Promising baseball player Lee-hwan is forced to retire from the sport because of a scandal about match-fixing with his participation. Expecting to return, he gets a job at Busan’s largest private loan company, Emperor Capital.
Suddenly for me, a tough, uncompromising, crude movie that shows the underside of a beautiful life. In this film there is no place for love and pity, even feelings that flare up, burn quickly, mercilessly depriving beauty and sensuality. The tape goes fast and too cold, like the look of the main character Lee Min Ki, a former baseball player who, like steel, does not feel the pain, fear, doubts, even the feelings that are in his heart, do not seem real, everything seems to quench passion, and even the last look at the girl does not bear love, there are no emotions in it. Pak Son-un, for me, the main character of the film is a person who knows how to attract attention to himself. In this film, you should look only at his psychological games with Hwang, an old tiger and Tesak, he skillfully makes plans in building his power and strength. And his main advantage I consider honesty, what the main character did not have and at the same time he is a damn charming man.
The storyline seems to me too overloaded, games, fraud, communication with politicians, all this looks complicated construction, but to test how it turns out everything was for the sake of money. But more I liked the storyline linking the fates of the two heroes, it gave more emotionality and humanity to both characters, who seemed to forget that they are ordinary people, not pieces of steel.
The verdict, the film For the Emperor, looks brutal, brutal, bloody and sometimes inhumane, but when you look through the cruelty and psychological games, there is the story of two men who lost themselves, although I think there was hope for salvation when Park Son-un gave the ball to Hwang. At that moment there was hope, a pity that it broke when they overstepped themselves and their pride.
I would like to start with the main character. Lee Hwang is a capable baseball player, but he is out of the sport and where is he going? Amazingly, in the criminal business. It would be the same if a promising business lady suddenly became a prostitute of her own free will. Everything looked like this and whether it was the fault of the unemotional protagonist, on whose face you can read everything, except at least some feelings. Even to the beautiful woman he seems to love. Or not? I could not understand at least something, and the love line in the film generally flew unnoticed, only erotic scenes in memory survived. But not because of their “coolness”, at all, they are like a checkmark, so that the viewer really understands that this story is not for children and with age restrictions.
And if we are talking about the main character, why not touch on the Li Min Ki who played him. He doesn't look good as a bad guy. As capable as he is, being a villain destroying everything in his path is not his. As soon as I realized that this character is so similar to his character from "The Monster" already put an end to the film and did not make a mistake. Min Ki is wonderful, has a very expressive and intimidating look and plays on top. Why not play the bad guy in the thriller? But no, it never was his role and it never will be, I think. The expression of the face is empty, there you will not read a single emotion, there is no anger, no love, no pofigism. He doesn’t care what’s going on with his life. So he left the sport, so he killed, and so as to avenge his “love”. Was Lee Hwang in love with anyone at all with a difficult question, to which there is no answer and will not be?
In the finale, the writers drew on a strong friendship that "went through fire and water." I think it was, but was it there? The finale, which was supposed to touch, did not cause any emotions, except for a misunderstanding. The main character was not sorry, because he did not show any feelings to at least want to feel sorry for him. He made his choice and remained the bad guy he was at the beginning of the film. Kill without unnecessary emotions should still try, and he did it as if he came to the club after work, and not stabbed several people.
I’d like to praise Pak Song Un for a great role, but he plays such characters so often that you don’t know how to react to all this. He plays well, especially the bad guys. A great example of how appearance does not affect the choice of roles. If Ming Ki and remains a "frightening" handsome, which does not suit the role of a bad guy, then Song Un on the contrary perfectly copes with the task. And yes, Lee Tae Im may be beautiful for someone, but her game is not good for anything. The first time I encounter her, so I do not dare to judge the actress, but so far a very weakly played role, and in fact she had almost no words.
5 out of 10
And this assessment is more for the reason that I can not put lower, but not the film where Min Ki is shot. It may be the first disappointment in him, but I hope the last.
In this film, everything is second-rate: from the actors who dispensed with no hints of Stanislavsky, to the theme and sentimentalism of a kind of male friendship with its restraint, the dying division of a cigarette. A film with a pretentious title, if worth watching, then to understand the simple idea of the excessive market of South Korean action and the imminent danger of flooding the market. Lee Min-ki certainly will not become Lee Ben-sung, but if he intends to continue to develop in the same direction, well, at least it would not hurt a little bit to eat away. The conditionality of Korean fighters in terms of survivability after stab wounds, dexterity of dysplasics, etc. in this film is excessive. Nevertheless, there are laws of physics, as a result of which a subtile young man weighing a kilogram from sixty will not lift an ambal twice as much weight - at least what evil will to connect. The alleged role of fatal femme was taken by a completely loose, breastless and pedigreeless aunt, in the middle of the film about which they simply forgot. The case when even in secondary roles, there is no one to praise especially - so everything is exactly in terms of knowingly artless following the patterns of "strong films about friendship that is stronger than death" and "male honor." The level of violence is traditionally high, at least the creators did not eclipse the Yellow Sea. In artistic terms, it seems that the task was not set to compete with iconic paintings.
Life is a very amazing thing, which every moment of our life throws us a huge number of different surprises. Sometimes pleasant and lift us higher than we were before, and sometimes terrible and ready to trample us into the ground with special cruelty. This reflects how anyone’s life can change overnight and change dramatically. So much so that you literally don't know what to do next. That’s what happened to the main character of this picture Lee Hwan. Being a promising baseball player, having suffered a severe injury and losing his relevance in the team, he was expelled from his favorite business. What makes him think, what to do next and how to continue to live?
As a result, all this leads to another story of a kind of Cinderella, but in the world of criminal showdowns and criminal fraud. Lee Hwang discovers a world in which human life is worth nothing, a world in which you cannot wait for pity for yourself, and a world in which money and power decide everything. It is the latter that he tries to experience on himself and this is what brings ecstasy into his life. So strong that he understands who he really was and why it took so long to reconcile with who he was all this time really.
This film directed by Pak Sang Joon reveals the genre qualities of “noir” on the screen and reveals the world as it is in real life. When the standard concepts of black and white no longer work, and the bad and good no longer exist. The whole world is sad, each of us is sinful in his own way and commits his mistakes, and the notions of honor and devotion that criminals throw at in their philosophical discourses are only part of their pathetic speech, and not what they sincerely try to follow and understand as correct. A world in which even close friends can suddenly become your enemies and an obstacle in your way, which you are ready to throw off without any shadow of doubt.
Almost immediately, an image of a world in which there are no bad or good guys is drawn, which means that the characters of the picture can be imbued with the same sympathy and even the same contempt, but also without losing understanding. Since we are all sinners, we all make mistakes, and in fact, this film is not about the rise of a man about the criminal ladder. It is the final picture brings the realization that this is the strongest film about the strongest male friendship, which develops outside the usual strong handshakes, pats on the back and giving advice at the right moments of life. Rather, reflecting the elusive and indescribable connection between two completely different at first glance, but a single and soul-like heroes.
This is what luxuriously displayed a stunning acting duo of performers of the leading roles. Lee Min Ki is rapidly trying to get rid of the usual roles of freaks in comedies and heroes of lovers in dramas and gives an even unexpected role after the role of a brutal killer in "Monster". Perhaps watching the frail complexion of the actor, it becomes doubtful in its steepness, but the image does not leave indifferent. Although it remains in the shadow of a more impressive performance performed by Pak Song Una. His character turned out to be damn interesting, and given the charisma of the actor himself and his luxurious play, it is simply impossible to not be imbued with sympathy for him. The strongest impression was made by Lee Tae Im, whose character, if not had an important role in the narrative, but certainly bribed with the attractive and sexual appearance of the actress herself.
9 out of 10
For the emperor, this is a very strong noir drama, which fully reflects all the dirt and stabbing eyes of the truth of modern life. Perhaps presenting all this in a too exaggerated and subjective form, but certainly bribing, more than just dashing criminal showdowns and bloody scenes of violence. In addition, telling the story of a true male friendship, which passes the test of money and power throughout the film.
Lee Khan is a baseball star, for participating in an underground sweepstakes he is expelled from the team. Left without a job and means of subsistence, Khan begins to work for a collection agency and it turns out that his real talent is to beat money out of the crappy residents of the city of Busan. Khan rises quickly in the gang hierarchy, but the rapid rise can be dangerous to health.
“For the Emperor” is a dynamic, powerful film that successfully pretends to be a gangster action movie for an hour and a half, and then it turns out that it is a touching story of male friendship. Lee Khan “a pale young man with a burning eye” quickly learns the rules of the game in the criminal community, that is, he understands that there are no rules, and such concepts as honor, loyalty are nothing more than charming atavism, like a rabbit’s lip. Khan is cruel, cynical, and creative in his duties, but knowing the charming Yong-soo makes him vulnerable.
Yeon-soo - written beauty (by Korean standards) - swollen, sleepy eyes, splattered duck nose, upturned sensual sponges, she's just a sweetie. Yeon-soo is an elite whore who sleeps with a young, resilient Khan and his old, decrepit boss. Comforts in the company of her grandfather are given to her with difficulty, she does it with an expression of tired doom on her face. She loves Khan (does she love?), but her society makes the young man soft-bodied, and this harms business, what will end the story of pure love of a bandit and a whore?
Koreans have reached heights in the noble cause of self-harm, but this film is made very inventively, even for them. Heroes gamble, with a flame use traditional bats, kitchen knives, fists, as well as bricks, ice cream fish and other items in order to massage each other's facial muscles with savor. The main character played by Lee Min Ki (Monster) is too cool for such a feeble guy. Lee Min-ki waving his fists, and his face expresses such sour anguish, the feeling that he is a party activist suffering from hemorrhoids during a party meeting. Park Song-woon's wonderful role is Khan's immediate boss. Park is calm, cool in the most dangerous situations, and very convincing as a mafia boss.
The downside of the film is a vaguely completed love line. Pros: dynamics, fighting scenes, soundtrack, and a couple of moments that morale advocates can aspire and cartevo call “frank”. Judging by these moments, Yong Soo is really beautiful.
8 out of 10