refresh daemon No Blood No Tears, the second feature by Corean action auteur, Ryu Seung Wan, isn't so much an action picture, but more of a pulp noir/caper movie like a number of the films of Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino.The story itself features a rather large cast of characters, but our protagonists are two women, one with an abusive ex-boxer boyfriend turned criminal and the other an ex-con turned taxi-driver who owes some gangsters some money. A somewhat complicated scheme is hatched by multiple parties to steal money from an illegal dog-fighting event and it appears as though multiple gangs are involved, as well as the police, some wannabe criminals. Once the scheme begins, all the parties go for the bag of money and multiple double crosses are revealed, along with fists flying, feet running and a whole lot of people getting beaten up and/or killed. All of which is clear, even if it's a little chaotic at times.Humor is present in the film, more in the form of irony or just people (or the audience) reacting to the madness that's occurring, but it's not a comedy. The action is stylish and some of the choices in direction, including some crazy tracking over surprisingly long choreographed fight sequences, can be surprising both in effectiveness and audacity. The art direction is also notable, the film being drenched in dark tones, perfectly setting the atmosphere.I think all thesps do a good job with the increasingly deranged boyfriend being the most surprising of all as his character changes. It's not an easy film to watch due to the heaping of physical non-glorified violence, so those that can't take such images should generally stay away. Also, if you don't pay attention or try to do something else while watching this film, you might lose track of what's going on due to the expansiveness of the cast. And things do get quite chaotic when multiple groups are encountering each other (and also quite amusing as well, in a maddening "can it really get any crazier?" kind of way).Fans of crime/heist movies with a little grit and humor, like those of the aforementioned directors will find a lot to like here. I personally enjoyed the insanity, the comedy, some kick ass violence, but I did wish it would've relented just a little on some of the pummeling that happened. It sometimes just got brutal to watch such an unfair match-up. But overall, I enjoyed this energized, entertaining, funny sequence of increasingly crazy events. 8/10.

vvanpo What this film does have a lot of: blood, cigarette smoke (*cough*), profanity (if you want to learn Korean swear words this is your flick) and double-crossings. All for a bag full of Won.I prefer to see my fight scenes as if I'm watching a ballet. I want to be able to see the whole stage. "Pido" films its fight scenes as if the viewer was a referee in a boxing match. This frustrated me. Both sexes get equal opportunity pummeling.

UberDryad Although at times I found the movie too dark to see what exactly was going on, I thought it was well written and well played.The cast of characters is wide, but like Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, it all makes sense in the end. And it's funny, too. The action scenes are...quite intense, and not being knowledgeable about martial arts beyond 'that's cool!', I was really impressed.All in all, I recommend it!

Lagomorph It's an action movie with a brain... there are some amazing fight scenes in it, most of which are really unusual, but all of which are filmed beautifully. When I saw this film at KIMA in Berkeley, the director (Seung-wan Ryoo (Die Bad)) was on hand to comment on the film afterward (he's all of 29 years old, and he was wearing an Adidas track suit to the festival); he cited his influences as the Hong Kong movies that he watched growing up in the 80's, as well as Bruce Lee films, and the influences are evident in the fight scenes. It's a remarkably smart movie, too, with a collection of not-at-all stock characters. The main character is a female ex-con who's trying to go straight by driving a taxi. She's having a tough time of it, though, because she keeps beating the hell out of guys who try to solicit her for sex, and there are a couple of geriatric thugs who keep chasing her for some money owed by her ex-husband. The plot goes from there, and provides a colorful and unique vision of a criminal underworld.