as i said, i really liked this movie, but i mean the fact that the movie revolves around an incident of a guy who wouldn't call his boss is a little ridiculous. i understand the messages of the film but i mean why would he want to kill him for not calling him? so the second half of the film is about the boss wanting to kill him for not calling him...
shareIt might seems excesive, but again, is part of the point of the movie. That all the events that are triggered because of that action are like a chain of lack of communication between Sun Woo and his boss.
"I believe the common character of the universe is not harmony, but hostility, chaos and murder."
The 'management philosophy' of the boss is even a very minor sign of disobedience or independence from his 'second man' can lead to a bigger trouble in the future and should be addressed at the very first incident. He actually spent a few minutes in the movie to explain this.
shareIt wasn't just him "not calling him". Remember that the boss said Sunwoo could take care of the situation himself - but when he didn't and Mr. Kang realized that the girl was seeing someone and Sunwoo didn't do anything about it, he wanted to teach him a lesson. Sunwoo being the badass that he is, retaliates. You don't mess with Sunwoo.
share"You can do 100 things right, but make one mistake and destroy everything"...or something along those lines.
"When people do not have a past, they must create myths to supplement the facts of their existence"
Mister Kang's words: "You can do a hundred things right, but one mistake can undo it all."
Well, foreshadowing, much?
Kang specifically instructed Sunwoo to tend to his lover's needs and tail her, because he suspected the girl was seeing someone else. He also instructed Sunwoo to either relay to his boss the information, or kill them both himself. His instructions were specific.
So, what happened?
Sunwoo found out that she was "cheating" (now THAT'S ballsy), beat her guy's ass, upset her severely. Now, the final part may seem unimportant, but if it wasn't for her hesitant behavior with Kang, Kang might not have deduced that she WAS cheating and that Sunwoo hadn't called him like he was supposed to. Kang got to that part, and then, logically, jumped to the conclusion that the only reason why Sunwoo, the elite man, would actually disobey him would be why he himself would have done in the first place: love. Now, Kang expresses his sentiments towards the girl extremely clear. What was it they said? "Hell hath no fury like a lover scorned?"
Whether Sunwoo really did love her, or she was the first person he actually felt connected to everyday life with, is debatable. What matters is that Kang thought he loved her. Therefore, no punishment is therefore too severe.
The boss probably used him as an excuse to eliminate him.
I don't think the girl mattered to him all that much, a man with his power and wealth could have any woman he wanted, and he's probably had many. The girl in the movie was probably just one his many flings.
The real problem was Sun-Woo. He was always loyal and good in the business. Maybe a little TOO good. To work his way up all the way from the bottom to being the right hand man of the organization takes a lot of talent and ambition. The boss, who sees himself becoming older and more frail would have been as threatened as he was delighted to see Sun-Woo's meteroic rise in power. Sun Woo's lie in itself was of little concern, and so probably was the boss's interest in the girl. But as soon as the boss, already a little fearful of his young and ambitious protege, realized that Sun-Woo was ALSO capable of deceiving him (however minor), he decided that if he didn't act, he might be betrayed and overthrown by Sun-Woo in the future.
Nope, he did not. Mafia=follow orders or die. As simple as that. I bet not many here has or had any "connections" with the Mob.
"Stalingrad. . . The fall of Stalingrad was the end of Europe. There's been a cataclysm."