Friend
Director: Kwak
Kyung-Taek
Writer: Kwak Kyung-Taek
The story is of four
friends and how they deal with drugs, gangs and maintaining their friendships
between them, no matter what lifestyle they live. The film develops
in different stages, the film starting in 1970 then leading up to the
early 90’s.
Joong-Suk (Yoo Oh-Sung)
in the 80’s was known far and wide as the schools boss. Their number
one fighter. Joong-Suk’s father is also a superior to the local gangsters.
Through the stages in his life we see how he changes. From fighting
rival schools, attempting to give up drugs. We even see him getting
a word of warning from his past gang…
Dong-Su (Jang Dong-Gun)
is the son of an undertaker. He helps his father groom corpses. When
in high school he was always hanging around with Joong-Suk since he
was the schools 2nd best fighter.
This seems to give his
character a bit of an edge. After being released from prison in 90’s
Dong-Su is taken in by a rival gang against Joong-Suk. Believing that
Loyalty is money…
Joong-Ho (Jeong Un-Taek)
seems to be a charming character with some dirty habits (aka the milk
lotion story). He’s mother was a business women who went back and forth
from Korea to Japan. So she always came back with the latest gadgets,
like one of the very first video recorders, even with porn. He was also
a big Bruce Lee fan, you even seem him sporting a pair of nunchucks!
Sang-taek (Seo Tae-Hwa)
is the innocence of the film. Sang-Taek was sent to a different school
from Joong-Suk & Dong-Su. He is well educated and smart. He lost
contact with Joong-Suk & Dong-Su, but he seen Joong-Ho frequently.
But Sang-Taek seems to be best friends with Joong-Suk as the years progress.
With all the guys in
this film, surely there must be some eye candy!
Jin-Sook (Kim Bo-Kyeong)
is a cousin of Drocko. She preformed in front of the school in a 7 girl
band called ‘Rainbow’. Instantly she attracted the every guy in the
crowd with her 80’s hair cut and slim figure. In later years she becomes
the wife of Joon-Suk, although he seems to mistreat her, this is through
his stage of limbo…
Final thoughts? Beautiful,
just perfect. The film has many elements to it. The innocence of The
Road Home, the darkness of Infernal Affairs, mixed with Beat Takeshi’s
Brother. The film is amazing, everyone should watch this. I done the
stupid thing and left it lying around for a couple weeks before watching
it. When you get this film, stop your live for 1 hour and 58 minutes
and enjoy…
Highlights
- The twists in the tale
- The gang selling porn
- Joong-Ho's comic relief
- The Gang fighting in the cinema
- Joon-Suk and Sang-taek sending the
Christmas card
- Joon-Suk being 'dealt' by his old
gang (the knife bit)
- The fact that this is loosely based
on a real story
- The Excellent Acting from the main
cast
- The tension between Joong-suk and
Dong-Su
Letdowns
- No really a let down, the violence
towards the end is a little disturbing
Rating: 9.5 out
of 10.0