[K-FILMS ON DVD] 야수 (Running Wild) - Part 2

Reader Comments

1. paratize 05/14/2006 @ 2:21pm

   Fantastic review, thanks so much X! I was worried a few weeks ago when some reviews popped up saying the film was no good, but I still had hope for the Director’s Cut anyway. Then it was announced that it would be released sans english subs, so that worried me again. But even though they might be bad, that’s ok for me since I know a fair amount of Korean, plus I can always ask my girlfriend (who just happens to be Korean and loves movies like me) to translate some of the more difficult parts.

2. paratize 05/14/2006 @ 2:27pm

   By the way, I don’t know if you care to write any more about this movie, and maybe I missed it in your review, but could you perhaps discuss in a little more detail what exactly is different between the two cuts of the film, just for reference?

3. paratize 05/14/2006 @ 2:29pm

   It’s too bad they couldn’t have put both on the same DVD....

4. x 05/14/2006 @ 5:40pm

   Essentially what was cut mostly deals with character development. If you check the audio commentary run down, I pretty much list 90% of what was added.

   Some things left out make little sense, like the introduction of Eom Ji-Won’s character. Some others are just little details that help the film.

   And… yeah. Watch the film anyway. It’s silly to pass on a film this good because the subs are bad.

5. paratize 05/15/2006 @ 12:53am

   Just wanted to say that I’ve seen the film now, and I think it is close to a masterpiece. The other cut must be really different (bad) for people to have given it such negative reviews. It does kind of have an epic feel, almost a gangster classic in my opinion. Quite different in style and tone from Bittersweet Life and others though (not that that is a bad thing by any means).

6. paratize 05/15/2006 @ 1:03am

   Oh, just one more note: I didn’t find the subtitles to be nearly as bad as you described them. Obviously, your English is better than my Korean, but still I couldn’t point out too many glaring flaws, at least not enough to detract from my viewing of the film. I’m guessing (hoping?) my reaction will be much the same as other non-Korean viewers.

7. x 05/15/2006 @ 1:11am

   It’s not that they’re bad as in late 90s HK DVD bad. They simply sell the film so short it will lead many people to misunderstand its dialogue as cliched, and just… I don’t know, pointless. The more I translate stuff the more I learn how difficult this thing can be, but it’s a 2 hour film, imagine if this was a TV Series. If you can read some Korean, go to the 명대사 section of the film at the Naver Movies portal, you’ll see there’s a lot of great dialogue. It has nice little nuances which get into the political sphere and underline class divide issues, that usual stigma associated to prosecutors vs detectives, the family relationship of Do-Young, Jin-Woo, Gang-Jin… and more.

   Just the few scenes with Kim Yoon-Seok and Son Byung-Ho… man, that’s great stuff. It’s not like they were asked to translate some skit from a Comedy show, it’s not really a ‘difficult’ film to translate, as there’s very little dialect, not much jargon (technical or slang) with the exception of a few scenes involving Yoo Ji-Tae and the trial… but the subtitles simply are lazy, basic, even annoying.

   But hey, if I’m just going overboard and people enjoy the film even with these subs, all the better. I just feel sorry for its makers when films like these are misunderstood because someone thought throwing bad subtitles out there wouldn’t hurt the film.

8. paratize 05/15/2006 @ 1:52am

   Ok, thanks for the information. I’ll look into that. Anyways, I’m just so surprised that such an accomplished film came from another first-time director in Korea that I’m happy as a pig in mud, subtitles or no subtitles! Some scenes did seem a little too inspired by other movies, however, especially the scene on the steps near the end, a la Godfather Part III. Still, nothing to be ashamed of. And once again, nice job on the review. ^^
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