Yang Ik-June does a spectacular job writing, directing and starring as Sang-hoon in "Breathless". The almost pessimistic approach of the film is more complimented by its original Korean title "Ddongpari", which literally means "Shitfly".The film is said to be semi-autobiographical with inspirations for the story coming from the abusive childhood of the director. He even had to sell his house for the completion of this film, which shows how important this film was for him. The portrayal of raw violence in the film is so authentic and shocking that even while showing glimmers of hope the viewers are left with a pessimistic outlook towards the film. Almost in every single scene, there is some kind of use of cursing. The obscene language along with the violent and bloody nature of the film makes it a film that won't be suitable for every kind of audience. Full review at http://www.asianfilmvault.com/2017/08/breathless-2008- by-yang-ik-june.html

this is my first movie review in IMDb,usually I'm just a regular silent reader on this site, but somehow this movie Encourage me to write the reviews on it .. i first found this movie (again) on IMDb list Because its glowing review,but the first impression when I saw this movie not as nice as one might imagine, either because the lighting is less uncommon than the movie in general, unsympathetic character,etc.but somehow this movie finds me again, so Im kinda forced myself to watch it, probably thought I could use this movie as a "sleeping pill", remembering when I watched this movie at 3 in the morning ;p, but you know what? I end up watching this movie straight to end .. SLOWLY but sure it drags u into it .. its brutally honest, rude, raw and real .., sometimes in the middle movie Im thinking, "is this a movie or a documentary?" remember this film looks very real and not contrived, every character look alive, despite the main character's love interest from the beginning looked a little bit awkward, but ultimately they could co-exist .. brilliant performance by Kkobbi Kim! Made me wanna look at the films she starred ;), anyway even though sometimes there are ups and downs of the sympathy towards the main character, but that's what makes it look real and natural ..SPOILER ALERT: So far I have not had any problems with the movie that does not end happily, if the movie turns out to be sad ending, its fine by me.. as long as its believable. But for this movie alone, somehow I really wish the main character will eventually have a better life, a normal life, given he's been through a lot of bitterness of his life, although I got a feeling he has to pay what he did before.. and as predicted it ended like I didn't want to.. even though I'm disappointed, but maybe that's life, a reminder that its not a fairy tale, its real.

Breathless is a bleak, relentless and emotionally raw movie from South Korea. An uncompromising look at the violent underbelly of a section of poverty ridden urban South Korea, Breathless is the directorial debut of lead man and scriptwriter Yang Ik-joon, and has rightly been bestowed with a healthy array of awards.As the films pace allows layers to build and relationship dynamics to be understood and interwoven, nausea and discomfort evolves into empathy and worry, characters you are sure are irredeemable surprise you. The shaky documentary style photography adds to the grittiness and rawness. Breathless is stark, dark and uncompromising. Well directed and with expertly judged emotional performances, this film has dared to expose the terrible unbreakable cycle of violence in an apparently progressive and evolved society. JM

Unfortunately some technical issues marred the supposedly powerful introduction where violence get unleashed by all characters on screen both physically and verbally. Clearly played from a DVD screener with the "Showbox" watermark, the audio was left silent for the good part of some verbal barrage, which to the prudish might seem like music to their ears.If there's one thing I learnt / have reinforced after the movie, is how ubiquitous the Korean swear word which sounds phonetically like "shee-bal" can actually be. It's more versatile than the English language's F-word, and the Korean one can be used to describe a whole host of bodily parts both male and female, with colourful adjectives strung together as well. Either that, or the person subtitling the show has some really colourful imagination to tag some appropriate swear words of his/her own liking, in order to spice up the dialogue for non-Korean speaking audiences.Breathless is almost like a one-man effort, with Yang Ik-June wearing a number of hats in producing, writing, directing and starring in the lead role of Song-hoon, a violent gangster who doesn't have to think twice when deciding to lay hands on his victims, and insulting them concurrently with his foul mouth. He's a debt collector in a small outfit which he co-founded, but finds more pleasure in being a field agent, bringing along underlings whom he can abuse as well, and show the ropes to, in teaching the essence of collecting money, and to show no mercy to those who cannot pay up.Most of the violence happen off screen, though the aftermath is seldom shielded in order to elicit a response from the audience. It actually makes for a great 3D movie with objects flying all around and at the screen, from furniture, to fists, and even spit, and I enjoyed the many unintentionally comedic moments that Ik-June effortlessly paints into his narrative despite the very negative elements of violence and language that pepper throughout, and almost every character was left tainted by dishing out, or be at the receiving end of bad signs or an uncouth mouth.I suppose the question here is, and the issue that Ik-June could have wanted to address, is that of violence, and domestic violence even, if a circumstances of a tragedy would lead to impressionistic youths turning to violence as a means of release and addressing their emotions. Or more directly, if being brought up in a violent environment would lead to the nurturing of violent tempers, given the lack of proper role models, and being unable to break out from the vicious circle as that painted in the film.Breathless may seem a little too long as it had attempted to give each character equal opportunity to shine, from the schoolgirl that Song-hoon befriends, to his boss, a young boy whom he takes as his own, and his mother, coupled with a protégé in the making. It's quite the complete story serving as a cautionary tale and a statement of the never-ending cycle, but would have benefited from tightening up the pace a little and could have gone under 2 hours. That said however, it did result in enough apathy given toward the characters here, given the anti-heroic stance they're all under, and you'll buy into its story of redemption toward the last act, and the fortification of the positive relationships that Song-hoon had, through his own violent ways, brought together.