Sang Hoon (Yang Ik-joon) is a money collector with underworld ties as
violent as can be, and he doesn't only beat up those who owe his
organisation money but also his colleagues and at times even his
kind-hearted boss (Jeong Man-shik). Why is he like that? Probably
because he saw his dad kill his mom. Still, he does take care of his dad
(who has only recently been released from prison), even though he hates
him, and of his sister and her son, though he would rather die than to
show gentle feelings towards them. One day on the street he meets
schoolgirl, Yeon-hee (Kim Kot-bi), and he bullies her mainly out of habit
- but she's not in the least bit impressed, since she has to take too much
abuse at her own home from her confused father and her no-good brother to
not be able to counter everything Sang Hoon says or does. Yeong-hee's
attitude is like nothing Sang Hoon has ever encountered, and he becomes
fascinated by her and starts asking her out, and their relationship does
indeed soften him up enough to see that he is caught up in a vicious
circle of violence that only creates more violence, and when his father
tries to commit suicide on top of that and he notices he loves his old man
despite everything, he decides to quit his money collector-job.
Unfortunately though, on his last day a rookie who goes on collecting
rounds with him - and who just happens to be Yeong-hee's brother without
him knowing it - can't take the abuse hurled at him by Sang Hoon any
longer, and he beats up and kills him ... A film that falls
into two halves: The beginning, with the totally unsocial Sang Hoon and
the schoolgirl who knows how to handle him, is just great in its rawness,
its spontaneous outbursts of violence, and its ambivalent humour. This
could have led to something great, but unfortunately, somewhere about half
way through, writer Yang Ik-joon for whatever reason decides he wants to
deliver a message as well, and both the message - violence only creates
more violence - as well as its execution are too blunt to really
result in anything but a kitschfest,and not even director Yang Ik-joon's
rather subtle mise-en-scene can save the affair from utter pointlessness.
Rather a pity, actually, as I really loved the beginning.
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