Bad Guy (2001)

Very well executed

good back-story, and good acting

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

An excellent movie in many aspects...a pimp gang leader obsessed with a beautiful student methodically destroys her innocense while secretly worshipping her....it plays with the idea of the Stockholm syndrome and time warping.....and allthough the end is presented to us it leaves us wondering if that "end" is the real one.....for me it should have ended in the last beach scene....where the clothes picking and the photo itself is fictitious with both heroes already passing into the afterlife (drowning + stubbed to death) while their spirits still wonder about interacting with each other

I LOVE it when I find a new director who instantly appeals to me. Kim Ki-duk is my latest find; this is my third film of his, after SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER...AND SPRING and THE ISLE, and it's just as engrossing and thought-provoking as those previous films. Yes, the subject matter might just be too dark and off-putting for some viewers, but nonetheless this is an expertly crafted South Korean drama.The storyline is deceptively simple, as in the director's other films: a low-life street thug becomes obsessed with a beautiful young woman, who rejects him. He decides to punish her by forcing her - through a set-up crime which leads to her being in debt to her - into becoming a prostitute. This is merely the beginning of the story, however, which focuses on the unusual developing relationship between the pair.BAD GUY is a slow moving film in which building scenes of simmering tension are shattered by bursts of sudden, harsh violence. It's a realistic movie that pulls no punches and is all the more effective thanks to the outstanding acting of Cho Jae-hyun as the thug and Seo Won as the broken woman. It's amazing that you don't end up despising the "bad guy" of the title despite his misogyny and crimes towards women and that despite all the depressing scenes this is somehow never a downbeat movie, just a very good one. I literally couldn't take my eyes off the screen...

There's very little form of representation I'd like more than movies. I saw 'Bad Guy' by chance a few years ago. I had never heard of Kim Ki-Duk before,but just by watching few seconds into the film I started to think to myself – this film is real magic – And it is a real incantation every time I see it now. I enjoy movies, because they are a personal vision of a life through the eyes of an oneself, as in a mirror, which is a kind of an image of the one looking. If you are concerned with knowing, thinking and intend to know yourself, you look into this 'mirror' and it gives you an insight in how to measure yourself; dipped in dark, in an imminent move out, ready for take-off, like on a plane, for somewhere. Thank you Kim Ki-Duk.

Kim Ki Duk's Bad Guy is a brilliant study of vanity, sexual obsession and moral. It tells the story of a pimp (Han-Ki) who forces a girl into prostitution out of revenge. Bad guy is dark, extremely emotional, violent and forces us to think. Many parts of the movie can be interpreted as a dreamlike, wish-fulfillment fantasy from the viewpoint of Han-Ki. The movie leaves many questions. Why does the pimp never speak? Why the voyeurism? Are Han-Ki's emotions hate or love and pain? What do the torn photo's mean? And the girl dressed in red, is it the heroine in the future (Karma) or is it someone from the past (Han-Ki's ex?)? There is always more under the surface than it seems with Kim Ki Duk's movies, this movie demands multiple views to understand how brilliant it is. Watching Bad Guy is like entering an emotional roller coaster. It challenges all conventional ideas we have about love. Watch it with an open mind and U will have a very powerful experience.