"Kurz und schmerzlos" or "Short Sharp Shock" is a German movie from almost 20 years ago and the language in here is German for the most part too with occasional exceptions doing justice to the characters' origins. Writer and director Faith Akin was only 25 when this one came out and after some short film work, it was his very first full feature film. Taking that into account, it is a decent effort I guess, but as a whole I was not convinced. The characters were not as interesting as I hoped they would be (apart from the breathtakingly sexy Idil Üner) and the effort this movie makes on an emotional level in terms of love and friendship also never really touched me. I cannot really put a finger on what exactly caused this as the acting was decent from start to finish. Maybe it was just me.However, generally I like crime dramas/thrillers, but this one here did not feel right to me. I also wonder how police was absent from start to finish with everything that happened in here. Akin already works with actors that would keep appearing in his films throughout his entire career. Moritz Bleibtreu, however, was not present yet. Two years later, Akin made "Im Juli." and this is when the two collaborated for the first time. But back to this one: Akin himself also has a minor role in here and it's not too uncommon that he also acts in his own works, at least back then it was. All in all the plot never had me at the edge of my seat, maybe also because I somewhat disliked Kurtulus' character and that surely wasn't intended. The negative outweighs the positive and that is why I do not recommend "Kurz und schmerzlos". Thumbs down.

I watched this flick on TV. It was a Hamburg special night and I didn't expect much but after ten or twenty minutes I was totally into the film. Usually when I watch a German gangster film it just tries to copy the American model which doesn't make much sense since crime in America is completely different from crime in Germany. This flick however had this realistic touch to it and I definitely enjoyed the authenticity of the characters and I admired all three of the main protagonists for playing their parts so well. Especially the Turkish character seemed so realistic to me that I can only think of him as a small time crook now, even when I see him in other films. I believe that this is Akin's best film so far, I watched GEGEN DIE WAND as well but I can't say that I enjoyed it more. However, it is a real pity that we don't have more German directors who can deliver such good work as Akin did. If only there were more directors who know how to create atmosphere as well as Akin. Kudos, Faith!

...everybody else will too. Apparently this film manages to unite people who otherwise have very little in common. The main actor, a Turk, won the price for best actor in Saloniki, Greece. BILD, Germany's biggest populistic and rather right wing oriented newspaper, applauds the movie and its makers, only to be joined by many other voices from any other political directions.One of the strange - and good - things about this movie is to see all these foreign looking people talking perfect german, better german actually than many germans do. As Fatih Akin, the director and author puts it: These are the new germans, this is the new reality. He shows it using a very direct approach, letting his own friends play parts of their own lives.There is a lot of crime and violence in the movie, but hey, this is Hamburg, a big city, with its load of urban problems like any other big city in the world. And if you really think about it: Two people die, but the story seems to be much more violent than most of these action things where dozens and more do the same. Because here, you feel like you know the people, they are not just somebody, during the course of the story you may start liking, but at least knowing them. This is what makes good story telling, in my opinion.

Look,how this film is bewitched. The best character is played by Ralph Herforth as Muhamer: (Wenn dir deine Freundin dumm kommt, hau ihr eine rein. Und jetzt iss.) The film has a perfect music score.