Lee Joon-Ik’s 즐거운 인생 (The Happy Life) Finally on DVD

It seems to be an obsession for Lee Joon-Ik, the maestro of cinematic pragmatism which brought us gems like 황산벌 (Once Upon a Time in the Battlefield), 왕의 남자 (The King and The Clown) and 라디오 스타 (Radio Star). Giving a voice to those outside the mainstream, a sort of revenge of the losers pulsating at 24 frames per second. Right as his latest 님은 먼 곳에 (Sunny) is continuing Lee’s amazing streak passing the 1 million admissions mark (particularly considering all his films dance with conventions, but they swim upstream for what concerns their message), we’re finally getting the chance to see 즐거운 인생 (The Happy Life), a sort of companion piece to Radio Star.

The film had its fans and detractors, and even lost a little money, uncharacteristic for a post 2003 Lee project, but it always screamed good old fun, with a band of losers flushing their stress and everyday problems down the toilet through the only thing that puts a smile on their faces: music. If last year’s 브라보 마이 라이프 (Bravo My Life) disappointed you despite the top notch cast, this might be the answer. The reason it took so long to surface on DVD goes down to the same reason 색즉시공 2 (Sex is Zero 2) still hasn’t made it past its rental-only status: there was a lawsuit going on between Art Service (the DVD company) and the producers (CJ) because the latter aired the two films on its IPTV platform before the sales DVD was out. It all seems to be solved now, as the film is slated for a release on August 20. Film stars Lee’s “persona” Jung Jin-Young, the great Kim Yoon-Seok, and young up and comer Jang Geun-Seok.

You can preorder the 2-disc Special Edition DVD here, and you’ll find a trailer below the break. It’s very likely this will get a long review after 추격자 (The Chaser), but we’ll see what pops up in between first.