No Mercy for the Rude (Yeui-eomneun Geotdeul) (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Action Comedy	Theatrical Trailer-No Mercy For The Rude, Bittersweet Life, Bangkok Dangerous Theatrical Trailer-Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, SPL, The Host Featurette-Making Of, Dream Of The Killa, Flamenco Dancing, SFX Featurette-Poster Shoot
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	109:09 (Case: 93)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Cheol-hie Park
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Cheol-hie Park Su-hee Go Ye-rin Han San Kang Byeong-ok Kim Eung-su Kim Kwang-il Kim Min-jun Kim Tae-won Kwon Han-wi Lee Kil-soo Park Ha-kyun Shin Ji-hye Yun
Case	?
RPI	$29.95	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Korean Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    2006 was a bumper year for Korean cinema, with a run of good films, including A Bittersweet Life and The Host, both of which aired that year at the Melbourne International Film Festival and were snapped up by Madman Entertainment for local release. Also from 2006 was this rather bizarre piece of cinema – No Mercy For The Rude (Yeui-eomneun geotdeul).

    Written and directed by Cheol-hie Park, No Mercy For The Rude stars Shin Ha-Kyun as Killa, a mute hitman who is morally opposed to killing except if the hit is a “rude” person; that is, a criminal and not a nice one. Killa’s chosen weapon is the blade, wielded like a spear in the vein of a bull-fighter, the only ‘sport’ that fascinates him.

    Killa is saving up for an operation that will fix his tongue and allow him to speak properly. He only has a few kills to go when the foul-mouthed, drunken, beautiful and horny She (Yoon Ji Hye) walks into his life. As their relationship evolves, Killa also becomes guardian to a young boy orphaned as a result of his actions, complicating matters even more. Finally, things really take a turn for the worst when a hit on a prominent mobster brings retribution and Killa comes to realise just how interconnected the recent happenings in his life actually are.

    While quite enjoyable and very funny for a large part of its runtime, its oddball characters lead towards an inevitable conclusion that, yet a hallmark of the genre, felt a little like an overly melodramatic let-down when considered in the broader context of the film. The ending sits at odds with the tone of the rest of the film and leaves an ultimately unsatisfying feeling, particularly as the same conclusion could have been reached with a little more style and class.

    Similarly, the action set-pieces of No Mercy For The Rude did not meet my expectations having been exposed to other more thrilling action scenes from Korean cinema – the magnificent escape scene from the middle of A Bittersweet Life, the sideways scrolling scene from Oldboy. While most action sequences in the film were intentionally, if bizarrely, comedic in their effect, when the time came to switch over to something more elaborate and dramatic, the film struggled with the shift and wound up with patently self-conscious melodrama instead.

    Ultimately, No Mercy For The Rude is worth a watch, but whether you would watch this again I am doubtful. Rent it and see.

Video

    The movie is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is 16x9 enhanced.

    This is a highly oversaturated transfer which results in a somewhat less than impressive contrast and black level. At times this look suits the film, but in night shots, detail is often lost and shadow detail is far from delineated.

    There is also a bit of grain on the print, and some mild, but noticeable, aliasing, which is usually well filtered out by my equipment on standard definition material, but which was noticeable to me here.

    Overall, this transfer was acceptable, but it lacks depth.

    Subtitles are available in English, and are yellow with a grey border. They are clear and easy to read.

    The cover says this is a dual-layer DVD9 disc but I saw no dual-layer pause.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Audio is available in Korean Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and Korean 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo. I watched the film with the surround track and sampled the stereo track.

    The audio is pretty good on most modern Korean films, but I felt this lacked the depth of many other transfers of Korean films I have seen lately – particularly the blistering DTS-ES track on A Bittersweet Life.

    That said, there are no obvious faults with this track – it’s just a bit vanilla. Clear dialogue, a few surrounds, some good subwoofer use, but nothing extraordinary. This will do the job, but you won’t be writing home about it.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Start Up Trailer

    Trailer for A Bittersweet Life.

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. The main menu has scenes from the bullfight in the credits of the movie with sound in 2.0 Dolby Stereo. The other menus are static and silent.

Featurette: The Making of No Mercy For the Rude (12:44)

    Presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame and subtitled in English, this is a reasonably interesting featurette. But it also looks like it was d*** cold when they were filming.

Featurette: Dream Of The Killa (11:17)

    Presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame and subtitled in English, this is a decent featurette regarding shooting the bullfighting scene.

Featurette: Flamenco Dancing (5:09)

    Presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame and subtitled in English, this is a series of stills and video of Yoon Ji Hye learning to Flamenco dance.

Featurette: Special Effects (3:13)

    Presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame and subtitled in English, this is a short featurette regarding the VFX done for the film.

Featurette: Poster Shoot (4:42)

    Presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame and subtitled in English, this is a short featurette regarding the posters done for the film.

Original Trailers

    This includes the international promo trailers, international teaser trailer, two theatrical trailers, and TV spots.

Stills Gallery

Eastern Eye Trailers

    Trailers for:

• Bangkok Dangerous
• Sympathy For Lady Vengeance
• SPL
• The Host

    The R1 release and R3 releases of this film look to be pretty vanilla, and it’s hard to scrape up any accurate information on them. Some sites say that the R3 is 1.85:1, others say 2.35:1. In any event, the local product looks to be about as good as anything out there, so I would stick with it.

    No Mercy For The Rude is a good Korean film, but in this reviewer’s opinion, it is slightly over-rated, lacking the style and punch of other, better Korean films of that year, such as A Bittersweet Life and The Host.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall