criminal who at first moves seamlessly between his ‘work’ life, family and friends. As times get tougher, however, he has to undertake increasingly riskier jobs to advance himself in the criminal world. These tasks inevitably put him out in the open, and just as things start looking up for him, other things start to quickly fall apart.
A very interesting part of this film is its insightfulness at depicting how gangs are run in Korea. If anything, they look more like organized businesses than anything else. And the fact that everyone rocks a nice suit only helps to reinforce this notion.
A Dirty Carnival, although in no way perfect, shows a new era in Asian Film. The action is downright real and grimy, the characters are badass and the themes are believable.
Any fan of the gangster genre will find something entertaining in this title.
Available through MadMan.
