The Yellow Sea [Blu-ray]

The new movie from the director of 'The Chaser' is as good and even more thrilling. I might point out at this point that Amazon does not advertise that this is the director's preferred and longer cut which has only been available thus far in Korea. The blu-ray is exemplary and I would suggest to anyone who loves World Cinema and Korean movies in particular to get this release while it is still available. The sub-titles have been newly translated and the main special feature is actually quite sufficient - a documentary comprising of smaller features which reveal the film-making process.I won't go into too much detail about the film so as not to spoil it for anyone but suffice to say that if you enjoyed 'The Chaser', as well as other Korean movies such as 'Nowhere to Hide', 'Tell Me Something', 'Green Fish' and any of the great Korean thrillers between 1999 and 2005 will be well-pleased with this film. Of recent some Korean Thrillers have failed to reach the heights of the aforementioned with the exception of 'I Saw the Devil',and 'The Man from Nowhere' but 'The Yellow Sea' is very much a return to form.The blu-ray release is from Bounty Films and distributed By Eureka. The cover and case are slightly different from the one shown on Amazon U.K. in that the case is light green and the cover has additional text.If you buy just one film this year - this ought to be the one! Watch it back-to-back with 'A Bittersweet Life' and you will see why people like me talk about how some of the best films over the last twelve years have come from South Korea. Make it a Korean film night with 'Epitaph' and 'The Host' and you will feel like you are in film heaven!

The next film by The Chaser's director builds on many of the themes in that film. Here we have a twisted world in which probably no-one would choose to inhabit, where cops are useless or incompetant, bad guys are demonically strong, and protagonists dirtied by it all - in The Chaser for example we followed a cop turned pimp, but we also learn that he was hardly a model officer when he was on the force..Yet at the same time in the Chaser there were many moments of humanity. In the Yellow Sea I struggled to find this humanity within most of the characters themselves. Partially difficulty in finding reasons to empathise with the characters comes from some of the detracting features in the film. Reviews abound on the internet, and you might seek out and find comments there such as 'women not portrayed in enough detail', 'overly long', 'lacks editing'.But at the same time there are many reasons to watch this film. Let me give you a few:- As social comment, albiet from the director's angle, this film differs from many of the more popular Korean films of recent years, examples here would be Oldboy, Bittersweet life, in particular The man from nowhere. Instead there is possibly a lack of character development, in the traditional sense, in favour of seeing the poverty and hardship of the lives in the first third of the film. This focus on Urban life/poverty/hardship demonstrates why the characters do as they do (to some extent).- The cinematography here is very good, much as in The chaser there is attention to detail, artistry with the lens. Not as polished looking as The chaser I would say the investment of more money, possibly time, and locations for filming opened up the use of different camera styles. Some may find this jarring - esp near the last third of the film - but I think it does add to the direction of the scenes. There is a lot of action which I think is best seen not described.- The acting as ever is good, despite my earlier point about a lack of character development in the traditional sense. The main character speaks little and we must therefore look to his experiences, facial expressions and suchlike. In terms of the other characters the villians work well, if again we learn little about them as people, but they seem clearly 'products' of their environments - note the 'clean' looking vs 'dirty' looking Boss theme!- The plot. Though there seems to be some confusion in interpretations, the film warrants a re-watch to understand the goings on after about an hour and a bit in. There are a number of twists and plot changes, notably the shift between the first third and middle/last portions of the film.Overall I would recommend the film, if it must be compared to exisiting Korean film then something like Sympathy for MR Vengence would be applicable, perhaps too Memories of murder. I would stress though that this is one of the bleaker films out there in Korean cinema, we are encouraged perhaps to learn (again in a limited way) about the plight of Koreans outside of the pop/glamour-world. Even more starkly less of the popular Black humour appears in this film than is ususally present in Korean thrillers; though it is there in small doses I think you might check your moral compass if you come away from this film smiling!#Buyers may be interested to know this features 2 discs, with a long making of feature. The film is a 'directors cut' in which about 15/20 mins is removed in comparison to the Korean release. There is a comparison on the net, but I would add that the film is long enough as it is.

I saw this at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2011 and have been dying to finally get this on blu-ray. This is a movie that has very few guns but all the knives and meat cleavers you could ask for. And uses them all.The violence is brutal, bloody and often up close. It is also excessive and never ending. Western films often glorify an intense moment of violence whilst The Yellow Sea follows it to its (un)natural conclusion. Remember the days when Seagal would walk into a room with a knife and kill everybody? This is the modern equivalent but done with Asian flair, outstanding production values, and a human-centred, relevant and modern tale. Like many Asian films, it's also slightly confusing if your mind switches to autopilot. So whilst you could watch this as a straight 'action' film and be happy with the violence, it's much better getting involved in the story too.The perfect non-Western action film.

Really great movie

I'm in shock that someone ( quiet a few) gave this piece of crap 4 - 5 star reviews.Terrible film if you've got a brain.Excellent if you like lots of blood and don't have a brain,I guess.

From the award wining director of THE CHASER brings you yet another great action crime thriller,The story of a cab driver in Yanji City, a region between North Korea, China and Russia. His wife goes to Korea to earn money, but he doesn't hear from her since in 6 months.Great car chase sequences, The violence is brutal, bloody and often up close, Good performances all round, fast paced and tense with twists that keep you watching and hanging on the edge of your seat.THE YELLOW SEA is the first Korean film to ever receive investment from a major Hollywood studio (Fox International Productions).Highly recommend this film!

Much more action than any Hollywood movie. Don't watch Hollywood stuff any more.ps. It was financed by Hollywood though . doh!

A very very good action movie, get you guessing a lot :) good ending :) it's a long movie with action all the way !