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A Bittersweet Life
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - Australia - Umbrella Entertainment Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (29th June 2023). |
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The Film
 "A Bittersweet Life" <달콤한 인생> (2005) Sun-woo (played by Lee Byung-hun) is the right hand man of crime boss Kang (played by Kim Young-chul). Always dressed sharply in a suit and keeping his cool even when he must take down unruly patrons at their establishment, Sun-woo is just as loyal as he is agile. His loyalty is proven when Kang assigns him to chaperone his young new girlfriend Hee-soo (played by Shin Min-ah) for a few days and to see if she is having an affair or not. When Sun-woo discovers that she does in fact have another lover, he doesn't report it to his boss, but instead tells the pair to never see each other again and never to speak of the encounter. Unfortunately, it is revealed to Kang that Sun-woo was not loyal to him and lied about her affair, and it leads to the crime family turning against him violently. In addition, a rival gang also wants him dead, leaving no allies for him... At the time, director Kim Jee-woon was one of the major figures of the South Korean new wave that exploded into the international scene in the early 2000s. While Park Chan-wook, Bong Joon-ho, Lee Chang-dong and others from the movement had particular styles and themes that were particular to their filmographies, Kim's works were quite varied. His debut film "The Quiet Family" (1998) was a dark comedy horror. His second, "The Foul King" (2000) was a comedy drama with amateur wrestling, and his third, "A Tale of Two Sisters" (2003) was a stylistic psychological horror film. His fourth, "A Bittersweet Life" was yet another direction, this time taking inspiration from the Film Noir genre and placing it in a modern setting. The character of Sun-woo is a typical noir protagonist. Good looking, well dressed, and quiet, with a hint of vulnerability. In the opening scene when he is asked to take care of getting rid of some rival gang members, he doesn't even flinch while gracefully fighting them down. Whenever there is confrontation, his cold stares are intimidating and not showing any sign of fear or weakness. But once he is tasked with watching his boss' very young girlfriend, cracks seem to appear. Whether it's seeing Hee-soo play the cello, his awkwardness while waiting for her to get ready at her home, he starts to feel attraction towards the opposite sex and yet he cannot cross the line of betraying his boss. Sun-woo does stay loyal by refraining himself, but his major act of betrayal is by going with his heart - by sparing the lives of Hee-soo and her lover. It's interesting to see the character arc and Lee Byung-hun's menacingly cool yet touching performance as Sun-woo, graceful with action segments and smooth in the dramatic moments. Of course the main draw over a vengeance drama is the action segments, first with Sun-woo's downfall with gangs coming after him, and later with his rise against the masses, taking down his opponents one by one. The fights are brutal and seemingly quite dangerous at times such as the fight at the factory at night which has flaming torches and car stunts, and the finale with bullets flying and glass shattering. The sequences are well choreographed and play on reality rather than martial arts, with hard blows and not dance-like action. When Sun-woo's hand gets smashed and his is buried under mud, the impacts are felt quite hard for the viewers as well. In addition, the visuals of the film stand out with the use of stylized colors. The greens seen in the restaurant scene, the reds in the climactic battle, the golds of the desert are all vibrant, showcasing the differing sets and having variety within the film itself. Though the subject matter may be dark and a lot of the film taking place in a tense environment, there is one portion that takes a break with a fairly comical moment, and that is when Sun-woo meets the arms dealer (played by Kim Hae-gon and his subordinates Myung-gu (played by Oh Dal-su and Mikhail (played by Vadym Domashchenko). The Russian language banter in the car, the weapon building scene, and the old lady next door all are comedic highlights. While funny, the whole sequence does seem a little out of place compared to the rest of the film. Thematically, "A Bittersweet Life" takes cues from the gritty postwar American films noir from the 40s and 50s, while also borrowing heavily from the French new wave of gangster inspired features yet still able to have its own unique look and taste with the twenty-first century South Korean setting. The story itself could be in the past or the present, as there are not many clues to date the film much. Visually and aurally it still stands as modern especially with the lack of mobile phone usage, as flip phones are a sure sign of the early 2000s. The film could easily play now, almost twenty years later without a hitch. The climactic bloody shootout may not give all the answers necessary for the characters or for the audience, but it is the enduring journey that makes "A Bittersweet Life" an exceptional film and a standout from the many great works of the South Korean new wave of the early 2000s. The vengeance theme does hit a few cliches, it never feels out of place or out of tune in its wild and violent ride. The film opened theatrically on April 1st, 2005 in South Korea, where it had over 1.2 million admissions. It opened later that month in Japan (where Lee Byung-hun had a major following due to his work in Korean television dramas), then the following month at the Cannes Film Festival. The film played at various international festivals and received some theatrical releases along with international DVD releases the following year. It was a critical success, with two Korean Association of Film Critics awards given to Lee Byung-hun for Best Actor and composers Dalpalan and Jang Young-gyu receiving Best Music, cinematographer Note this is a region ALL Blu-ray
Video
Umbrella Entertainment presents the film in the 2.39:1 aspect ratio in 1080p AVC MPEG-4. The film opens with the Korean Film Archive logo and a text screen that states the original 35mm negative acquired in 2010 was the source of the 4K restoration. The negative was digitally scanned and color graded under the supervision of director Kim Jee-woon in 2021. Considering the many highlights of KOFA's restoration of classic Korean films, it was exciting to see their restoration of a fairly recent feature. Unfortunately, there is a bit of disappointment to be had here. The image actually has noticeable debris throughout the film, with tiny white spots from dust particles. Considering that the previous DVD transfers from nearly two decades ago had no issues of dust speckles to be seen, this seems to be a case where the film negative picked up some dust over time and it wasn't properly cleaned during the restoration process. This is frankly an odd oversight for KOFA. This is a vibrant film and its use of colors are quite important, but the color grading that was done for this restoration also feels underwhelming. The older transfers on DVD had some weight to the greens and reds in specific scenes, but in this 4K restoration it feels slightly on the muted side. While it is not distracting, it does not quite look as striking as it used to be. In addition there are moments of flickering of colors and it is not as stable as it could be, though it is not always the case. To be fair with the positive notes, the detail is sharp, dark colors are strong, skin tones look fair, and there are no huge damage marks. Newcomers should be pleased, but fans will be disappointed with this new transfer. The runtime for the film is 119:42, which is the director's cut version with opening text as explained above.
Audio
Korean DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Korean DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo Optional lossless 5.1 and 2.0 stereo options are offered for the film. Like the picture, the soundtrack was also remastered by KOFA from the original masters. The film has a very active sound mix and the surround track is able to showcase the soundscape very well. From the various action sequences like the factory and the climactic shootout make use of directional sounds with punches, hits, gunplay, and more, while also backed with an active music score by Dalpalan and Jang Young-gyu. From folk to jazz guitar to classical to Morricone influenced cues, it is an eclectic soundtrack that does a great job with creating environment and mood throughout. Dialogue is almost always centered and well balanced against the music and effects. There are no issues of damage or dropout to the audio, being clean and crisp without issues to speak of. The picture quality may have been lacking, but the soundtrack especially for the 5.1 track is exceptional. There are optional English subtitles for the film in a white font. There is also some background chatter by the Filipino gang members in Tagalog which are intentionally left without subtitles. For the Russian dialogue scene there are burned-in Korean subtitles. The subtitles are well timed and easy to read, without issues with spelling or grammar. (Although there are some issues with the subtitles for the extras, but more on that below.)
Extras
Audio commentary by director Kim Jee-woon and cast members Kim Yeong-cheol and Lee Byung-hun In this commentary, the director along with the main antagonist and protagonist discuss the making of the film through the eyes of the actors and their characters. Talked about are the stuntwork, the locations they shot in, some of the information of scenes that were deleted and the reasons for their removal, differences between the director's cut and the theatrical cut, character motivations, the difficulties they had in the production and more. It's a lively commentary with some laughs along the way and there is a lot of material discussed. The subtitles unfortunately are not perfect though, as there are odd spelling mistakes like "things" being spelled "thigns", "give" as "gove", and at one point a line break appearing in the middle of a word. It could have used another check, though for the most part things are understood through context. Note that this extra was originally recorded for the South Korean DVD release and has been featured on a number of other DVD and Blu-ray releases. in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles Audio commentary by director Kim Jee-woon, director of photography Kim Ji-yong and set designer Ryu Seong-hie This second commentary is more of a technical look at the production, as the director and crew members talk about the set design, the color choices, capturing the look of Seoul at night, the lighting choices, the difficult scenes such as the burial scene and the dangerous action stuntwork and more. Again there are some spelling and syntax errors in the English subtitle translation. For example, there is some confusion regarding who's who, as the subtitles refers to Kim Jo-yong as "director" rather than DOP or cinematographer. Some spelling errors are found, even with some of the people's names. Note that this extra was originally recorded for the South Korean DVD release and has been featured on a number of other DVD and Blu-ray releases. in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles Audio commentary by director Kim Jee-woon and film critic Lee Dong-jin This retrospective commentary has the director reminiscing about the production with film critic Lee Dong-jin as a moderator. Discussed are the influences such as from film noir and action films, about the actors performances, the production design, plus connections to some of Kim's later films in themes and style. It's also interesting to note that Kim states he hadn't seen Fellini's "La dolce vita", which technically shares the same title. There are again issues with the English subtitle translation, such as names being misspelled like "Kim Jee-woon" being "Kim Ji-hoon" and "Lee Byung-hun" being "Lee Byung-heon". In addition, Kim has a cold during this commentary, and when he coughs and apologizes for being sick, the subtitles say "He coughed" rather than "I coughed" which is a bit confusing. Note this was recorded for the 2011 South Korean Blu-ray release, and has been featured on a number of other Blu-ray releases. in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles "Making of A Bittersweet Life" featurette (with 2 optional commentaries by director & crew) (25:38) Presented here is pre-production footage such as camera tests, make-up tests, rehearsals plus lengthy B-roll footage from the production that showcases the action, the multiple takes, flubs, laughs and more. This can be heard with the original audio as well as with two differing commentary tracks, one by Kim Jee-woon and the other by three of the film’s crewmembers. Kim’s commentary has technical information such as the importance of pre-production, using sugar glass in stunts, the small accidents that happened, and more. The crew commentary (in which the three women do not name themselves or their specific roles) discuss the background information of the individual sequences and their memories from the shoot. in 1080p 30fps AVC, in 1.33:1, in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles Deleted and alternate scenes (with optional commentary) (23:30) A number of deleted and alternate scenes are presented here, including a deleted opening shot (which is actually from towards the middle of the film) with the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Higher Ground” used as BGM, an extended scene with Kang and Sunwoo eating at the restaurant, more scenes with Sunwoo and Hee-soo, Sunwoo playing “Wild Gunman” at home, Kang’s arrival back to Seoul from Shanghai, an explanation for Kang’s bloody hand, an alternate shot for the ending, and more. Each scene has an optional commentary from Kim Jee-woon, Kim Yeong-cheol, Lee Byung-hun, Ryu Seong-hie, Kim Ji-yong, depending on the scene that is playing, in which Kim discusses the making-of and why they were deleted, the other crew members recalling aspects of the scenes, and the actors discussing their performances. The scenes are presented with timecode markers on screen and are edited though not color corrected or have proper audio mixes. in 1080p 30fps AVC, in windowboxed 2.35:1, in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles "Style of A Bittersweet Life" featurettes (68:31) - Art - Music - Sound - Action - Gun smith - Special art - Special effect - CG This series of featurettes looks at different aspects of the production with interviews from various crew members and behind the scenes footage. Discussed are the artistic choices in colors and set designs, the choices of music cues, examples of surround sound effects, the combat and gun choreography, the prosthetic effects, practical and digital effects, and more. The interviews are in 1.33:1 while the film clips are in windowboxed 2.35:1. in 1080p 30fps AVC, in 1.33:1 / 2.35:1, in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles "A Bittersweet Life in Cannes" featurette (30:30) This lengthy featurette looks at the cast and crew's time at the Cannes Film Festival, with clips from their arrival, footage from the press conference, individual interviews with Kim and Shin, plus their red carpet appearance. There is one particular issue in the subtitles when Kim addresses the influence of French Noir, when he talks about the film "Le Samourai". The subtitles say "the samurai" which is incorrect as the French title is the English title and he is not talking about samurai generically. in 1080p 30fps AVC, in 1.78:1, in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles "Sweet Sleep" music video (3:34) Presented here is footage of actor Hwang Jung-Min singing “Sweet Sleep” in studio alongside clips from the film as well as rolling credits of what seems to be for the original South Korean DVD release. While that is the title that is featured on the menu as well as many of the DVD and Blu-ray releases of the past, note that on the official soundtrack album it is entitled "A Honeyed Question". The lyrics are subtitled in English, though the scrolling credits are not. in 1080p 30fps AVC, in 1.33:1, in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles "A Bittersweet Life" music video by Yangpa (2:48) This music video which was directed by Lee Byung-hun features multiple clips of the film though interestingly without any footage of Yangpa singing. This also has the lyrics subtitled in English. in 1080p 30fps AVC, in windowboxed 2.35:1, in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles Teaser (2:02) The original South Korean teaser is presented here, focusing on the action and revenge aspect. in 1080p 30fps AVC, in windowboxed 2.35:1, in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles Trailer (1:26) The original South Korean trailer, which seems more like a teaser than the above as it mostly is a show motion shot of Soowon in the corridor with overlapping dialogue clips, is presented here. in 1080p 30fps AVC, in windowboxed 2.35:1, in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles TV Spot (0:32) An original South Korean television spot is presented here. in 1080p 30fps AVC, in windowboxed 2.35:1, in Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English subtitles Umbrella has included a good number of extras on this release, though it is not entirely definitive. The biggest omission is the lack of the theatrical cut of the film, which has been available on the German Blu-ray from Nameless Media as well as a number of DVD releases. Vintage extras such as the "La dolce vita" interviews, the Q&A with DVDPrime, the "Tell Me Why?" featurette. While it is a good selection included, note that there are no new or exclusive extras on this release. A clip of the interrogation scene, courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment
Packaging
The cover art (which has the character of Sunwoo smoking though he never smokes in the movie) is reversible, with the opposite side having identical artwork except the MA 15+ rating logo removed. The packaging states region B only, but is in fact region ALL. There is also a Collector's Edition which is limited to 200 copies, exclusively at the Umbrella Webstore which also includes: - Hard slipbox - Custom artwork slipcase - "A Bittersweet Life - A Collection of Interviews, Experiences & Art" 48 page perfect bound book - 8 artcards - A3 reversible poster The slipcase fits over the keep case and the front has the artwork used for the hard slipbox while the back has drawn artwork of the factory fight sequence. The booklet has a written statement from the director, the essay "Kim Jee-woon's Noir Nights" by Riley Jones, information on artist Colin Murdoch who designed the new artwork for this release, plus stills and poster art for the film. The eight artcards has theatrical poster art - four Korean, two English, and two Japanese. The foldout poster has two variations of the original South Korean theatrical poster art. The poster fits in the keep case which fits alongside the artcards and booklet in the rigid slipbox. 
Overall
"A Bittersweet Life" is a timeless vengeance drama filled with violence and action, while also having heart, drama, and taking place in a visually stunning world. It may run with a few cliches and the one comical scene is slightly out of place, yet it still stands high as one of the best South Korean films of the new wave. The Umbrella Entertainment release is a good one, yet flawed as the 4K restoration transfer is underwhelming, and it doesn't carry over all the vintage extras. It is still packed with extras and comes as recommended.
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