insert wit here

The City of Violence is just that; a city of violence.  I picked it up because it was done by the same director who did Die Bad; a favorite flick of mine resting comfortably in my top 10 movie list.  Low on plot but high on octane, CoV has typical story of 5 friends who grow apart but come back to their hometown when one them is killed unexpectedly.  My favorite scene is when the very streetwise cop from Seoul goes up against 200 some odd punk kids.  It was silly and thrilling at the same time.  Kids with baseball bats, schoolgirls with chains and punks with skateboards.   That scene and the scene at the end with the two leads going against a restaurant full of knife wielding bad guys make the whole movie worth it.  3.5 out of 5

Bloody Tie is the tale of hard-nosed cop and drug dealer turned informant.  It’s told from both the point of view of the cop and the criminal in 1st person narrative.  It’s the first Korean movie I’ve seen that dealt with drug use in South Korea.  I assumed they were banned or something.  Both characters are flawed yet noble in their own ways.  And they both hate each other and are constantly trying to get one over on the other.  The movie on a whole was pretty average until the ending, which I thought, was superb.  The last 10 minutes brought it up a half point.  4 out of 5.