A Dirty Carnival
Biyeolhan Geori
credits:
Director: Yoo HaProducers: Cha Seoung-Jae, Kim Mi-heui, Choi Seon-jung
Writer: Yoo Ha
Cast: Jo In-seong, Cheon Ho-jin, Nan-gung Min, Lee Bo-yeong
South Korea 2006 | 141 mins | 35mm | Korean w/E.S.
A gritty look at a low-level hoodlum torn between his blood and mob families, Yoo Ha’s fourth feature (after the critically acclaimed ONCE UPON A TIME IN HIGH SCHOOL) plays like a Korean MEAN STREETS or GOODFELLAS (the original title, in fact, literally translates as “Mean Streets”).
Byung-doo is a cocky twenty-nine-year-old gangster splitting his time between ruthlessly collecting debts for his immediate boss and worrying about his own family’s financial problems. When he sees a chance to move up in the gangster hierarchy, he takes it, but a random encounter with an old friend who’s making a film may ruin all his work.
In the past few years, Korean cinema has earned a reputation for well-made, hard-boiled gangster films, but A DIRTY CARNIVAL raises the ante. Focusing more on human relationships and the emotions of its underdog anti-hero than bloody showdowns (though it certainly doesn’t disappoint on that end), the film heralds director Yoo Ha as a talent to watch.
“The best Korean film since FRIEND, A DIRTY CARNIVAL elevates the genre to an epic narrative level.... [The film] favors dance rhythms and Latino-flavored ballads, giving the whole pic a slight danse macabre feel. But it’s Yoo’s command of structure and his superb dialogue, deftly establishing character and mood, that are the main pluses” (Derek Elley, Variety).
—Jason Sanders
