| A Bittersweet Life | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Hangul | 달콤한 인생 |
| Hanja | |
| Revised Romanization | Dalkomhan insaeng |
| McCune–Reischauer | Talk'omhan insaeng |
| Directed by | Kim Jee-woon |
| Written by | Kim Jee-woon |
| Produced by | Park Dong-ho Eugene Lee |
| Starring | Lee Byung-hun Kim Yeong-cheol Shin Min-ah Kim Roi-ha |
| Cinematography | Kim Ji-yong |
| Edited by | Choi Jae-keun |
| Music by | Jang Young-gyu Dalpalan |
| Distributed by | CJ Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 119 minutes[1] |
| Country | South Korea |
| Languages | Korean Russian Filipino |
| Box office | US$7.6 million[2] |
A Bittersweet Life (Korean: 달콤한 인생; RR: Dalkomhan insaeng; lit. The Sweet Life) is a 2005 South Korean neo-noir action drama film[3] written and directed by Kim Jee-woon. It stars Lee Byung-hun as Sun-woo, a hitman who becomes targeted by his boss after he spares the latter's cheating mistress.
The film was released theatrically in South Korea on 1 April 2005. It opened on 265 screens throughout the country, and registered a total of 1,112,950 admissions by the end of its run.[4][5] It was also screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.[6] A 30 seconds longer director's cut was later released, featuring slight cutting and re-arrangement of scenes, swapping of music placement and some additional scenes that do not appear in the theatrical cut.[7] The film received an unofficial Indian remake titled Awarapan in 2007.[8]
- ^ "A Bittersweet Life". British Board of Film Classification. Archived from the original on 2021-09-26. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
- ^ "A Bittersweet Life" Archived 2017-12-01 at the Wayback Machine. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-03-02.
- ^ 달콤한 인생. Naver. Archived from the original on 2022-12-17. Retrieved 2022-07-25.
- ^ "A Bittersweet Life (2005)". Koreanfilm.or.kr. Archived from the original on 2023-04-06. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
- ^ "달콤한 인생 (2005)". Daum Movies. Archived from the original on 2023-04-05. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: A Bittersweet Life". Festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-11. Retrieved 2009-12-12.
- ^ Wurm, Gerald. "Bittersweet Life, A (Comparison: Theatrical Version - Director's Cut) - Movie-Censorship.com". www.movie-censorship.com. Archived from the original on 30 March 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
- ^ "10 Bollywood Movies That Lifted Their Stories From South Korean Films". MensXP.com. 6 April 2019. Archived from the original on 7 April 2019. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
6. Awarapan - A Bittersweet Life - A hitman is asked to keep an eye on his boss' mistress. However, when he learns that she is being exploited, he decides to rescue her from the clutches of his boss. While actor Lee Byung Hyun flawlessly portrayed the conflict going on inside the character in the South Korean version, Emraan Hashmi failed to recreate the same magic or should we say turmoil in the Bollywood one.