Paradise Evening (2021)

What a gripping movie

Now I saw that someone had given this a rating of 5 and all that I can say is that they must have watched the entire movie through a blindfold. There is no way this could have deserved such an insulting rating especially when I spent so much of my time on the edge of my seat because I knew something was going to happen but I didn’t know just how bad the next few minutes were going to be. Just a word of warning at this point. This is not one for the faint hearted but then again within minutes you realise that this is going to be one bumpy ride. In saying that though don’t be put off because it’s one of the best movies that I’ve seen for quite some time and I have a lot of respect for all those who managed to craft such an amazing tale where not one iota of the story could have been left out without damaging the integrity of the movie.
Excellent work and I have to commend the cast and crew for creating such a fascinating tale. Anyone whose hesitating about watching this just do yourself a favour and do it. You won’t be sorry.

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What a roller coaster of a ride!

I’ve been waiting for this movie since I saw the trailer when it came out and I had high expectations for it. The movie didn’t disappoint AT ALL. Just a warning though, this movie is NOT for the faint hearted and may trigger viewers.

Acting:
I want to seriously give a big salute to the actors in this movie. All of them did an amazing job. Their acting was so breathtaking and they captured all the emotions of their respective characters beautifully. Uhm Tae Goo deep voice really suites this movie so much.

Production:
The cinematography was mind-blowing. They really showed Jeju Island nature very nicely. Moreover, the director really knows how to capture their viewers. They have us sitting on the edge of our seats just waiting to see what happens.

Rewatch value 10/10!

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intense

There is no way to review this movie without discussing the major plot points so if anyone is reading, be warned.
I went in not expecting much. It was a rainy day and I was bored. This movie happened to be on my recommended. I remember watching the trailer and not being too interested but then I realized the same female lead in Vincenzo was acting and I thought why not?

The plot itself is moderately good. Above average. The thing is, I've watched a lot of action movies, thrillers and I could predict a lot of the major scenes. The element of surprise didn't work for me, unfortunately. Why then did I like it so much? it was less about the story but more about how it was told. The narration, the subtle hints, were a treat to me. A little predictive but that didn't lessen my curiosity.
The movie did not stray from what it promised. I could feel the tension and the anger, the sadness, the whole absurdity of the system. There was no right or wrong. I think it's a close representation of how mobs and gangs work. There is always a score to settle. The gang isn't one big family. There are backstabbers and power is the only thing that matters. No sugarcoated representation. No romanticizing being a bad guy. Even though (by the power vested in me by my addiction to movies) I was able to literally predict everything I think I still would watch it. The silence, the sounds, the scenery, the coloring; perfect for a rainy day.
Some have said they didn't see the point of the whole romance aspect. I personally loved it. it was more than just love. I think it added the depth the movie needed. I don't think they loved each other, no. I think they needed each other. I think they gave each other a reason. One who did not have a reason to live and one who did not have enough time to live. The end was reasonable and left me feeling satisfied.

The acting is spectacular. The whole cast was perfect. The male and female lead was something else. Just enough chemistry. Enough to make me intrigued but not too much that it overpowered the main story. Their portrayal of their characters' emotions, the action scenes; even though I knew what was coming I couldn't help but hope. The ML raspy voice was something I won't be forgetting for a long time.

The music was perfect. As I've mentioned, the perfect balance of silence and sound.

if anyone reads this far (which I doubt lol) go watch it! it's not a movie you would want to miss.

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The potential to be great

Night in Paradise… Where do I start? The movie actually started out quite nicely. I absolutely loved the very cold colors. It incited a feeling of nostalgia and longing. I loved how we saw the main character, Tae Goo, interact with people he loves and cares for. The banter between himself and his sister, the interactions with his (unfairly adorable) niece, the way you see him pick up his sister’s medications and get information on how she’s doing.

These are aspects of Tae Goo that build on his humanity despite his line of work. We see him be devastated when his sister and his niece are brutally murdered during the car accident. We see him kill (or so we thought) Director Do and a few of his men in cold blood when he receives a tip from his boss that they were involved in the death of his family. Then, we see him escape to Jeju. Up until that point, things were going really good. Yes there was lots of blood until that point, but it felt justified.

And then we enter the second part where he meets Jae Yun. Let me start off by saying that there isn’t much at all to Jae Yun’s character. She’s absolutely dull and boring. The only interesting thing about her is that she’s going to die soon due to an illness (that isn’t even specified). We barely know anything about her except for the fact that she lost her family due to her uncle’s affiliation with a gang, that she resents him for it, and that she loves mulhoe (she’s also greatly talented with guns).

These aspects about Jae Yun could have set her up to be a solid character, but instead it creates this lack of empathy from the viewer’s point of view because we still don’t know her despite what we know about her. Instead of being shown how she feels, we are told how she feels. For example, when she explains to Tae Goo that she actually resented her uncle and that she wished it had been him who died instead of her parents and little sister. Based on her interactions with him, I would have never guessed. There was absolutely no tension with her uncle when they were together, no hint to allude to the fact that she might not like him much. In reality we barely even saw them interact.

Then, you pair up Jae Yun (a character I couldn’t care less about) with Tae Goo (a character I was starting to warm up to), give them useless dialogues, and try to make me believe that he would actually go back to save her. Without giving me the whys. Even the immensely talented cast of actors couldn’t save the nonsensical storyline for me. When Tae Goo died, I felt absolutely nothing. To be honest, I didn’t care at all. And I cared even less when Jae Yun went to the restaurant and shot everyone before going to the beach and shooting herself in the head.

Overall, my issue with this movie is that we didn’t get to know the characters in depth. There seemed to be so many layers to the characters, yet we were only shown the surface of what they were like. And that’s such a shame! I wanted to get attached to the characters. I wanted to feel devastated when Tae Goo died. I wanted to be marked by this movie. I wasn’t. All I could think of after watching the movie was “What a waste.”

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Right Ingredients Wrong Recipe

At first sight this looked like a sure fire win. A more thoughtful plot, plenty of violence, beautiful scenery and an interesting cast though the two leads are new to me. What went wrong with it is harder to pin down as it's all fairly typical.

They spend at least a little time setting the stage so you know what's going on. There's the usual woman in a fridge to provide impetus. There's some beautiful scenery, some great cinematography and some angst ridden protagonists. A star turn by Cha Seung Won channelling the Devil King is fun too.
But I found myself too easily distracted from the backstory and fluff making it harder to be pulled in by the set pieces.

The main fall down for me was a total lack of empathy for the main leads - I didn't really like them so I didn't really care what happened to them - it's a hard hurdle to get over. Neither came across as cool or relatable or even consistent. Every time I started to like them they did something to annoy me. Add in some really brain dead decisions especially later in the film and...meh.

Another pet hate of mine is torture porn I get an OOOH! I bet that hurt moment then I get bored and want some plot or action, the best torture scenes are marked by anticipation rather than special effects (cf. the hairdryer scene from Man from Nowhere). You guessed it torture porn rears it's head for too long and with totally unrealistic ability to still function thrown in.

On the plus side there a some excellent shootouts the finale being particularly fun, some comedy gold in places and some great acting. Would I watch it again? Nah! I don't think I'd even skip to the shootouts.

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Bloody, brilliant, brutal, bad-ass. beautiful...

This movie starts off very bloody, to be honest it has a pretty bloody yet surprisingly boring start but when it gets good, it gets really, really good...

Both the females lines in this drama are just gold, every singel one of the females lines in this drama are truly brilliant, convention breaking greatness! Making these characters so much cooler then the bloody gangsters with their fists and knife fights. Honestly I could not care less about the bloody fights I loved this for the dialog, the dynamics and chemistry between the leads. That and though this is not a romance the tension and the humor between them was great (I want to see these two in an action rom-com drama).

The male leads voice was extremely hoarse and in that very sexy in a bad boy that can ken easily kill 20 people kind of yet stil have this adorabel teddy bear heart kind of way...

The female leads look on life, death end respect towards the elders is not only refreshing but also makes great comedy. She is also incredibly good with guns! And the perfect match to the male lead.

All in the gorgeous setting of Jeju island with just beautiful scenery and cinematography that is just lovely. The ending is very interesting, and is the perfect combination of happy and tragic ending.

This drama also teaches us, stay in school, do not join a gang, but if you happen to find your self in a gang do not trust any one and to all just keep being suspicious and know you can never truly feel safe!

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The Life of a Mobster

I went into this movie completely blind, it came up on my feed on Netflix, and I thought I would give it a try, and boy, was I hooked. It's a movie with the least amount of dialogue between the male and female leads, Park Tae Goo and Jae Yun, but their body language was more than enough to captivate me. I think the one line in the movie that best described it to me was when Jae Yun told Park Tae Goo he was a dead man walking because, in a way, everybody in the movie was a dead man walking. To me, it encapsulated the sheer hopelessness and cutthroat underworld life of a gangster— a hard and high-stakes world fueled by fear, the survival of the fittest, strongest, and the fastest to betray or be betrayed, and, of course, mass murder. But when one has lost everything that ever meant anything to them, and there's nothing left for them to lose; what could they possibly be afraid of; absolutely nothing. I will admit I am not familiar with Uhm Tae Goo at all, this is my first anything for him, and I was blown away with him. And the same goes with Jeon Yeo Bin (she was brilliant), Cha Seung Won, Lee Gi Young, and Park Ho San. I loved the movie's slow pace, the unlikely connection of two lost souls with nothing left to lose, and most importantly, the banging end -- well done!

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This is definitely not a Rom-Com.

I'll start this by saying that Jeon Yeo Bin is definitely the reason I decided to watch this movie. I was going through withdrawals waiting for the next episode of "Vincenzo" to come out when Netflix's suggestion that I may like this finally got to me. Extremely violent crime/action films aren't usually my go-to genre but the trailer was intriguing. I was also excited to see Yeo Bin in a different role and this confirmed her status as a new favorite of mine for sure. She and the rest of the cast are amazing in this, they made this wild ride of a story super compelling and more than extreme stylized violence, and revenge clichés.

The most important point that needs to be made upfront, without spoilers, is that this is in no way a romcom or a romantic movie... at all. I say this only because the title and promotional photos seem to give off that impression. I think the purpose is to give the impression of dark things under the surface in a beautiful relaxing setting but this story is pretty brutal from beginning to end. Trigger Warning... literally... because I know Korea isn't known for epic gunfights but this has a lot, A WHOLE LOT, of gun violence in it. The violence is also not subtle, so be aware of this if you are squeamish at the sight of blood.

As a story, I think this is extremely well done. It centers around Uhm Tae Goo as Park Tae Goo (guess he was made for the role lol), a high-level gangster who gets caught in between a power grab with an opposing boss wanting him to change sides. As expected with a gang-themed story there is revenge, betrayal, and ruthless bad guys. What Tae Goo does so well is he brings such humanity and hurt to the character that I was immediately sucked into his struggle. Then he forms an odd connection with Jeon Yeo Bin as Jae Yun, and although I definitely did say this is not a romance, there is still a kind of chemistry between them that works so well. Jae Yun is such a great character, and I was shocked at how different and equally impressive Yeo Bin was as a completely different female lead. Once Jae Yun is introduced she shares the lead status and becomes just as intriguing as the main male lead, not just the girl sidekick (which I appreciate). In fact, she steals many scenes and stands strong among a predominantly male cast without having to play up being sexy, or super fragile.

The rest of the cast is filled with familiar faces in ways I haven't really seen before. Like Cha Seung Won, who although his charm is pretty much the same as it always is, there is an extra sinister edge to Director Ma. I liked the idea that none of the gangsters seemed like caricatures to me. Even characters with no real redeeming qualities had some depth. I also liked that there really are no true good guys in this story which gives this film license to reach such a disturbing climax... and yes, I did found the end disturbing, but I felt like it also ended perfectly.

Would I watch this again? Definitely. More than once. I already did. For me, the violent scenes can be hard to watch, but the dynamics between the characters and the performances make my rewatch score high. The story isn't very complicated either, or plot twist-ridden, but the pace of the story is so great, and so much of the suspense in this is waiting for the inevitable to finally happen. About halfway into the movie both leads make choices that seal their fate and the suspense is built on that. It's hard to speak about specific scenes without spoilers, but watching certain scenes again after knowing how the story ends, made me like this film even more.

Overall, the amount of violence may understandably keep some viewers away, but if you're open to a compelling story and can appreciate a movie that's dark without breaks for comedy (beyond a few random jokes) or romance, there is a lot to like about this movie. There are also a lot of great action sequences for those afraid that this movie is slow paced and moody all the way through. The movie is also beautifully shot in spite of the ugliness it portrays. I do think Jeon Yeo Bin is a true star in this role, and I can't wait for whatever she is in next, including the next episode of Vincenzo. This movie was a not so pleasant pleasant surprise. Thanks Netflix, you were actually right. :)

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Predictable + Entertaining = Good Enough

I will admit-- I thought this movie was more about healing and overcoming past tragedies to welcome new beginnings, based on the synopsis and posters. However, I wouldn't say it's much about healing-- but rather, this is an action thriller film with hints of revenge drama that keeps you on your toes, but doesn't want you to use your brain too much.

If I have to discuss about the story, there isn't much to say. There's not much to hate, but there's not much to praise either. Most of it was predictable, the plot twists didn't have much effect on the overall film's shock value and the characters aren't the type you haven't seen before. If I have to nitpick, some scenes were a bit too illogical for me to look past, the antagonists were cliche, and some of the choices made by the main characters were stupid (but I get it, since those choices conveniently made way for shit to keep happening throughout the 2-hour runtime). If you watch stuff for the plot and the plot only, I wouldn't recommend this film.

However, there's a pattern with Korean noir/action films that I've noticed as of late, upon watching another noir action drama the other day-- Ji Chang Wook's 'The Worst of Evil' (which I dropped, because it was just not worth 12 hours for me). The plot is a background character, the writing is not important. What IS important, is pretty much everything else-- the directing, the production, cinematography, acting, action scene choreography etc. They want you to focus on everything BUT the writing. It is a bit lazy and un-creative, but if you're looking to entertain yourself (and nothing more) with a movie, then these are it. This is it. I, on the other hand, care a lot about the writing of a film or tv series, so perhaps that's why I was pretty bothered with the screenplay throughout this movie. It didn't hinder my enjoyment way too much though, because 'Night in Paradise' is visually striking.

Now, to sum all the good points of this film up, the cinematography and acting from the main leads take the cake and eat it. Set conveniently in Jeju Island, the cinematographer didn't have to think too hard in order to make this film pleasant for the eyes. That, but the actions scene were nicely shot too and didn't make my eyes hurt from trying to find a point to focus on. Next, the acting performances were nothing short of amazing. This was my first time watching Uhm Tae Goo, and I might've become a fan. And Jeon Yeo Bin gave exactly what I'd expected from her-- excellence.

The music wasn't anything special, sadly. If the music slapped, I might've rated this higher.

In conclusion, this is an entertaining action film that's easy on the eyes-- and might've been a little too easy on the brain.

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Disgusting, I'm not even talking about the blood

right from the moment the movie starts, even before a scene comes up, they start with the most disgusting chewing sound and it keeps happening all through the 40min I watched.. they keep chewing and slurping so loud while talking I just couldn't take it anymore...
I never got the reason why audio directors choose to do such an uncultured move, it adds nothing to the plot beside showing how disgusting those characters are.. gangs have no manners fine but spare my poor ears...


talking about the plot is was nothing special. non of the reviews make sense but atleast the ratings reflect better. they had nothing but gangsters nagging and being disgusting while the ML and FL brooded over stuff.
it's ironic, I've seen many movies with blood and gore but maybe as I grow up I realize I don't need to to force myself through something added just to look edgy

many movies dealt with it better, they added blood well enough without it being thrown everywhere


now for the only good points, the acting was great on both leads, they had great charisma, sadness with a touch of naiveness from the ML, but I'm assuming he'll avenge the people who killed his sister and niece, and the FL joins him and alot of random shootings will happen, then the evil guy will turn out to be his boss or whatever...
the lighting was also nice but that was it..

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