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Jae-hyeon Jo, Won Seo, Duek-mun Choi, Yun-tae Kim, Gung-Min Nam ... see more see more... , Jung-young Kim , Yoo-jin Shin , Yoon-young Choi

While strutting through Downtown Seoul, Hang-gi, a local gangland pimp, spots young Sun-hwa, a pretty, middle-class college student, waiting on a park bench. He sits next to her, creating a disparate ... read more read more...scene of two classes in soft harmony, until she sneers at his advances and rushes into the arms of her preppy boyfriend. Offended, he grabs her and forcefully kisses her. Sun-hwa demands an apology, and when Ha-Gi refuses, he is beaten by a group of soldiers who had witnessed the assault. As a final insult, Sun-hwa spits in his face while he is restrained. Soon after, Sun-hwa makes the mistake of taking a seemingly forgotten wallet filled with cash. She is apprehended by the owner, and forced to pay a huge sum or be turned into the police. With no money, she signs a contract that results in her being sold into prostitution to repay the debt. Whisked away to the neon colors of a Seoul brothel, her introduction to street life is harsh and cold, her teacher an iron-hearted woman with only disdain for the untrained Sun-hwa. As she is brought into her drab room for her first encounter, we learn who is really behind her imprisonment. Watching from behind a double mirror in her room, sits Hang-gi, the 'Bad Guy.' As Sun-hwa descends further and further into street life, she takes on the full-fledged traits of a john-luring prostitute. Hang-gi's curtain parts to reveal Sun-hwa's harsh education through the mirror, and his tears expose his growing feelings for her. Hang-gi's language is reduced to facial gestures, his throat marked with the long lash of a scar straight across from ear to ear. After a failed escape attempt, Sun-hwa is taken to the seashore by Han-gi. Here she is confronted with a series of mysterious torn photographs that seem to suggest a hidden past or even a possible pre-determined future between Han-gi and herself.

Flixster Users

70% liked it

5,213 ratings

Critics

42% liked it

31 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 40 min.

Directed by: Ki-duk Kim

Release Date: November 11, 2001

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DVD Release Date: June 28, 2005

Stats: 250 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (250)

  • WrenchLT
    February 1, 2011
    WrenchLT
    Probably one of the most twisted love stories ever made into a film. It's set in South Korea and is about a gangster who finds instant attraction towards a young college student and becomes so infactuated he conjures a plan that has her forced into prostitution under his watchful... read more eye in order to pay off her loan. It's an interesting film for sure but it's quite disturbing and unpleasant as the poor female victim struggles with her desperate situation who grows to both loathe and love the man responsible for her predicament. The 'Bad Guy' also struggles with his love and guilt towards the woman whilst trying to maintain order in and around the brothel he monitors leading to some violent confrontations with clients and other gangsters. Very well acted by all. It did have some slow moments though. It won't be for everyone - especially feminists - but it's worth one viewing for those not easily offended.
  • ceWEBrity
    December 9, 2010
    ceWEBrity
    There's some exceptional visual trickery present in Bad Guy - Kim Ki-Duk's play at duality and reflection with constant graphic references to glass and mirrors, though obvious, yields some great-looking results - but unfortunately the metaphor just doesn't sustain Bad Guy. It's a... read moren interesting byproduct of a film that preoccupies itself more with repetitive scenes of violence or threatened violence, which starts out menacing but falls victim to diminishing returns until you've basically tuned all the sound and fury out. Worse yet are the utterly bland main characters, a hopeless and unsympathetic brat-cum-prostitute and the progenitor of Kim's archetypal but unpolished silent man of action. Like the film, these characters and their respective performances are competent, but completely lacking in dramatic inflection. You spend nearly the entire movie waiting for it to break the cycle of total sameness, but by the time it finally does you're beyond caring.

    Totally skippable. It doesn't even have the distinction of being significant chronologically for Kim - The Isle came first and is, by all accounts, better. It's good that he went on to make much more provocative, fleshed-out films than this. I guess it served as a stepping stone for him.
  • arashxak
    October 12, 2008
    arashxak
    Not just a sick movie, Imo it manages to make a few fair points, Thoought provoking with some impressive moments
  • kiriyamakazou
    June 2, 2007
    kiriyamakazou
    Kim Ki Duk has an amazing ability to create characters who are real. In fact they are so real their actions seem unrealistic. In this film, we see a very unlikeable man fall in love. He is obviously socially incompetent and becomes obsessive. Like many of Duk's films there are no... read more easy answers, and not everything is justified. Brilliant performances and some confrontational scenes add to the shocking impact. Another quiet and engaging piece.
  • Hellshocked
    February 4, 2007
    Hellshocked
    Harsh, cruel, uncompromising yet also strangely uplifting masterpiece by Kim Ki-Duk, like most of the master's works this one is not for everyone.

    At its core it could be viewed as an incredibly unconventional love story with sado-massochistic overtones, but reducing it to tha... read moret would be a disservice to the film. There is so much more going on, at the edges of the frame, such magic, such hope even ammongst the nihilism that the film is able to get away with a lot, especially during the last 30 minutes, as by this point it has long since established itself as a poem first and foremost.
  • LickTheABCs
    August 9, 2009
    LickTheABCs
    It takes a totally screwed up mind to conceive of a love story where the only love that takes place generally gets wiped off a woman's stomach with a Kleenex. This is the love story for the person who always dreamed of meeting that special someone, falling in love and turning the... read morem into a prostitute just so you can watch them be raped over and over. So, in closing, this is my kind of love story.
  • justindavis1
    July 31, 2009
    justindavis1
    Pretty good movie by Kim Ki-duk. I would say this isn't as good as Address Unknown but better than 3 Iron. Worth watching and there are some interesting scenes.
  • fushmange
    April 27, 2008
    fushmange
    Pretty good but missing something. But in the end, you have a hot naked Asian laying in the fetal position and crying a lot. Thumbs up.
  • kingmob6
    December 14, 2007
    kingmob6
    A strange film of a thug's attraction to a woman, which spurs him to contrive a scenario in which she is at his mercy. Forced into prostitution, he is her pimp, and he watches her intimate encounters through a one-way mirror.

    But he loves her?

    A great looking film, but som... read moreewhat puzzling if considered in the rational world we live in, while this film follows its own logic entirely.

    Worth a look.
  • ahegele
    June 6, 2007
    ahegele
    Interesting and pretty compelling. If the lack of exposition doesn't interest you the cinematography might keep you in your seat.

View All Nabbeun namja (Bad Guy) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Hank Sartin
February 8, 2010
Hank Sartin, Chicago Reader

The audience is subjected to a series of emotional contortions, encouraged to experience them like a voyeur, and then scolded for doing so. Full Review

Peter Howell
April 15, 2005
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

His fascination with allegory and symbols is evident here, too, but his narrative strays too far from the dreamlike towards the just plain dumbfounding. Full Review

G. Allen Johnson
April 15, 2005
G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle

The film is filled with lovely images (Kim studied painting in France), and ultimately becomes, against all expectations, quite moving. Full Review

Stephen Whitty
February 24, 2005
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger

As a case study of one disturbed woman it might be interesting; presented as some sort of deathless love story, it's merely distasteful. Full Review

Owen Gleiberman
February 23, 2005
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

Really, who needs a bad guy who's this guilty about being bad? Full Review

V.A. Musetto
February 18, 2005
V.A. Musetto, New York Post

Becomes more and more confused, unpleasant and preposterous.

Jack Mathews
February 18, 2005
Jack Mathews, New York Daily News

Kim Ki-duk does a bizarre riff on the twisted macho ethos of abusing women until they learn to love you. Full Review

Ned Martel
February 17, 2005
Ned Martel, New York Times

Mostly distressing and occasionally compelling, as Sun-hwa, the young student, becomes ensnared in a prostitution ring. Full Review

Derek Elley
February 17, 2005
Derek Elley, Variety

Though it goes on exactly a reel too long, Bad Guy reps the most emotionally satisfying pic to date by Korean iconoclast Kim Ki-duk. Full Review

Michael Atkinson
February 15, 2005
Michael Atkinson, Village Voice

Bad Guy, one of the seven films in Kim's fascinating back catalog, is another kind of cocktail -- simple, bitter, served straight and in an unwashed glass. Full Review

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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