Poongsan (2011)

Phungsan Dog is a tale of a man who is hired to bring packages and people across the DMZ line of North and South Korea. In the discussion thread Rainflower started about this movie, Amrita828 made a very astute comment about the personality of this man: that like the Phungsan breed of dog, he is loyal to only one. He pretty much ignores all but the one who owns this loyalty. In addition, the Phungsan breed rarely even barks unless intensly provoked. I felt the writing of a character's personality around a breed of dog intriguing and I didn't have my aha! moment until I read her comment.

I found this movie extremely well acted. I was beyond surprised at Yoon Kye Sang. Not because I thought he was a bad actor but rather that he was able to make a complete departure from the lighter, more comedic roles he has portrayed in the past. As I watch High Kick 3, Revenge of The Short Legged, I barely recognize him. And I respect the heck out of him for that ability.

After this movie was over I realized I was tense the whole time and as the credits rolled my body finally felt able to relax. It is dark, angsty and joyless but for some reason, I liked it anyway. It was interesting and I've never watched a movie with a plot like this.

If you are in the mood for a tense, intense ride, Phungsan Dog might be something you like. For the acting alone, I recommend this film.

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This a very well done film. The acting was great, especially Yoon Kye Sang. This was the first time I saw him in this type of role and he was simply brilliant since he beautifully conveys all his emotions without uttering a word. Still, I felt something was lacking.

I didn't like the main actress, at all. When her character appeared was when the movie started to drag on and on for me and I practically lost all interest in it.

It did start to pick up a little in the last 20-30 minutes of it, where we are shown a very thrilling scene.

I won't be watching it again since I find the film is forgettable and I didn't enjoy it.

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"Poongsan" is the first action movie that I have watched from the veteran "art-house" Director Kim ki Duk, where he has only written script for this movie and produced it. Directed by one of his assistant. It would have been completely different if he himself had directed the movie because of the dark theme, heavy plot, border-tensions handled in the movie.

While I was watching this movie, I felt the movie was directed by Kim ki duk. Because of few factors like, the main lead's scope of acting is only through the body language thereby not speaking a word, a kind of silence maintained through out the movie, the music was very mild & used only in some portions of the movie, the realistic characters/relationships/situations adding more weightage to this dark movie.

My other thought is, this script should have been given to some other director and made as a full fledged action movie instead of watching it in Kim ki duk's style type of motion picture portrayal. Overall, I recommend this movie to all who expects a different story/theme.

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