Sunflower (2006)

I've never really become addicted to watching Korean movies just as Korean dramas. I don't know, maybe I've grown accustomed to drama series that the movies just seem too short for comfort.

However, Sunflower, perhaps, is one of the few enticingly dark stories that gets marked in your head. Kim Rae Won portrays Tae Sik, a high school drop-out who paid jail-time (was it ten years?) for 'cleaning up' the neighborhood of high school punks and thugs. We see how he's trying to catch up with the changes around him and how he's sincerely wanting to change through an old dirty notebook where he keeps a list of 'To dos'.

But oh, some people just wouldn't have it. He's been maimed, bullied, pushed to the limit. So much that it makes you want to cringe when he just keeps quiet and walks away. And when he does snap, it was like a volcano erupting.

Story is a 10 - closer to reality.
Acting/Cast 10 - Awesome characters.
Rewatch value - well, if you want a tragedy...

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Wonderfully tragic film that takes you on a journey of a new ending. Sunflower is not a happy film, there are dark elements despite it's name. The characters have depth and the story makes sense. This director understands pain, he understands basic human emotions. He manipulates this to tell a good story.
The ending fight scene to me was the best part of the film, not because of the action but the meaning behind the fight. It leaves you feeling like you just watched 300 for the first time and you are ready to fight. Sunflower ends as one suspect it would but it doesn't leave complaining about the end.

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