[Friend] What does it mean by "friendship"?

 "Friend" is a 2001 Korean film directed by Kwak Kyung-taek.  As it is still considered as the first best Korean gangster movie, the plot focuses on the lives of Korean gangsters. However, what the director Kwak wanted to evoke from it was the notions of true friendship, loyalty and love.

In the film, four friends with different personalities grow up together. Joong-ho is the funniest guy, who always livens up the mood, and Sangtaek is the most diligent and smartest one in the group. Joon-suk, the son of a local gangster, is the bester fighter, and Dongsu becomes Joonsuk's right hand man in their school gang.

Starting from the beginning of the film, their friendship is strongly demonstrated. In their childhood, the boys watched pornography together for the first time, and they walked the streets with their heads held high, shoulders straight and chests, out. They feared nothing when they were together. They also defended each other from being beaten by rival gangs. As a result of this, Joonsuk and Dongsu eventually get kicked out of school  and join local gangs, whereas Joonho and Sangtake continue their studies in college and get a decent job. When sangtaek apologizes, Joonsuk simply says, "friends have nothing to sorry about". He frequently states this throughout the film. This emphasized not only the tragic end resulted by their loyalty but also the most beautiful definitions of friendship. As the story progresses, each of their paths cross in conflict with each other's. Even though Joonsuk and Dongsu looked really good friends, there had always been tension between them, which later lead to their brutal war. Nevertheless, Joonsuk was someone who always placed friendship above all else while Dong su was just an ambitious and dissatisfied gangster. I thought, however, Dong su finally realized the loyalty they all shared back in his childhood, since he was on the way out to see Sangtaek at the airport. Although he was brutally stabbed to death and Joonsuk got accused for the murder, I did not think that Dong-su got killed on Joon suk's order, like the other characters. Thus, while the director did not give us a definite end, he pulled the notion of true friendship onto the surface.