A gorgeous though very flawed period action romance comedy film from Korea last year. And when I say gorgeous, I mean it. The film is shot perfectly, with amazing action sequences and gorgeous production design and costumes. The problem with the film is that overall it comes off as very disjointed, feeling like many of the interconnecting scenes are missing (and the film is already 113 minutes long) so the film just seems to jump along for a good portion of the film. This is another example of Korean’s having perfected the craft, but not paying enough attention to story and editing as they should have because I was often confused as to what exactly was going on for a good portion of the film. I loved the director’s previous film NO WHERE TO HIDE which also starred Ahn Sung Ki, but don’t like this film an iota as well. The tone changes way too much, like the thrown in slapstick moments that should not be in there at all, and many scenes seem totally cut off, and their is just no bridge material. This film has potential because it looks so good, but really lost it somewhere along the way.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

I picked up the Region 3 Special edition of the film which is limited to 5000 copies and includes 2 extra disc with behind the scenes and other footage, though with English Subs on the film and the making of on Disc 3 only, and menus in Korean. The film does look gorgeous except it does suffer from something that most Korean DVD’s seem to suffer from which is a strange interlacing issue with quick cuts at times.

This film is pretty much a tragic love story set in ancient Korea. 2 Detectives are working to bust a major counterfeiting ring which is threatening to destabilize the entire country, these are Detective Ahn (Ahn Sung Ki) and his bad ass protege Namsoon (Ha Ji Won) who dresses and acts like a man, even down to the Korean swagger and keeping her head down.

The 2 detectives have a run in with a bad ass swordsman only known as the guy with Sad Eyes (Gang Dong Won) who Namsoon spars with, but who escapes. They realize he is the henchmen of the Minister of Defense Song Pil Joon who is purposely destabilizing the country do he can overthrow the kind, putting the kinds step brother who is married to his daughter into power. Sad Eyes and Namsoon square off a few times, and obviously start liking each other, and eventually Sad Eyes betrays his mentor and steals the records that show Song Pil Joon bought all of the copper to do the counterfeiting, but he stays by his master’s side while the police attack, and is killed by cops, while his master is killed by Detective Ahn. Namsoon is desolate, and we see her fighting and dancing with Sad Eyes in her dreams, which a peasant is talking about, while she walks by, back to work with her partner.

The best thing about this film is the cinematography and the fight scenes, including one amazing fight scene in an alley that is half in shadow and the 2 warriors go in and out of the shadows, one fighting with his katana and she with 2 knives attached to a rope, and each fighting with their own style. Very cool, and enjoyable to watch, too bad the film isn’t as enjoyable as the fight scenes.

Sure it is a decent watch if you don’t want anything deep, but isn’t worth the price of an import DVD, it just isn’t that good.