Two Scorsese References


*Spoiler Alert*

I know that several people have already talked about it, but it won't hurt to bring it up again. I enjoyed the two references to Martin Scorsese's films. 1) The scene where Sun Woo shoots Moon's hand off in the hallway and then executes him afterwards (similar to the hallway shootout in Taxi Driver). 2) The final image of Sun Woo talking to his reflection while shadowboxing (similar to the final scene in Raging Bull).

Martin Scorsese is one of my all time favorite directors and Kim Ji Woon is one of my favorite Korean directors so I thought it was pretty cool to watch that.


"That's my ipod shuffle. You peed on my ipod shuffle" - Whitest Kids U Know

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I think that the scene where Sun what's his name shoots a gangster's finger(s) off is a blatant 'Taxi Driver' RIP OFF. There are several other blatant rip offs in this movie. The scene where all those people get machine gunned in a night club is a blatant 'Scar Face' rip off, for example, and the scene where the girl whom Sun is so obsessed with plays the cello is a rip off of a scene in 'A Heart in Winter', a French movie. After watching this film twice, I think that it is very derivative of other films and over rated.

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I think that it is very derivative of other films and over rated.

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all modern movies are derivative of other films. They draw inspiration from other ideas.

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In this case I call them homages.

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'Homages'? The word 'homage' sounds way to complimentary for this film. Brilliant movies have their own unique vision. This movie is just largely a hodge podge of copied scenes from other movies. 'Rip off' is a far more apt term for many of the scenes in 'A bittersweet Life'.

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Did you say "Rip Off"? Are you talking about the whole filmography of Tarantino?

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[deleted]

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Stand By For Action!

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another Scorsese reference:

the scene where mr. Baek beats up his own men with a phone, reminded me of the scene with joey pesci in Casino

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There are many references throughout the film. Scorsese, Leone and Woo are the major names that come to my mind. And yes, that is "homage", not "rip-off".

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Because something is similar to something else it has to be a reference, or a ripoff? You people are idiots.

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LOL - Well said! I think 'homage' might be too big a word for them. Not my genre, but brilliant movie in it's own right.

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Well, The Departed was a RIP OFF of Infernal Affairs, where as A Bittersweet Life had a different story to all those Scorsese films but had elements of films and directors he admired ie Scorcese, John Woo, Leone, De Palma - hence references/homage.

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Well, actually, it reminded me a lot of "Star Wars", because there were scenes with people, like, shooting weapons and stuff . . .. .

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yes i enjoyed the scorses references too. i also saw some of Park Chan Wook (dir of Oldboy) in there as well which i thought was also a nice touch. if you're a fan of korean films you must know Park's work but if you haven't, his "revenge trilogy" is definitely worth checking out - Sympathy of Mr Vengeance, Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. Bong Joon Ho's work is masterful also. Look him up on imdb and check out his stuff, anything.

p.s. and unlike some of the responses on this thread, i do not consider them as 'rip offs'. it's good to see people being able to appreciate the influences and not just dismissing them as rip offs.

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[deleted]

the scenes you mention exist in Asian cinema for a long time before Scorsese. John Woo uses them too.

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