Fending off bullies by any means is the subject of director Shin Han-sol’s dryly comedic actioner THE ART OF FIGHTING, starring 3-IRON’s Jae Hee and Baek Yun-sik (SAVE THE GREEN PLANET). It’s essentially a Korean KARATE KID with more bite, smarmy black humor and an uneven mixture of reality-based and absurd fight choreography from VOLCANO HIGH action director Lee Eung-jun.
Song Byung-tae (Jae) is a high school student who passively endures the torment of gang members at school while looking for someone to teach him to fight. He meets a middle-aged neighbor (Baek) with unusual fighting ability and a criminal past who passes on his street fighting skills. When a friend is murdered by the gangsters, Byung-tae seeks revenge.
In addition to a simple underdeveloped plot, Shin relies heavily on well-established conventions, both in Korean cinema and in general, that are used well but do little to give the film any distinction. The filmmaker’s strongest tool is humor, which he peppers throughout the movie to lighten the coarseness of the action. Scenes such as Byung-tae’s failed efforts to intimidate the gangsters by throwing coins at them is dry and takes after the smart-alecky tone of so many Korean comedies of late. It’s also what keeps the film engaging since we never learn much about any of the characters or get any consistency out of the fighting action.
At times, the action is extremely violent and yet plausible. Unlike a lot of modern martial arts and action films, THE ART OF FIGHTING is not about showing the artfulness of fighting skills but rather their effectiveness in a real-world scenario. It is kind of odd considering the title. The actors do not need to be skilled martial artists because their actions are either meant to be crude or in the case of Baek’s character, so effective that a quick poke to the eye with a small stick suffices. He does perform a couple throws, breaks and disarming techniques that could be considered advanced but even then it’s done plainly and without stylistic flourishes.
Baek is depicted as a veteran street fighter with a murky criminal past who is only in the neighborhood while he waits for a fake passport to be made so he can get out of the country and escape punishment for whatever crimes he has committed. He’s not an instructor in a dojo who teaches honor or any martial code of ethics. It’s kill or be killed and anything goes, from wielding broken bottles and throwing sand to bending fingers and limbs in ways not meant to bend. What the film does well is acknowledge that in a real fight that could turn deadly at any time, no one really has the luxury of being honorable if they value their own life. It’s all about using anything at hand, exploiting weaknesses and intimidating your enemy. The latter proves to be the most useful technique for Byung-tae when his ability to take a beating and keep on advancing comes into play.
Shin sets up a solid framework to explore real street fighting, its philosophy and methods, something that a lot of action films pretend to show but in actuality fail miserably at. Baek’s character can be ruthless and uncaring, he isn’t someone Byung-tae or anyone should be emulating but some of his worldly wisdom has merit in the right context. There is a comedic side to his character that comes out in running gags such as a stock catch-phrase telling all opponents they’ll be defecating blood which thankfully never happens. He’s like an evil “Mr. Miyagi,” instructing his pupil to hit his opponent when he’s down, not to win a competition but to bash his skull in so he doesn’t get up and do the same thing to you. Even with the humor, this film could have been a really interesting exploration of a potentially controversial topic. Unfortunately, it fumbles when it steers some of the action into nonsense involving coin tossing, uninterrupted schoolroom brawling and generally poor training sequences.
THE ART OF FIGHTING forms an intersection of quirky humor and bloody violence that offers something genre fans may not have seen before. The mentor/student relationship of martial arts movies is given an irreverent twist with some action that involves intentionally artless and unpleasant survival fighting. It’s a shame this is housed in an uninspired, kid-gets-bullied-and-avenges-slain-friend story that relies too heavily on familiar Korean film conventions put to better use elsewhere. Shin Han-sol creates a lot of oddball moments in the film such as having Baek use squirt guns on people simply to annoy them, but when seemingly every Korean director is doing something similar to impress their audience, the effect loses some of its value. Comparisons to other films aside, THE ART OF FIGHTING has enough going for it at least to make it worth a rental if you can find it.
by Mark PollardRelated Topics:
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- paulo li
