A movie in a genre I’d never experienced before—and which I’m not sure I’ll ever experience again—Seung-wan Ryoo’s Crying Fist is probably best described as a Korean boxing movie. This surprisingly emotional film comes out on DVD this month courtesy of Montreal’s upstart distributor Evokative Films, and despite a few reservations I had about it, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Min-Sik Choi plays Gang Tae-shik, a washed-up former champion boxer who spends his days as a street performer, letting passersby try and knock him out for cash. Seung-beom Ryoo is Yoo Sang-hwan, an angry, visibly wounded youth whose criminal enterprises land him in jail. Though they never meet until the film’s climax, they’re bound by destiny, as they’re fated to meet in the ring at an amateur boxing competition, a match that will have deep personal meaning for both of them. Though at two hours, 15 minutes, Crying Fist felt too long, it’s still engaging enough, with some great boxing scenes, that I have to recommend it.

Speaking of movies that are too long, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button much? What a strange movie David Fincher’s latest is, arriving on DVD and Blu-Ray this week. It’s exquisitely beautiful, meticulously and lovingly made and yet it feels so empty, so pointless, and at two hours, 45 minutes, so very, very long. After Zodiac, which was long but amazing, this was a real disappointment; the story of a man (Brad Pitt) who lives his life in reverse, born as an old man and dying as a baby, it’s a technical marvel but a film with a central character who’s a big, handsome, reverse-aging nothing. The film’s second disc features a super in-depth making-of (clocking in ten minutes longer than Button), which is really well done and in some ways more compelling than the movie itself. This film is a real oddity. I loved looking at it but I hated watching it.