Movies - A Bittersweet Life

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	Movies - A Bittersweet Life

A Bittersweet Life is a 2005 film by Korean director Kim Ji-woon. Highly cultural and ruthlessly violent, it illustrates the ethical codes in Asian organized crime and how they clash with personal morality.

Plot

Beginning

The film opens with a shot of a willow tree and a voiceover from the protagonist, Kim Sun-woo (Lee Byung-hun), who is a mob enforcer. When we see Sun-woo, he is eating dessert in a restaurant called La Dolce Vita, which he ‘manages’. He calls on one of his juniors, Min-gi, to help deal with members of a rival family who have outstayed their welcome. After issuing them a warning, Sun-woo and Min-gi attack and incapacitate them.

Sun-woo has dinner with his boss, Kang (Kim Yeong-cheol). They determine the root of the problem to be a rival boss’ son, Baek Jr. (Hwang Jeong-min). Mun-suk (Kim Roe-ha), Sun-woo’s peer, arrives. He gorges on food and issues half-baked apologies for his failure to properly deal with Baek Jr. After reproaching Mun-suk and making him leave the room, Kang asks Sun-woo to watch over his mistress, Hee-soo (Shin Min-a) while he is out of town, and to kill her if she is unfaithful. In an allusion to the events that will unfold, he remarks that “you can do a hundred things right, but it takes only one mistake to destroy everything.”

Tensions arise

Baek Jr. is unhappy about Sun-woo’s assault on his men. Sun-woo takes no notice, further aggravating him. Baek Jr. vents his anger on one of his underlings by assaulting him with a telephone. Mun-suk arranges a meeting between the two to ease tensions. Sun-woo isn’t having any of it. He tells off both Baek Jr. and Mun-suk before taking his leave. Mun-suk warns him that he is not untouchable.

Meanwhile, Sun-woo develops a fondness for Hee-soo. It is not clear if he loves her but she has torn down a wall he spent years building around himself. When he catches her with a lover, he lays him out, but hesitates to take their lives. He lets them go, on the condition that they never see each other again. Hee-soo is stricken and wants nothing more to do with Sun-woo, too overcome with emotion to appreciate that he disobeyed his boss’ orders for her sake. Sun-woo takes out his frustrations on a group of punks by beating them up and flinging their car keys to another lane. He is approached in the parking lot of his home by a man in glasses and a bucket hat. The man introduces himself as Mu-sung (Lee Gi-yeong), one of Baek Jr.’s enforcers. He advises Sun-woo to say three words, “I was wrong,” and this will clear all misunderstandings between them. Sun-woo adamantly refuses, ready for a fight. Mu-sung leaves without the apology.

Upon returning, Kang pays Hee-soo a visit. She is cold toward him and it is clear she wants to break their affair off.

Back in his apartment, Sun-woo is having trouble sleeping. He flips his lights on and off to kill time, and is caught off guard when armed men appear behind him and descend on him immediately. Mu-sung emerges and kicks a badly beaten Sun-woo in the face, rendering him unconscious.

Sun-woo’s downfall

Upon awakening, Sun-woo finds himself in a warehouse, tied up and suspended from the ceiling. A lady mops his blood up. He pleads for her help, but she pays him no heed. Baek Jr. appears with Mu-sung and the rest of his henchmen. He gloats over Sun-woo’s position. When Sun-woo tells him he’ll remember this, Baek Jr. responds, “You have no idea what’s happening, do you?” He orders Mu-sung to butcher Sun-woo, but a phone call robs Sun-woo of a quick death. He is loaded in a van with a plastic bag over his head and transported to another location. The van dumps him and drives off. Outside, it is raining heavily. Sun-woo rips the plastic bag off. Two cars pull up. Kang and Mun-suk get out.

Kang asks Sun-woo why he betrayed him. Sun-woo is at a loss for words. Kang departs. Mun-suk says, “People don’t matter for shit. No one can ever see what’s coming next.” Sun-woo asks him what he’s going to do. Mun-suk passes the phone to Sun-woo. It’s Kang, giving him another chance to explain himself. A battered Sun-woo says he did what he thought was best. Kang is dissatisfied with his answer and asks for the “real reason.” Sun-woo doesn’t have one. Kang asks him to put Mun-suk back on. Mun-suk listens and smiles. His henchmen hold Sun-woo down. Mun-suk shatters two of his left fingers with a wrench. They proceed to bury him alive.

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