Korean Movie Night: Friend 친구 (2001) Korean

Yu Oh Seong, Jang Dong Gun, Seo Tae Hwa, Jung Woon Taek

Movie rating: 7/10     Neck score: A

I don't really remember what sparked my desire to watch Chingu, but it was probably my obsession for Jang Dong Gun after watching A Gentleman's Dignity. But it became a thing where my brother and I would say that we were going to watch Chingu, and then put it off because we knew it had a sad ending where Jang Dong Gun dies. Spoilers! Well if you had heard anything at all about Chingu 2 you would just already know it. So we determined that this president's day weekend, we would have a Chingu Marathon. So we did. We went all out and ordered Korean food at this new place in our town that actually delivers and has the most delicious fried garlic chicken. It was so good! Then we watched and ate and it was fun.

Korean Movie Night: No Tears for the Dead 우는 남자 (2014) Korean

Jang Dong Gun, Kim Min Hee, Brian Tee, Kim Hee Won, Kim Jun Seong 

Movie rating: 7/10     Neck score: A

I don't know why I keep forgetting that I watch these movies, or at least forgetting to review them.  It must be because it's a one time commitment of like 2ish hours, versus like 16+ hours and weeks of dedication.  But anyway, I do like watching movies too, and so I'll have to just keep remembering all the movies I've watched so I can review them, so you all can decide whether or not to watch them... or just enjoy reading my thoughts if you've already watched them.

So, No Tears for the Dead.  A very bloody action film.  My little brother showed it to my older sister and I, so it was like a different kind of movie night.  It has lots of swears.  It has lots of violence.  It's pretty darn cool.  It also has Byun Yo Han in it for like two seconds.  Just long enough for me to shout his name and get excited before it was over.  Oh.  It's ok, we've got Jang Dong Gun being bad-a.  We're good.

It's about an assassin who starts to question whether he wants to remain as an assassin when his last job goes a little south.  He is ordered to clean up his mess and bump off the wife of the man he just killed as well.  There is a lot of him pretending to follow orders, then not following orders, and former buddies being mad that he's not following orders because now they have to kill him.  So he's got to protect himself while he protects this woman, and all that jazz.  It's pretty compelling.

The bad guys are total d-bags.  I don't want to be violent, but they made me want to be violent because they were mean and gross.  Kind of like how we hated the Ahjussi baddies.  Like their deaths are super justified.  So it has kind of a Die Hard meets Bourne Identity meets Ahjussi vibe to it, and I liked that.  There were lots of conflicting emotions, especially since it was about the conflicting emotions of this poor hardened killer, this assassin who is super good at his job, but just a helpless little boy at heart.  Much tears.  So besides it being super violent and full of subtitle swears and not subtitle swears (in English too, since the bad guys were like Korean American- you've been warned) it was a tear jerker, really.  Very interesting and super cool.  The action was very cool.

71. A Gentleman's Dignity 신사의 품격 (2012) Korean

Jang Dong Gun, Kim Ha Neul, Kim Min Jong, Kim Soo Ro, Lee Jong Hyuk

Drama Rating: 8/10     Neck Score: B+

Probably one of my favorite dramas of all time... still.  That is saying something, and it's not just for the multiple G-Dragon references (though those don't hurt).  This show is hilarious.  The antics of the F40 are so great.  This is the story of a bunch of 40 year old men who have been best friends since high school.  The main point of this is that even though they are all 40, all of them well set in their careers and well established gentlemen, they are at heart still 18, especially when together.  Each episode begins with a scene that doesn't usually have anything to do with the current episode plot but gives us more background as to their characters and past history.  These scenes range from when they first meet to just random occurrences in their friendship (such as them watching the final episode of Sandglass together or meeting Sooyang from SNSD at a coffee shop).  Also, the cast is stellar, even though they are all definitely ahjussi, they are super sexy mens.  I never thought the drama was ridiculous or over the top, maybe because of the mature cast, the normal even mom drama wasn't going to be a part of this, since they are all old enough to be the parents.  Even as ridiculous as they are, all the characters seemed very realistic or at least relateable, and though I am nowhere near 40 yet, it was way easier to relate to the 35-40 year olds than the 24 year old girl (who was much closer to my own age at the time).  Go figure.  Other bonuses are Kim Woo Bin and Lee Jong Hyun playing high schoolers.