Highly Overrated But Still Good

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

While sloshing back copious amounts of alcohol with his buddies at a bar in Seoul, our hero, the quiet but amiable chump Hyuk-jin, gets duped into meeting up with his drinking buddies the following day at a resort town somewhere in rural Korea, in what appears to be the dead of winter. Hyuk-jin dutifully gets on a bus the following morning to make the appointed rendezvous, but alas, his friends - who were apparently full of both hot air and alcohol - fail to show up. This leaves Hyuk-jin to fend for himself and still try to have a good time at, well, at a resort town in rural Korea in the dead of winter.As if this isn't dismal enough, well, trust me, things start to go from bad to worse for our luckless hero. But it's the way in which things start to deteriorate for him that makes this movie so compelling. The movie is almost entirely free of the loud, obvious gags and pratfalls that you'd expect to find in, say, a Hollywood movie. This movie is a masterpiece of subtlety and understatement. Events move at a slow but steady pace - maybe too slow for the patience of some viewers who are more accustomed to faster action. But for me, that was a big part of the charm of this movie: the way it just rolled along at a gradual pace, absolutely sucking me into Hyuk-jin's steadily deteriorating adventure.As I said in the summary line, the movie has a lot of feel. The action takes place in winter, and you actually feel the icy cold. There's a poignant scene where Hyuk-jin gets robbed - oh, and the robbers also had the "courtesy" of stealing his pants - and he's dumped by the side of the highway. Dead of winter. Rural Korea. Far away from a police station. Nobody bothers to help him. No pants… Believe me, YOUR legs will be shivering when you watch that scene! Our hero encounters a bevy of questionable and at times really unlikable people, and believe me, you too will actually feel a palpable dislike for them! I really enjoyed this movie. It has lots of subtle attention to detail, and although it's a bit slow paced, it makes up for it by constantly making you really care about what happens to the main character. The ending is a bit abrupt and enigmatic, which is a little jarring, I guess because you actually want to see what else lies ahead for our hapless hero, Hyuk-jin. But I like to think that he's somewhere safely back in Seoul and, having learned a few of life's hard lessons, will never make this sort of "adventure" again.

Indies are not uniquely American. Here is a digitally shot indie out of South Korea with a cast of unknowns and a small budget.Hyuk-jin (Sam-dong Song) breaks up with his girl and his friends suggest a weekend in the country to forget. The only problem is that they get drunk and forget, so Hyuk-jin is in a strange town all alone.He meets an assortment of characters and gets himself in some strange situations, but it is the drinking that is interesting. he never seems to even get tipsy! Well, I guess waking on the side of the road in the snow without your pants will sober you up quickly.A good first effort for Young-Seok Noh.

Very similar to 500 days of Summer. A young man (Hyuk-Jin) just broke up with his girlfriend, attempts to go on a road trip with his friends. His friends flake out leaving him stranded in a town he doesn't know. His only friend seems to be the bottle. Very low budget. Just made it to the Charles in Baltimore (Wish I got to see it). Just made over 2,000. A little two long at almost two hours but still kept my interest all the way through. Relatable film that might go a little far at times but overall gets the chuckles it was meant to bring. Alcohol leads to miscommunication. At the end you can only smile and remember that yes, this life.

I caught this movie towards the end of the Toronto International Film Festival, and it easily ranked one of the highest movies on my list. It was funny, smart, well filmed, well written, and just all around fun to watch. Certain bits ran on a little longer than needed, but nothing to the point of boredom, and there was always a punch line to be had within the film. It was easy-going, but had a silly feeling like something out of a teen stoner movie (something made clear once the main character wakes up missing a certain article of clothing in the winter). This movie deserves all the credit it can muster as well, because unless you actually pay attention to the credits, or care about this sort of stuff, you might forget that this whole film was done by one man, and I mean the WHOLE thing save for the acting and some other minor bits. This was an entire creative license taken by the director and it worked phenomenally, to the point where everything seemed effortless, and made me gasp in awe of the amount of work that it must've taken to create such an amazing project. The film is sublime in every sense of the word and I recommend that everyone hunt down some friends, and just watch this film and have a good time laughing yourself silly.