Music professor Park Young-sun meets In-jeong who's one of his students at an audition for a musical. He offers her a ride, but on the way they stop at a riverside, and he tries to get it on with her. But In-jeong manages to escape, and while Park Young-sun sits in his car, waiting for her to return, a group of brutal youths shows up only to discover him and his brand new Mercedes. And shortly after, the leader of the pack shows up, with In-jeong with him as well.
A Bloody Aria felt a bit like the movie Deliverance, and at the same time, it also had a lot of Tarantino feel to it as well. Why it felt like Deliverance was simply because, this professor, and the girl, run into these cruel people on the countryside who does crazy things to them. The Tarantino feel was kinda obvious considering the some of the dialogue in the movie, along with a helluva lot of violence. A Bloody Aria is supposed to have some comedy in it, and some of the stuff are actually pretty funny, but most of the humour is black, well, very black. It works well though, but in the end, it's a very cruel movie, with the cruelty overshadowing the comedy for most of the time.
One thing that makes A Bloody Aria really good movie to watch, are the characters that you'll get to know along the way. You have the professor who's not very likable, but at the same time, throughout the movie, you can't help but to feel a bit sorry for him at times. You have the girl, In-jeong, who's actually the only person who's likable, and her you'll feel sorry for at all times. There's a cop who seems like a nice guy, but later proves to be the something else, along with the three youths who are just cruel people. But along the way you start to feel bad for them too, due to some things that goes down. Two more to go; One student who gets beaten up like crazy, is humiliated etc, but later gets some revenge (and some more beatings). And last but not least, the leader of the youths, the fourth guy who we are introduced to a bit later, but who proves to be the worst of them all. He's a real psychopath, and you can't wait to see him get beaten up, since he sure has it coming.
 
The film has a simple story, basically just one location along with just a few characters, but provides a helluva lot of entertainment, as well as it provides a bad feeling which is really hard to shake off. I don't want to reveal too much of what happens, but this professor and this girl stops at a riverside where the professor tries to rape the poor girl. Meanwhile, two young guys are beating up a student, putting him in a sack, and pretends that they're gonna bury him alive. It's just too much for the student so he passes out, and the two guys are for a while afraid that they've killed him, and takes him with them to the riverside. The girl manages to escape the professors attempted rape, and while the professor is waiting for her to return to the car, one really freaky guy comes along, and is soon followed by the two youths and the student in the sack. When the professor finally gets out from his car, they group stars to mess with him, and later their leader comes along, and not only that; He has picked up the girl who escaped the professor along the way, and brings her back to the riverside as well.
Everyone are afraid of this leader of the group, and he puts everyone through A LOT of shite. He could be described as a really sadistic bully who couldn't care less about anything or anyone, and therefore he's of course really dangerous. I'm not gonna tell you what he does though, but be prepared for some stupid and cruel things. I thought A Bloody Aria would be kinda hard to sit through since I figured it would feature a lot of realistic looking violence, and while it does, it has some comical things to it which manages to lighten things up a bit at times. It actually provides some tension too, since you know that these guys are not all right in the head, especially the leader, and while watching it, you have no idea what they'll do next, or what will happen next for that matter. The acting is really good, and like I said before, the characters alone are really interesting. Plus that, it's not very predictable either, something to always be grateful for. Also, this movie's from the same guy, Shin-yeon Won, who had his directional debut with The Wig.
I expected A Bloody Aria to be good, but it was even slightly better than I first had thought it would be. It felt very 'fresh' and different, and while it was cruel and hard to watch at times, it also had some funny moments to offer, along with interesting characters and weird situations. Don't think it's just violence and cruelty, because it's really not, even though that's a huge part of the movie itself. Highly recommened.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Guta-yubalja-deul
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Shin-yeon Won
WRITING CREDITS: Shin-yeon Won
GENRE: Comedy, Crime, Thriller
CAST: Ye-ryeon Cha, Mun-shik Lee, Shi-hoo Kim
COUNTRY: South Korea
RUNTIME: 115 min
RATING: 8/10
A Bloody Aria Website/IMDB Click here
A Bloody Aria Trailer Click here
A Bloody Aria On the set video: Click here
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