Different, violent, weird, and totally awesome!

What in the gory hell did I just watch!? I might be as crazy as the politician for enjoying this so much, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for these types of group survival films where the cast slowly descends into madness while a bunch of alpha dudes all struggle for power.

The main characters were surprisingly interesting, even the scumbags. In fact, I would venture to say the villains were actually more interesting to watch than the good guys. Kudos to the actors for pulling that off.

The budget wasn't crazy awesome, but the intense story made up for it. It felt like one of those low-budget yet addictive movies you accidentally come across when surfing through the channels on TV for something to watch, except for the fact that it's way too bloody gory for daytime television.

This movie is definitely not for everyone. It has an overt biblical theme so there is a lot of sexual violence and blood.

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Suspenseful and Engaging!

This had a lot of suspenseful moments that kept me on the edge of my seat. I didn't know where the plot was going or how things were going to end up. It had a nice dose of comedy injected into the script here and there to lighten things up, but maintained a serious and dark tone throughout.
I liked the human aspect of this plot the most—the confused feelings of the kidnappers at times, and especially the betrayed feelings of the friend that was kidnapped. Once again, it is all for money. Greed and envy gets the best of us sometimes. It really begs the question; who are your real friends?

Casting was ON POINT. It's really nice to see the skills of the actors here. I'd have to say that Kim Dong Hwi gave an outstanding performance. It's not easy playing the villain. He managed to pull it off quite well. Yoo Soo Bin really surprised me, too! At first when I saw him I wasn't sure if they had made a good choice in casting him for the role, but he really blew my expectations out of the water and gave a great performance.

FINAL THOUGHTS... this is a sad, dark tale about betrayal of what was supposed to be a beautiful friendship. It is heartbreaking to see what people will do for money, especially when you consider that this goes on every day in the real world. It is short enough to not have any boring or dragged-out parts, which is a huge plus for me. It would have gotten a higher mark if they had been just a tad bit more creative with the ending. I really liked what they did with Park Min Woo's ending, but for the other characters it fell a little bit flat. Give this a watch! It's only 8 episodes so you can't go wrong.

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Disturbingly Intriguing

Yes, that's how I would describe this; disturbingly intriguing.

I might be alone in saying this but I actually enjoyed this film. The casting was excellent, the characters were all disturbing and gritty in different ways, the atmosphere was dark but interesting, the soundtrack gave it a unique feel, and the acting from the main characters was really, really good.

The low score and bad reviews probably come from its confusing message. Usually there's a clear message in a film so people can understand what they're watching. At first you think you're watching a regular old investigative mystery, but it takes a turn real quick and ends up becomming a blend of supernatural, philosophical, and religious ambiguity. I feel like I'm supposed to be asking myself questions while watching this, but I don't know what ones lol. Confusion like that will never be well-received by an audience. It's unfortunate because this was actually a pretty good movie.
The romantic storyline between Shitao, Lili, and Su Dong Po was the most interesting part for me. I wish they had gone even further with that and spent more screen time with them.

Cast:
Lee Byung Hun can't be tamed. He's absolutely perfect here despite the writers doing him dirty by giving him an underdeveloped character to work with. Elias Koteas was born to play a serial killer. Seriously, he's got the perfect voice and facial expressions, or lack there of. And then there's Takuya Kimura. He had the most confusing character of all, and yet managed to give a great performance.

Watch this at your own risk of being either highly disturbed or highly disappointed. Just don't try to understand it too much and you might end up appreciating it; confusion, gore, religious symbolism and all.

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How can a loser be stronger than a winner? Blue (2021) shows us how.

Story:
This film really asks the question, what makes us strong? It shows that winning isn't all that matters, nor should it be used as a scale to measure how strong a person is. Here we have Kazuki who wins all the time and swears he will retire from boxing if he loses. On the other hand, we have Urita who loses all the time and keeps a smile on his face.
The dynamic between Kazuki and Urita is very subtle but very brilliant. Urita is constantly trying to help his friend win matches, giving him helpful tips, and is always in his corner. Yet Kazuki doesn't do the same. In fact, there was one scene where Kazuki witheld information about one of Urita's upcomming opponents that would have helped him greatly. Why did he do this? Humans are complicated. For me, I think that Kazuki was selfish and wanted Urita to remain a loser. He didn't want Urita to stop supporting him and if he started to win matches, this might happen as Urita would then focus more on his own success. It could also be the case that Kazuki was jealous of Urita because of his amazing attitude. Urita is always seen as smiling and optimistic, whereas Kazuki is always seen as irritable and moody. This might have made Kazuki jealous for no good reason.
It is very important to note that this film is not a typical boxing movie, where the underdog trains as hard as he can and ends up winning matches. The point this film is trying to make isn't that winning equals success, but rather that attitude is more important. Urita did everything he could to win, he had amazing physique and techniques that even helped his other teammates win their own matches. Yet, Urita still couldn't win a match of his own. Does this mean he was weak? Hell no! He was stronger than anyone else in the movie because no one else could have handled so many failures with the same grace that he did.

Cast:
While everyone here gave a great performance, I was very notably impressed with Emoto Tokio's acting. I'm used to seeing him play the awkward weak guy. He obviously did a lot of traning for this to build his cardio and physique. His character was a wonderful source of comedic relief at times.

Final Thoughts:
I had zero hopes going into this movie. In fact, I was intending to just fan-girl over Higashide Masahiro and skip through most of it. But the intricate, realistic, and delicate approach to Urita's plight as a passionate boxer with no ability to win matches really caught my attention and held it for the duration of the film. It is a well-made work that any boxing fan will enjoy.

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