Dirty Carnival is a story about a sergeant level member of a organized crime gang. At 29 he has little to show for his age and worse, has no prospects. While he seemingly has the utmost loyalty from his subordinates he is constantly put down by the under boss. He reluctantly seizes a murderous opportunity which would surely promote him to lieutenant to the big boss. All goes according to plan but he is anything but happy and in a drunken confession he pours his heart out to a filmmaker friend looking for the perfect plot to his movie.
I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything when I say the ending is not a happy one. It has become the trademark of Korean cinema, or to be cynical, a cliché. At first such endings were fresh and different but these days I could do without them. Nonetheless A Dirty Carnival is one of the best movies I've seen since, well, Once Upon a Time in High school. The movie achieves a gritty yet realistic tone I rarely see in movies. I can honestly say I enjoyed every moment of this movie and I have the attention span of a 3rd grader. Many people are interested in the fight scenes so I will say that there is one major brawl scene comparable to the one in "Chingu". Violence is scattered throughout the movie, at least enough to please action fans.
I don't feel like I'm spoiling anything when I say the ending is not a happy one. It has become the trademark of Korean cinema, or to be cynical, a cliché. At first such endings were fresh and different but these days I could do without them. Nonetheless A Dirty Carnival is one of the best movies I've seen since, well, Once Upon a Time in High school. The movie achieves a gritty yet realistic tone I rarely see in movies. I can honestly say I enjoyed every moment of this movie and I have the attention span of a 3rd grader. Many people are interested in the fight scenes so I will say that there is one major brawl scene comparable to the one in "Chingu". Violence is scattered throughout the movie, at least enough to please action fans.