No. 3 (1997) User Reviews

Third rate thug life

[stt-25688 · 6/10 · 27 August 2023]

It is a representative film of the time when gangsters (or bullies, gangsters, gangsters, etc.), which were used as the main material in the Korean film industry in the past, dominated.

With scenes such as fighting while swearing at each other, drinking with women at a salon, etc. Still, the ending was good because I felt the bones in the story with a twist at the end and the words that everyone was number 3 and third-rate in the end.

Still, with Han Seok-kyu, Choi Min-shik, and Song Kang-ho appearing, I could believe and watch the acting. In particular, I felt Han Seok-kyu in 'Green Fish', but he is really good at acting as a raw gangster. Again, the raw performances were impressive. Because Choi Min-sik curses so much, I thought of Choi Min-sik in 'New World'. Song Kang-ho, who was a rookie at the time, was excellent at stuttering.

I saw actress Lee Mi-yeon in a movie for the first time, and I wanted to look for more roles. And, our ashtray's love for Dokdo played by Park Sang-myeon (?) I laughed a lot at that part.

the precursor of Korean gangster comedy

[nkw88 · 17 December 2002]

From this film, Korean gangster comedy became the most emergent genre which brought the international fandom to Korean films. The tradition of gangster comedy succeeded to 'Attack the Gas Station', 'My Wife is a Gangster', 'My boss My hero', 'Hi, Dharma', and 'Guns and Talks'.

Besides, two great male actors got their stardom by this film. One is Choi Min-sik (Swiri, Failan, Happy End, and Chihwaseon) who concentrated on stage career in those days, and the other is SONG Kang Ho (Swiri, The Foul King, and JSA).

This film is very funny and enjoyable satire to Korean society. Most characters are obssessed with something - power, hierarchy, fame, sexual pleasure and property. Sometimes these things are exposed with their vanity. Very Enjoyable film.

Looks like something different, but just your usual gangster tripe

[wellthatswhatithinkanyway · 4/10 · 15 November 2009]

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

No.3 is a Korean production, and presents itself as some kind of gangster spoof, when it in fact turns out to be nothing more than your usual edgy, grey Oriental crime film. It looked a bit of a curious offering to start with, and maybe I had looked a bit too closely into the trade descriptions on the title a bit. And to be fair, it's not bad as a typical sort of Western crime flick. But I'm no expert in this sort of field and maybe there's better types of film out there you could be watching. **

Clever genre parody

[simon_booth · 8/10 · 17 March 2002]

Korean Gangster film that appears to be quite excellent, if confusing. I'll probably have to watch it again to see if still appears excellent when I understand what's going on better :D

The movie loosely follows the life of "Gangster No. 3", who doesn't like to be called a "Gangster" and really hates to be called "No. 3". But there's lots of tangents and side stories so it's hard to really say that there's any one focus to the movie... it's got a very fractured structure (hence the confusion).

The movie is strikingly different from most HK Triad movies, and really shows 99% of them up with the intelligence and self-awareness of the script and direction. I guess I don't usually notice just how cliched and unrealistic HK scripts generally are until I see something like this that... well, isn't. Not that cliched and unrealistic is necessarily a bad thing, but you can see why many people are shunning HK movies in favour of Korean flicks these days.

There's quite a lot of subtle and dark humour throughout the movie, which doesn't glamorise any of the characters or their lifestyle... they all take themselves terribly seriously, but the movie likes to gently point out how absurd such posturing is.

I have to admit I struggled to keep track of which characters were allied to which others, and what the hell they all wanted. It didn't help that about half way through the movie the subtitles suddenly go from very good to absolutely nonsensical. I guess they ran the sub script past a native English speaker after translation by a Korean speaker, but after 50 minutes he had to go and catch a bus or something. I couldn't decide if the quality recovered somewhat towards the end, or it was just that dialogue got more sparse :D There's also quite a bit of written material on screen that goes untranslated throughout.

Dross

[YohjiArmstrong · 30 May 2011]

No.3 is supposedly a parody of Korean gangster films. Well, I watched it and I haven't the foggiest where the parody bit comes in. There simply aren't any jokes! Not in the script and not in the action. Which leaves you with only a rubbish gangster flick.

The story follows a gangster, whose name I've forgotten, who is promoted to become number two in his gang after he rescues his wounded boss and helps put down an internal coup. Unfortunately his wife is a poet who promptly has an affair with a teacher and everyone keeps calling him number three. In the gang he has a rival, Ashtray, so called because he uses an ashtray to beat people up. There is also a mysterious gangster who is training three idiots to become his gang. Then there is a crime deal, over a hotel, with some Japanese. Meanwhile a new, tough public prosecutor who is more like a gangster than the gangsters is threatening number two/three.

All of it makes sense, in a rather loose way, though the constantly changing plot and characters will confuse even those who can remember Korean names and faces. I watched this with three other people and the only way they could track the lead character was his Patrick Swayze- esque hair. The plot is pure sub-Godfather pulp and hugely boring. Sadly as the jokes and parody elements appear to have disappeared (bar one silly sound effect, a man falling in a river, an unintentionally funny fight and two poor references to The Godfather) that is all you get. I didn't laugh once (except a vaguely sobbing noise I made about half way through because of the horror of it all).

The action isn't any good either, with the first fight being so poorly lit and frantic that it's nearly impossible to work out what is going on. Someone also saw fit to insert a long, pointless sex scene that just won't end. Indeed the film never ends and when it does it does so in a completely baffling manner that left me at a loss. What happened? One to miss.

Perhaps not quite what one might expect. Almost worth seeing.

[nickg-2 · 28 April 2000]

This film did not turn out quite how I had initially expected, a black comedy - this was a little disappointing, though it was still amusing in parts, so that made up for it. There is more violence than humour, though it becomes a little more slapstick as the film progresses.

An amusing and very unexpected conclusion. Though the absurdity of the entire situation throughout is perhaps not appreciated fully, perhaps a little is lost in the translation?