Gangnam Blues

Gangnam Blues is a 2015 Korean crime action thriller written and directed by Yoo Ha. Set in Seoul in the 1970s, it follows two childhood friends, Jong-dae and Yong-gi, who scrape by collecting scrap paper and empty bottles in one of the city's poorest neighbourhoods. When their homes are torn down by hired thugs, the pair take on dangerous work in the violent disputes over land as the Gangnam district is turned into a prosperous development zone. A clash between rival gangs separates them, and three years later their lives have taken opposite paths: Jong-dae lives quietly under the protection of a former gang boss, Kil-su, while Yong-gi has risen inside Myeongdong-Pa, the most powerful criminal organisation in Seoul. The film stars Lee Min-ho as Jong-dae, Kim Rae-won as Yong-gi, Jung Jin-young as Kil-su, Kim Ji-soo as Min Seong-hee, Kim Seol-hyun as Sun-hye and Han Jae-yeong as Chang-bae.

The film was released on 21 January 2015 and runs 135 minutes. It is the fifth feature Yoo Ha directed, arriving after Marriage Is a Crazy Thing, Once Upon a Time in High School, A Dirty Carnival and A Frozen Flower, and he also wrote the screenplay; Han Gil-ro produced it for Showbox. On IMDb it holds a critics' rating of 6.3/10 from five reviews, while on TMDB it has 6.4/10 from 98 votes, placing the two measures close together.