Gangster High (Screen Daily Review)

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http://www.screendaily.com/story.asp?st ... 197&r=true

Gangster High (Pokryok Sekkeul)

Dan Fainaru in Pusan 18 October 2006

Dir/scr: Park Kihyung. Korea, 2006. 102mins.

An exceedingly violent high-school rumpus that deteriorates into warfare, with dead and wounded left on the battlefield, Park Kihyung’s Gangster High is the kind of picture no young teen will be allowed to see, should censors have any say in the matter.

Park Ki-hyung, whose disappointing family horror film Acacia closed Pusan three years ago, has here dropped his previous psychological mumbo-jumbo for full-frontal and raw brutality.

Judging by early response in Pusan, it is more than likely to appeal to local audiences, although among wide multiplex crowds the reaction is less certain. Attempts to lend it some kind of universal connotation by repeatedly reminding the audience of the Iraq war, covered by TV broadcasts in the background, may point at the general contemporary climate in the world but say little. Specialised niche distribution is a distinct possibility beyond home, festivals less so.

Told entirely in flashback, a device close to the heart of Korean cinema, the picture starts with bruised teen Sang-ho (Jeong Gyeong-ho) at a police station, trying to tell interrogating detectives that it all started with an innocent game of football at school.

Or rather it was innocent to start with - because less than two minutes in, a contested goal sees fists fly and the reticent Sang-ho, son of an army colonel, forced to stand up for a friend. He roundly beats the school bully; later the two warring teams join forces and set up a gang called The Tigers to play football and nothing more.

But once there's a gang there's a mutual commitment to each other. When one of the group’s members is slapped around by rivals East High, the inevitable street skirmish drags in clubs and bats among others.

Events thereafter escalate, growing in size and fury. To complicate life even more, pretty girl Su-huei (Jang Heui-jin), who caused the clash with East High and who happens to be the ex-girlfriend of Jong-Seok (Yeon Je-wook), a sadistic street thug, takes a liking to Sang-ho. He tentatively responds, thus treading on what the psychotic Jong-seok considers his private property.

The warfare now notches up beyond rough scuffles between high school students into fighting among and against certified criminals in a game that has no rules. Beatings and counter-beatings follow each other with increasing and fierce brutality. Constantly the question is asked: should the students keep engaging in what is essentially a war of attrition - in which they are out of their depth - or simply let matters lie?

In one vicious instance, one of the students has his leg broken in a manner that will make even the toughest audiences cringes. But his gang’s response is to perpetuate something similar on their rivals.

The climax, set in a pool bar, unleashes an orgy of fearsome fury and anger, as each participant takes more than enough punishment. By the end of it, several are dead, others seriously maimed and Sang-ho is in jail.

Though there are a few moments of respite between all this nastiness, through which the script reflects on the nature of friendship between Sang-ho and the less socially privileged Jae-gu (Lee Tae-song), Gangster High is first and foremost a sombre, angry and action-packed film, grim and ferocious throughout.

Any attempt to read any more into the narrative can only lead to uncomfortable conclusions like it being better to give in to bullies and save lives (although doing the opposite doesn't seem very effective either).

The narrative rarely has time to linger on any performance, unless it is the speed of flying fists. Still, Jeong has the makings of a future heartthrob and Yeon's villainous grimaces will certainly get him more of these parts in future.

Photography is darkly forbidding, and editing ensures a frenetic pace. Music from Mozart, Chopin and Beethoven – also to be found on A Clockwork Orange - counterpoint the unchained violence.

Production companies/backers
Dada Pictures
Taewon Entertainment

International sales
Taewon Entertainment

Producers
Jong Tae-won

Cinematography
Kim Eung-taek

Editor
Kim Seon-min

Production design
Jong Seong-gyun

Music
Lee Seung-il

Main cast
Jeong Gyeong-ho
Lee Tae-seong
Jang Heui-jin
Yeon Je-wook
Kim Hye-seong
Lee Heng-seok
Jo Jin-woong