Jang Dong-gun Yu Oh-sung Seo Tae-wha Jung Wo-hyun Kim Bo-kyeong
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! style="text-align: left;" | Released
| March 31, 2001 (South Korea)
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| 118 min.
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! style="text-align: left;" | Language
| Korean
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| colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | [IMDb profile]
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! colspan=2 | Korean name
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| align=left style="border-top:1px solid"| Hangul:
| width="135" style="border-top:1px solid"| 친구
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| align=left style="border-top:1px solid"| Hanja:
| width="135" style="border-top:1px solid"| 親舊
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| align=left style="border-top:1px solid"| Revised Romanization:
| style="border-top:1px solid"| Chin'gu
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| align=left style="border-top:1px solid"| McCune-Reischauer:
| style="border-top:1px solid"| Ch'in'gu
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Friend is a 2001South Korean film directed by Kwak Kyung-taek. At one time, it was the highest-grossing Korean movie of all time, but has since been surpassed by Silmido and Taegukgi.
This film is the director's experience about his friends, a semi-autobiography set in his hometown, Busan, and the actors speak with a strongly accented Busan dialect. The film changed the public images Jang Dong-gun and Yu Oh-sung; previously, Jang had been famous for romantic comedies and Yu had appeared in movies with mostly cult interest.
The film follows the lives of four childhood friends: Jung-sook, whose father is a powerful gangster; Dong-su, whose father is an undertaker; class clown Jung-ho; and Sang-taek, who was an exemplary student. As children they play together, watch stolen pornography on an early VCR, and wonder if a Korean Olympic swimmer could outrace a sea turtle.
In high school, they become smitten with the lead singer of a band of girls their age. Jung-sook invites the band to a party at his house, where each boy pairs off with one girl (though not after some tension over how to do so). Sang-taek receives his first kiss from the lead singer, Jin-sook.
Back in school, Jung-sook and Dong-su get in trouble after a confrontation with a teacher; Dong-su returns with a baseball bat and smashes some glass cases. Both drop out of school but are coaxed back in by their friends. After graduation, Sang-taek and Jung-ho go to college but the others do not.
A few years later Sang-taek and Jung-ho return to find Jung-sook married to Jin-sook, the singer from the band. He is seriously ill and abusive towards his wife as a result of being addicted to philopon; he also appears depressed that his father is dying. Later he recovers from his illness, divorces his wife, and mourns his father. He assumes his father's role as a crime lord. Dong-su also becomes a gangster with a rival organization, and becomes similarly powerful.
The men stay friends, drinking, singing karaoke, and eating galbi together. An assassination attempt on Dong-su, however, sours relations and leads to a gang war. Dong-su, is murdered in the street. Jung-sook goes to trial for Dong-su's murder, where he calls Dong-su his friend. The film closes with the boys as children again, wondering who would win, the Korean Olympic hero or the sea turtle.
Awards
46th The Asia-Pacific Film Festival : Best actor and best supporting actor award
