19 Ultimate Final Shoot-Outs Of Cinema History
14. A Bittersweet Life (2005)
Korean director Jee-woon Kim’s first collaboration with regular leading man Byung-Hun Lee was a lush and breezy homage to European crime thrillers of yesteryear.
It followed a pretty standard roll-out plotwise - as Lee plays the hitman-with-a-heart-of-gold that’s betrayed by his boss - but the stylish elegance and main performance will make you overlook its familiarity. Also, Kim seriously shakes things up in his finale where it gets ballistic in trademark Korean style.
Proceeded by a sequence where Lee brutally takes out his captors in a fight scene featuring plenty of gonzo stunt-work. Our protagonist then gets cleaned up, suited and armed to take out his traitors.
Here Kim seriously switches gears up in a fascinating manner as things reach a dramatic denouement between the two principal characters before being suddenly highjacked into an all-out John Woo bullet ballet, then swaying into a slow-burn and moving conclusion.
Weirdly enough, all the switches manage to somehow work with Kim’s roving camera and assured handle never tipping the boat. It's an easy reminder that no one does an emotional and bombastic gun-duel to end your movie like filmmakers from the East.