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Disco King
had possibly the most nauseating front cover I have ever seen.
Its combination of crazy colours and reflective sections really
made for some very harsh effects on my eyes, but it also had the
effect of drawing me in, entrancing me if you will.
The film is
a comedy drama based around three friends who generally mess about
avoiding school and beating up various other small fry gangs.
While these three friends get up to whatever it is they do, two
rival clubs battle for supremacy of the local business. Bong-pal’s
father, who is a local ‘toilet emptier’ has an accident
and Bong-pal and his sister (Bong-ja) have no income to support
themselves. Hae-jeok (the main guy) is in love with Bong-ja and
is having a few issues showing her this love. But Bong-ja decides
to become an escort at one of the local clubs in order to get
some income for herself and her family. When Bong-pal hears of
this he and his buddies, Hae-jeok and Seok-gi decide to go and
get her back by force. This of course fails and the owner of the
club makes the guys a bet, if one of them can win his disco dancing
competition they can win Bong-ja back. Hae-jeok decides to enter,
but he needs to get trained up first and it goes from there until
the disco competition at the end of the film.
This movie
is all fun, there is nothing pretentious,s overblown or pushed
too far. There is a very familiar ‘hardships’ of Korea
feel to it, but this is played to advantage within the storyline
and it doesn’t feel forced. The main characters feel warm
and have a nice level of depth to them so you tend to become involved
with them very early on. Even the secondary characters within
the piece are well drawn out with some being plain bizarre and
others being very realistic; the different levels within the characters
in this film are remarkable for what is essentially a mild mannered
comedy. The visuals are very basic, and this is an advantage simply
because overdone visuals would distract you from the characters
and their story. One point worth mentioning is the music, from
the quite broad disco soundtrack to the mellow score this film
has a fantastic and very well suited soundtrack. Especially with
regards to the final disco showdown.
Stupid,
stupid, stupid but fun, fun, fun. The movie is very silly with
a nice and non-pretentious ‘love those around you’
message. This is not the most alternative, trendy or artistic
movie to come out of Korea but it is with some sweet well written
characters. Watch it and enjoy.
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Dr. Octopene
Extras
There
are extras on the DVD but as always they are unsubtitled. But
the menu is amazingly demented and just as hypnotising as the
cover.
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