Un Certain Regard of Great Darkness, Kim Chang-hoon's first film features two young mafiosi trying to extricate themselves from their miserable lives. Nocturnal atmosphere, violence on the surface, characters of patibular mobsters reigning over trafficking of all kinds in a Korean city plagued by corruption.
Hopeless provides fans of bloody crime novels with a new, visceral, grimy, almost organic flavor. Even if it would have benefited from being shortened, the film presented is akin to an uppercut.