I was excited to watch this movie after seeing its praise and hype continuously pop up in my news feed, as well as in light of the many prestigious awards it's won. However, having finished it, I must say that I am firmly rooted in the camp that's left a little underwhelmed. I found the movie entertaining and remained interested until the end, but for reasons stated below, I couldn't bring myself to rate it as highly as others have.

Perhaps the best thing about this film are the actors. Each one was amazing, performing incredibly well in his or her role. That said, the characters fell flat for me. All of them were stock characters: one-dimensional creations that lacked depth and complexity. The plot left me feeling like little was accomplished, and story lines felt under-developed and rushed. Certain scenes seemed to be added only for the sake of shock value; they added little (if anything) to the story and didn't, in my opinion, serve much meaningful purpose. The theme of class warfare, which has been highly praised as one of the film's accomplishments, was superficial and shallow, relying on stereotypes to portray a message that could have been explored more deeply had more time been spent on it.

Overall, it's a decent movie, but I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. For as many awards as it won, I wouldn't say that this is the best Korea has to offer (which is what I'd expect given the number of accolades). It's not that I don't understand what the writer and director were trying to accomplish and portray; it's that the message got lost in one-dimensional, stereotypical characters and situations, as well as scenes that added little to the story beyond gratuity and cheap thrills.