Crying Fist. (주먹이 운다)





Director: Ryoo Seung-wan
Starring: Choi Min-sik, Ryoo Seung-beom
Running Time: 117 mins
Certificate: 15
Korean Distributor: ShowEast
Korean Release Date: 1/04/2005
Admissions (Kor): 1,721,548 admissions (08/05/05)
UK Cinema Release Date: 9th December 2005
DVD Release Date: 6th March 2006
UK Distributor: Contender Home Entertainment

Synopsis

A former Boxing silver medallist at the Asian games, Kang Tae-shik (Choi Min-sik) has fallen into a mid-life crisis, whereby his marriage is almost over and his boxing career has hit rock bottom.  To earn his money, he becomes a human punching bag. Meanwhile Yu Sang-hwan (Ryoo Seung-beom) who is troublesome at the best of times and although the relationship he has with his family is tense to say the least, it is his love for them that ends up him picking up the boxing glove. They both enter a championship in an attempt to build up their self-esteem and bring some purpose to their lives, but who will come out on top?

Review

There was great expectation from the director who launched his career with Die Bad in 2000 who earned a great deal of reputation for his input into Independent cinema. He had subsequent releases 2002 and 2004; No Blood, No Tears and Arahan, respectively. The later is far better than the first, though in No Blood, No Tears there was a strong attempt at breaking generic conventions, but it was a shame it didn’t really pay off.

So did the expectation pay off? Well, some of his critics would argue, yes, however, I would argue otherwise. There is evidently an attempt to stretch the conventions of the boxing theme and to some degree it works. The viewer struggles with what expectations he/her wants to see by the finale, which becomes increasingly tantalising as the conclusion becomes near. That said, however, while this to a large extent actually works, Ryoo Seung-wan’s attention to modify the generic formula means that he fails to maintain a strong momentum throughout the film.

Having said that though, there is great attention to character development, which is aided by the faultless performances of both Choi Min-sik and Ryoo Seung-beom. It is the relationships that these two leads have with their family and society that keeps the film alive. The scenes between Kang Tae-shik with his wife and son are tragic, yet at the same time quite moving. Meanwhile the interactions between Yu Sang-hwan with his parents are in a surreal sense, compelling but at the same time emotionally gripping. He is naturally very rebellious but as time goes by he begins to realise the only people in his life he loves are his family. The interactions with society are interestingly quite potent as if society have completely given-up on them, though Ryoo Seung-wan is quick to stress there is always someone out there that will be of service even in the greatest of need.

The all-important aspects the film to many are the fight scenes. I agree with many that these scenes, which are brutal, violent, graphic and to say the least are explicit, are some of the finest fight sequences to come out of cinema.

However these strong attributes fail to fully compensate the lack of momentum throughout the film. The characterizations and sequences, certainly towards the conclusion are compelling and to some degree gripping, but unlike Champion, which has a great deal of legitimate flow to the film from start to finish, there is a missing ingredient here to allow the film to really take off. There is a danger with too much action, there is not enough depth, but in this case it is the other way round. There needs to be a strong balance between the two and as hard as it is to achieve, a director of Ryoo Seung-wan standard shouldn’t really have any problems adhering to this formula. Unfortunately he has spent too much time trying to break the conventions and as a result invested less time on some of the more fundamental areas of filming. That said, it is not a bad film, not by any means, but if anything it is a disappointment.

* * *




Extras

It comes in a delightful two-disk edition, which includes the following:

 Feature length commentary with Hong Kong expert Bey Logan

 Making of  document

Cast Interviews

Crew interviews with production, Action and Art Teams

Boxing is my life featurette

Deleted Scenes

Trailer Gallery.


There is certainly a lot here, though some of it is a little trivial. The interviews as you would expect reveal a lot about the film and how it was made, but in some areas they did tend to dribble a little bit, but admittedly this is more so of Choi min-sik than any of the others. Personally I found the interview of Ryoo Seong Beom the most rewarding because of his honest and personal responses to the questions.

The trailers on show make you realise that in some ways there is more excitement in the trailer than the whole film, but unfortunately this is often the way.

The interesting commentary accompanying the deleted scenes provides compelling viewing. Quite often as I am sure you are aware of, it is very obvious why they have deleted a scene and have just included the deleted scenes to try and entice people to buy the DVD, but this is certainly worth watching and you will be well rewarded for watching it.

Likewise the documentaries are very interesting and from the word ‘go’ it grabs your attention, however not only during the features but the whole batch of extras is focussed how ‘different’ the film is, which would be more than justified if it had succeeded, but as my reviews points out, although it tries, it doesn’t quite get there. That said the unconventional tone is quite intriguing even if it goes a little bit too far.

The other bits and pieces are compelling if you are trying to find something to do or watch, but otherwise, you may wish to just skip to watching another film. But compared to other extras on DVD’s, this is comprehensive selection of added features that will give you a wealth of knowledge about the film.

* * * *


JASON BECHERVAISE