Arahan

I just saw this movie, it's kinda like a Korean version of Shaolin Soccer. Highly recommended.

ARAHAN
(http://www.arahan.co.kr/)
Written & Directed by: Seung Wan Ryu
Cast:
Ryu Seung Beom
Yoon So Yi
Ahn Sung Kee
Jeong Du Hong
Yon Ju Sang
Available at: http://www.zoommovie.com/IDRoom.asp?ProductID=4907
Cost: Regularly $24.95 now on sale for $7.95

Korean martial arts fantasy film Arahan has won two top awards at this year's Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival. The Puchon festival is the largest genre festival in Asia and gives a pretty strong indicator of what to expect from the region over the next year. Arahan won both the jury's Best of Puchon award as well as the Citizen's Award as the favorite film as chosen by festival patrons. I was thinking Arahan was a strong contender to be in the Toronto Festival even before the strong showing at Puchon, and this makes it even more likely.


“Crouching Matrix, Hidden Kill Bill, The best movie I’ve seen this year” – Chris Parry 5 stars

EFC REVIEW: http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=10359

Sang Hwan (Ryu Seung-Bum) is a bumbling cop... Now, don't start rolling your eyes just yet. Yes, I know, every Asian martial arts film has a bumbling cop, but credit me with a little more taste than to fall for a Jerry Lewis routine like it's the second coming of comedic Christ.

So Sang Hwan is a bumbling cop who finds himself on the wrong end of a showdown between a motorcycle-riding bagsnatcher and a seemingly superhuman 7/11 clerk. The register jockey in question, Eui-Jin (the gorgeous Yun Soy) runs down the sides of buildings, leaps up walls, and has a subsonic 'palm thrust' move that sends a wave of energy at... well, a general area, kind of near where she actually wants it to go but usually not quite on target. And it's one of these palm thrusts that actually miss the bagsnatcher and hit Sang Hwan into the middle of next week.

When he wakes up, he's covered in thousands of acupuncture needles and surrounded by five doddering old people who keep talking about his incredible ch'i - a mystical force that, when unlocked, can turn a normal human into a superhuman. These old fogeys call themselves the "Seven Masters" (though there's only five of them left), and they've taken to things like running children's martial arts camps and psychic hotlines to keep the lights on. Sadly, being a Ch'i Master doesn't pay the bills like it used to.

Sang Hwan decides this talk of mystical martial arts is all rubbish, so he runs away and goes back to his normal existence, but after a little humiliation at the hands of local hoods, he decides that if the Masters can teach him to fight, maybe it's worth giving them a shot. Of course, the fact that he has the hots for Eui-Jin might also be a factor... Soon Sang Hwan's ch'i is flowing wildly, which is a good thing because one of the missing Masters is back, and determined to put the world in peril.

Now, if you're sensing a little similar theme to Shaolin Soccer in Aruhan, you're on target. That film and this one share much of the same style and sensibility, but where the earlier laugh riot was all flash and no substance, here the comedy is much more finely tuned, the action much less comicbook-like, the effects more subtle and realistic, and the story almost good enough to hold your interest by itself.

I have to tell you - I LOVED this film from start to finish. It's perhaps a little long at almost two hours, and there are periods that drag a little, but it could well be because the rest of the film moves at such a frenetic pace, and has so many strong characters and so much smart comedy, that the chances to catch a breath actually seem much longer than they are. There are at least five battle sequences that could easily have been good enough to be the 'climax' of the film, but just when you think it's over and done with, he director packs in another one.

Unlike Jackie Chan's comedy, this is not all pratfalls and 'whoopsies'. Unlike Sammo Hung's comedy, this is not fat jokes and innuendo. And unlike Jerry Lewis' comedy, this is not a bumbling idiot staying a bumbling idiot. As Sang Hwan's ch'i begins to flow, he starts to look more and more like the Saturday morning matinee hero, with a tinge of generation X cynicsm thrown in. In fact, his transformation in the film is so well performed and written that by the end he's almost a reluctant superman, which is a far cry from the cartoon-like way he's introduced to the audience.

Aruhan has a little of everything. It has the action and effects of Matrix, it has the female ass-kicking of Kill Bill, it has the comedy of Shaolin Soccer, the solid concept (only this time not wasted) of Mystery Men, the artistry of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and all the mainstream appeal and crowd-pleasing delivery of Spiderman. It is the kind of movie that will teach Hong Kong how to make a modern martial arts film - and that's like selling ice cubes to eskimoes.

I hope and pray that director Ryu Seung-Wan (yes, he's lead actor Ryu Seung-Bum's brother) isn't seduced to the US to make crappy films with crappy scripts for crappy producers like Joel Silver and Jerry Bruckheimer, because if he can make a film this good and this mainstream, in South Korea, on a tenth of the budget of a medium-sized US film, and infuse it with this much comedy timing, special effects and sarcasm, then he could refuse to ever set foot in Hollywood and still be known as one of the finer directors of the modern day. Likewise, I'm sending out all the ch'i I have that Miramax doesn't buy this film, attempt to dub it with American voices, then decide to dub it with Asian voices, then decide 'to heck with it' and simply release it in three theaters with half an hour cut out of the thing (like they did with Shaolin Soccer). For Aruhan to sit on shelves for two years like Hero did (another fine Miramax botch job) would be a crime. Audiences need to see this film, and they need to see it on a big screen.

After last year's Oasis, and now Aruhan, I'll even go as far as to say that I'm officially a South Korean film fan. Whoever is guiding the industry in that country seems to understand that the global market for blockbuster movies doesn't need to be fed stupid, splashy material over and over again, and if you'r going to make a name for yourself, you simply need a good script, a good story, some good actors, good effects and a director who knows how to take the best of every genre and turn it into something truly breathtaking. Take your mom, take your kid sister, take your grandfather - they will all laugh hard, as I did, and wonder just how many other great films from South Korean that've missed over the years.



:D

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0404777/

good flick. theres this one fight scene where the guy messes up these 4 gangsters in a diner. the fight scene gets a little stupid near the end but its a good flick. check it out.

I've seen it. I like it when he tried to walk on the eggs.

just watched this movie. I laughed my ass off watching this, the humor was just right for me. Pretty interesting to watch a korean kungfu movie, but the action that was involved was pretty solid, and again, very funny movie.

A Korean-made wuxia set in modern day. It's a comedy ala Stephen Chow, strangely irreverent and yet pays homage to the genre. There's lots of flying about and qi blasts. I enjoyed it despite the cheesey effects and fights. The lead was goof and the lead actress was gorgeous. The Seven masters were hilarious. And there's a ton of ridiculous flying sword fights. There's even a kwan dao vs. sword fight. You know it's good sword fights when some one busts out a kwan dao.