This stylish gangster flick, which broke box office records in its native South Korea, follows a group of four friends over a period of almost three decades as their lives move from boyhood friendship, diverge on leaving school and then later intersect in ensuing years.

Two of the boys become members in rival gangs, while the other two pursue more conventional paths: the joker of the group settles down in married life, while the other more earnest of the group, Sang-Taek (Suh Tae-hwa), goes to the USA to pursue film studies. The latter, whose point of view we largely share, is apparently based on writer-director Kwak Kyung-Taek who had a real life friendship with a gangster.

The film goes deeper than most of its ilk in exploring the root of violence, from the sadistic school teacher who batters his children in the classroom to the tit-for-tat killings of gang warfare. Kyung-Taek eschews all-out-action for character development and an exploration of the bonds that tie the four - in particular trust, loyalty and honour. There are frequent sepia-toned flashbacks to happier childhood days.

Gang violence when it happens, is all the more shocking. It is usually quick, intense and often exquisitely shot. The body count is high, although Kyung-Taek does take care to show that when a man is stabbed to death it is both brutal and intimate, like a bloody embrace.

Ultimately, you never really forget that this is just another riff on the gangster genre.