refresh daemon This is director Lee Chang-Dong's first film (of three) and the third that I've seen after his well-made films Peppermint Candy and Oasis. It's a story of a young man who is recently discharged from the standard military service that young Corean men are required to serve and finds that life, or the real world, is a lot harsher than his idealistic self would've expected. He soon finds himself dragged into the Corean underworld out of necessity and finds his idealism and the idealism of all those around him at odds with reality.In a greater sense, this film is about the constant struggle between chasing your dreams and dealing with the harsh reality. All the primary characters, the mob boss, the female lead and the protagonist all have their dreams and ambitions (building a great property from the ashes of his youth, escaping the prostitute's life and living a normal one, owning a restaurant with his family), but are struck by the world's reality, which forms itself as an enemy mob, the mob bosses' controlling nature and the young protagonist's dysfunctional family.It's a study of the nature of the relatively modern world (of Corea) and the inevitable clash of youthful idealism and experienced reality. And it doesn't take too many sides either, although the ending does seem to show that action, and sacrifice, even unintended, is what's necessary to keep yourself from being beaten down by reality.It's a slowly-paced art film with quiet but contemplative character development, modest acting and capable directing. Directer Lee still hasn't fully gained a strong grasp of storytelling yet as a director at this point as the film as it's sometimes difficult to make out why anything's happening in the film, but the potential shows as well, with honest characters and patient development. A good start, but you can see the Director side of Lee Chang-Dong really start to pick up with his later films. It's decent. 7/10.

Meganeguard During his train ride back home after his term in the army has ended, Makdong decides to get some fresh air by hanging his head out of one of the train's open entrances. As he does this he notices a lovely woman doing the same. As the woman glances at him, her red scarf comes loose and lands on Makdong's face. Wanting to return the scarf, Makdong discovers that the woman is being harassed by three hoodlums. His interceding allows the woman to get away, but Makdong receives a beating for his efforts. It seems at first Makdong is going to let this slide, but when the three men get off the train, the young former soldier follows and cracks one of the three on back of the head with an award he received from the army.Makdong eventually returns to his widowed mother's home where she resides with his physically disabled older brother. Before his father died, the family home had been well kept. However, the following years had been unkind, so the house fell into disrepair. Makdong soon learns that his mother does housekeeping work to keep herself afloat. Makdong dislikes this and tells his mother to cease working as a housekeeper. He goes on to say that he will earn lots of money to take care of her. These are big words for someone without a job.Makdong's two other older brothers are not in much better shape. One sells eggs for a living and the other is a cuckolded police officer. Things seem to be going nowhere for our hero until he encounters Miae, the woman from the train, in a nightclub. It turns out that Miae is the, unwilling, girlfriend of Bae Taegon a high ranking member of the Korean mafia. Bae is impressed by Makdong's willingness to fight and later in the film, after Makdong clubs one of Bae's men on the head with a wooden post, the former soldier becomes a member of Bae's "family." _Green Fish_ is an interesting film. It has its moments of family tenderness and heartbreak and is also peppered throughout with gang violence. One of the most interesting relationships within the film is the one shared between Miae and Bae. Although Bae continuously tells Miae that he loves her, it seems that she is little more than a tool for him to use, meaning that she sleeps with whomever Bae tells her to. In one of the saddest parts of the film, Miae asks Makdong If he wants to sleep with her. She says it is okay if he wants to; everyone else has slept with her.

freakus I see this as a film about how hard it is to do the right thing in the complex modern world. Makdong's family used to own acres of farmland that are now covered in ugly apartment buildings and now they get by selling eggs to the residents. All Makdong wants to do is make this easier for his family and in the process he becomes a gangster just to get by. Even the gangsters are between doing the right thing and doing what they must to survive. Makdong's "Big Brother" likes to think of himself as different from the other thieves and killers that make up the underworld but in the end he is no better.

keala I saw this a few years ago and remember it as sad, graceful and often funny, with a few strikingly memorable images, like the one of the glowering night club singer. Its story of a young Korean man from a loving but troubled home who ends up working for the local hoods is not wildly original, but it's well done. It is kind of unassuming and low-key, so that when the credits trekked over the final scene (which the audience rightly applauded) I was surprised at how touched I was, and I remember it overall with more clarity than most films I see.