Not an easy view, but it's considered by many to be a classic. It had a semi-documentary feel to it and the story is definitely engrossing, showing much of the desperation and hopelessness of the lives being led by these men (and women). Not AS depressing as the actual Japanese documentary The Great Happiness Space (since the fact that what you are watching in that nightmarishly depressing production is actually real), this movie still mostly succeeded in giving a snapshot of a part of Korean culture that is rarely mentioned. It did feel a bit disjointed in places and after some reading, I found that they had to cut some 30 minutes of the film (at 2 hours,already a lengthy movie-but I'm sorry for the loss). I think some of the story suffered as a result. Still, at the end, you know most of the how and the why these people got there, but (and there would never be any chance of this anyway) there were no answers and no reasoning and no hope left at the end. Just a never ending cycle of dependence on a life of utter desperation and complete lack of any morality and the sad reality of lives wholly lost and with no hope of escape from the death spiral they exist in.
Why would you watch it? It's a good story about a segment of Korean life that is an open secret. Prostitution in Korea is illegal, but, anyone who has spent any time there knows it's out in the open, it's everywhere, and easily available with little to no chance of any legal repercussions. The parts of this movie that deal with that segment of these men's lives is not made up. But the movie doesn't dwell so much on their 'work'. It deals mostly with their ever disintegrating private lives. Still, it's all part and parcel of what kind of moral degeneration their lives turn into as they sink further into that pit. Both sides are feeding on each other as they become further and further desensitized to any sort of moral center.
Didn't notice the music, which is a good thing, since the story is what you are there for. I'd never re-watch it...but I would never re-watch anything that was sad, including dramas! Once is always enough.
7.5 or 8...the acting would tip it towards the higher mark. The story could have used a bit 'more'.
