05/23/2006 - The City of Violence: A Pure Action Film
Ryu Seung-wan is famous amongst Korean film lovers for his unique action films ranging from raw independent feature debut Die Bad (죽거나 혹은 나쁘거나) to commercial action-fantasy Arahan (아라한). With his last film, Crying Fist (주먹이 운다), showing his maturity as a director capable of handling human drama and packing quite an emotional punch at that, Ryu had clearly moved on from his 'action kid' days. But despite this change that even Ryu himself admits in several interviews, fans and critics alike kept asking for something similar to that of Die Bad, as if Ryu has to stick with that same genre forever. Ryu grew tired of this.