No. 3 (1997)

Boring

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

No.3 is supposedly a parody of Korean gangster films. Well, I watched it and I haven't the foggiest where the parody bit comes in. There simply aren't any jokes! Not in the script and not in the action. Which leaves you with only a rubbish gangster flick.The story follows a gangster, whose name I've forgotten, who is promoted to become number two in his gang after he rescues his wounded boss and helps put down an internal coup. Unfortunately his wife is a poet who promptly has an affair with a teacher and everyone keeps calling him number three. In the gang he has a rival, Ashtray, so called because he uses an ashtray to beat people up. There is also a mysterious gangster who is training three idiots to become his gang. Then there is a crime deal, over a hotel, with some Japanese. Meanwhile a new, tough public prosecutor who is more like a gangster than the gangsters is threatening number two/three.All of it makes sense, in a rather loose way, though the constantly changing plot and characters will confuse even those who can remember Korean names and faces. I watched this with three other people and the only way they could track the lead character was his Patrick Swayze- esque hair. The plot is pure sub-Godfather pulp and hugely boring. Sadly as the jokes and parody elements appear to have disappeared (bar one silly sound effect, a man falling in a river, an unintentionally funny fight and two poor references to The Godfather) that is all you get. I didn't laugh once (except a vaguely sobbing noise I made about half way through because of the horror of it all).The action isn't any good either, with the first fight being so poorly lit and frantic that it's nearly impossible to work out what is going on. Someone also saw fit to insert a long, pointless sex scene that just won't end. Indeed the film never ends and when it does it does so in a completely baffling manner that left me at a loss. What happened? One to miss.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning No.3 is a Korean production, and presents itself as some kind of gangster spoof, when it in fact turns out to be nothing more than your usual edgy, grey Oriental crime film. It looked a bit of a curious offering to start with, and maybe I had looked a bit too closely into the trade descriptions on the title a bit. And to be fair, it's not bad as a typical sort of Western crime flick. But I'm no expert in this sort of field and maybe there's better types of film out there you could be watching. **

From this film, Korean gangster comedy became the most emergent genre which brought the international fandom to Korean films. The tradition of gangster comedy succeeded to 'Attack the Gas Station', 'My Wife is a Gangster', 'My boss My hero', 'Hi, Dharma', and 'Guns and Talks'.Besides, two great male actors got their stardom by this film. One is Choi Min-sik (Swiri, Failan, Happy End, and Chihwaseon) who concentrated on stage career in those days, and the other is SONG Kang Ho (Swiri, The Foul King, and JSA).This film is very funny and enjoyable satire to Korean society. Most characters are obssessed with something - power, hierarchy, fame, sexual pleasure and property. Sometimes these things are exposed with their vanity. Very Enjoyable film.

This film did not turn out quite how I had initially expected, a black comedy - this was a little disappointing, though it was still amusing in parts, so that made up for it. There is more violence than humour, though it becomes a little more slapstick as the film progresses.An amusing and very unexpected conclusion. Though the absurdity of the entire situation throughout is perhaps not appreciated fully, perhaps a little is lost in the translation?