Fate is an action packed gangster drama about the ill-fated paths of a group of friends. Friendship, betrayal and revenge stir the pot to their intertwining “fates”. Expect sufficient outnumbered brawl scenes to supplement hollow character depictions, an incoherent storyline and deflated thematics. It is nonetheless a blockbuster action hit.
Hollow character depictions are evident from loose hints at the past (friendship) and seemingly random scenes that just made the film run too long. The mother yelling in the restaurant comes to mind for a scene that did absolutely nothing for the film or character (that was being yelled at) — adding more ingredients to an already bloated storyline. Similarly, cinematic pans and close-ups for the emotional elicitation failed for both the protagonist and antagonist. It was however refreshing to see Kwon Sang-woo play the turned-villain for the first time.
“Four friends bound by destiny and unbeatable in the dark world. When a casino attack goes wrong as a result of betrayal, fate turns them into enemies. Now, forced to aim the gun at each other’s hearts, their unavoidable battle begins. ” (IMDb)
Personally the themes of fate and friendship fell short for me. Throughout the movie I was just thinking someone needs to give up or hurry up and get on with it. I guess there is no rushing destiny. On the other hand, I found the film to be full of choices rather than hints of fate. Choices that led to broken friendships, questions of loyalty, and a guy-with-nothing-left-to-lose-vendetta (for payback and making things”right”). Also, there was just too many underlining things going on like the typical gangster genre tag of getting drawn back into the underworld — in addition to drawn out subplots with the supporting characters, all while adhering to the main clash between characters and “fates”.
Fate had many if not all the essential ingredients to a complete gangster-action movie, but also had too many others — some of which left a bitter taste. For a similar film (but one that in my opinion succeeded / is better), of the “friendship” undertone in the gangster genre, I recommend Friend (Chingoo).
Starring: Song Seung-Heon // Kwon Sang-Woo // Kim In-Kwon //Ahn Nae-Sang // Park Han-Byul
Directed by: Hae-gon Kim
Reviews: koreanmovie.com
aparoo’s words: action, drama, gangster, underworld, friendship, loyalty, betrayal, revenge, fate, destiny, choices
aparoo says 3/5
Stream: dramacrazy
Download: Asia Torrents
photo credit: asianmediawiki.com
