Friend opens with an idyllic scene in which several children are seen chasing a truck spraying water; I think it is water at least, on a hot summer day. With peaceful music playing in the background it feels as if the film is in the same nostalgic realm as Rob Reiner's Stand By Me. This feeling is given even more of a jolt when the viewer is introduced to four young protagonists: Sang-taek, Joon-suk, Dong-su, and Joong-ho. Although from vastly different backgrounds, Sang-taek is upper-middle-class; Dong-su's father is a mortician; Joon-suk's father is a gangster, etc., the boys form a strong friendship and spend their days swimming, asking each other outlandish questions, buying "menstruation" pictures, menstruation being the word used by adults for female genitalia, and watching porn.

The friends are split up when they enter junior high school, but are reunited in high school. Enduring such individuals as their English teacher who not canes students on their bare feet when they cannot answer questions correctly but who also slaps and punches them, the boys feel the pangs of first love, Joong-ho for the keyboardist of the all girl band Rainbow and Dong-su and Sang-taek for Rainbow's lead singer Jin-sook. However, it is at this point a small breach forms in the relationship between Dong-su and Joon-suk. Joon-suk arranges for Sang-taek to go to a private room with Jin-sook while Dong-su is left out in the cold. After Dong-su asks Joon-suk if he is nothing more than a henchman, Joon-suk fails to give an answer.

After a major fight in a movie theater which pitted the four friends against what seemed to be an entire school, the gang of four is split and Joon-suk and Dong-su entrench themselves deeper into the criminal underworld while Sang-taek and Joong-ho pursue their own goals. Sang-taek and Joong-ho meet Joon-suk a few years later, but the once hard-as-nails gang leader has been reduced to a drug-addled wreck. However, after yet another long duration of time, the friends meet again and Joon-suk is at the top of his game. Dong-su is also at the top of his game as well as the second in a rival gang.

Threaded thickly with nostalgia, Friend will move anyone who reminisces about childhood friends. Although from completely different backgrounds, the friendship between Sang-taek and Joon-suk radiates deeply. Joon-suk's protective nature is almost frightening because of his almost dual personality of ruthless brute and a caring friend. While filled with violence and blood, in my humble opinion, the comedic interactions between the four men truly make Friend a good, if not outstanding, movie.

Very real, wonderful, excellent. The film reflects the lives of four children who later each took different ways of living, ethics standards and habits. Why each of them was different later in his life? One cannot explain easily. Two of them became Mafia men, being one more generous than the other, and the other two went to live modestly but clean at all. One of them became even a scientist. The end is tragic and difficult to explain, but life is as this, nothing goes with logic, many things have no explanation, and this is the case, why one Mafia loving the other Mafia as former classmate and buddy, ordered his subordinates to kill him? it is again difficult to explain, perhaps he loved him too much. This is not a slow film, but it goes differently if compared to American films.

A Korean gangster drama made just before that country really became acclaimed internationally for the quality of its cinema. I wasn't quite blown away here, but I was still impressed by this one, a story that follows the life stories of a group of four male friends from early childhood due to violent adulthood. Lengthy and realistic, it boasts quality acting and in the second half it becomes an upsettingly violent story of rivalry and almost inevitable bloodshed.