Desertman84 Happy End is a South Korean film about a woman who's having an affair while her husband is unemployed.It stars Choi Min-sik, Jeon Do-yeon and Ju Jin-mo.It was written and directed by Jung Ji-woo.In the movie,Bora is a successful career woman who becomes involved with her destructive ex-lover, Kim. Bora's home life is a snore: she's mother to an infant child and her husband, Seo has lost his job, leaving Bora as the family's sole breadwinner. The jobless Seo hasn't been just wandering around parks and reading romance novels as first thought.One day, Min-ki accidentally stumbles upon a key, that belongs to his wife, and is unfamiliar that realizes that something is going on, and he's collecting evidence.Happy End centers namely Bora,Kim and Min-ki.They are imperfect people but not despicable human beings. They are all very much human in every way that matters. As a result of all of these humanly needs and wants, Bora is unable to stop going back to Kim even though she seems physically and emotionally damaged by their continued affair. Kim has realized that he is hooked on her, and is very aware of his (jealously- driven) actions toward her and her family. Without each other, they have no passion in their life, and so they must keep going back to each other.While Min-ki is depressed with his inability to find a job and stuck who so-called "feminine" chores like grocery shopping, cooking, and doing the laundry.Unfortunately,this is a big letdown especially in a patriarchal Korean society.Aside from that,it also damages his confidence that his wife has lost interest in him.The movie tries to bring these people to the viewers and the humanity of these characters.Also,it brings about how these people are susceptible to wrong doings and immoral acts brought about by their weaknesses and their situations in life.The film has explicit sex scenes and violent acts.But overall,it was an exploration of human behavior in the three main characters presented in it.What makes this film effective as well is the brilliant acting of the actors and actress involved which makes it absorbing from beginning to end.I definitely would recommend this to anyone who loves great films.

RResende I am into korean cinema. They have been giving me some of the deepest experiences with recent years cinema. From the current crop of (at least) competent korean filmmakers, we have Wook-Park and Kim Ki-Duk. Both of them have added value to my life with some of their films. Apart from them i found lots of competence and thrill in other films from there.Now i saw this. It's impressive, not powerful and life-altering like Oldboy or Bin-jip but still worthy.Let me remark on how this is built. The film begins and (practically) ends with 2 really exaggerated and intense scenes: it starts with a visceral obsessed sex scene and ends with a brutal killing. Both are enhanced beyond what was need to make a statement and both go a little bit beyond what we would normally tolerate in such scenes. In the middle of these scenes, we are given scenes of common, even dull daily routine. Cooking, nursering, reading, working, eating. Just that. So, the scenes are extreme moments of ordinary lives. It's what the film is about. The killing is an exaggerated, violent and uncommon reaction to a relatively ordinary situation of adultery. The film visually corresponds to this, so we have a case of great adequation between what we see and what we are told. That is good enough to please me.This is flawed in the way it purely relies on the effect these scenes should have on you. The risks are minimized to those two scenes and controversy they might (and did) cause. Well, i think the film works relatively well, but the scenes didn't shock me so much (the last 10 years gave us films like Irreversible). Still, what stays is good experience, because the whole film is about making us numb and unreactive, and than shake us and suddenly wake us up. It's relatively thin but it works, and most of all, it does it cinematically, it does it in the eye.The artistic work is great. The cinematography is perfectly aware of colours, saturations, and composition elements. It's beautiful, and something we see over and over in every korean film, even the worst ones. Visually, korean cinema doesn't seem to be as depurated and abstract as Japanese imagery, instead it is a pleasant relaxed depiction of beauty, with western concepts and influences and, yet, very rooted in an eastern society. I suppose it corresponds to where South Korea stands culturally these days.My opinion: 3/5

gonzaga ext Some films need no elaborate critiques so just a brief note on Chung Ji Woo's "Happy End": Yes, it has an ironic title, it may be misogynistic (I personally don't think it is), it's one of the most controversial South Korean films, and it's probably a commentary on gender roles as the country evolves. Or we can just simply say that this film has damn good sex scenes. Period. There are no profound truths, just a hot guy, Il-Beom (Ju Jin-Mo, star of Kim Ki-Duk's "Real Fiction"), and a cute girl, Bora (Jeon Do-Yeon), f%^@#$ each other like there's no tomorrow. The shameless, illicit nature of the sex heightens the eroticism: the adulterer is a woman who sneaks around for sex while her jobless husband sits at home with their infant and watches soap operas. The power b*tch f%@#s around! There's no frontal nudity and there's only 2 sex scenes but 2 things more than make up for it: the first sex scene is done in pretty much 1 (well-done) long take and handsome Ju Jin-Mo's beautiful naturally lean frame (and derrière) in motion is just beautiful.

patonamu An excellently performed movie about our age of the equality of the genders. If men lose their jobs and their wives have wild affairs can a man forever hold his horses? An original story with a touching motherly daddy who knows when enough is enough...