It's a very funny cartoonish movie, nearly a good modern fairytale, with all the cool Kung-Fu and the dexterous special effects, but this movie could, inadvertently, raise the predicament of the genre's holiness!
Look at it. From the start, it's nothing but the action comedy, being close to visual farce, with all the lovely elements of fantasy. Then, SUDDENLY, at the third act, it's the bloody violent action, where almost all of the nice characters of the old minters got killed, the last one got tortured, and a long sequence of one last, very serious and too drastic, battle!
Is it a sin?, is it the way we used to watch? Is it a no no when it comes to renewal the genre a bit? Actually, when they had done it in a way that made the taste strange to weaken the movie, as well as disturb its own condition, then something is really wrong. We learned that mostly "there is no killing in the comedy", so how about THIS comedy in particular which was apparently too light to be dark?! You have to sense oddity like being with unstable personality. Moreover, after being straightly harsh at the climax, it returns in the post-climax - irritatingly I think - to be that smiling childish again!
Just compare the intro scene, which's super and promising, or the droll sequence of training the hero, to all the body count, or the HEEE and HOOO of the climactic fight, to catch on that there was something unusual about it, or - correctly - badly unusual!
(Arahan) proves how the Korean cinema has a lot of great potentials, in terms of clever imagination, wonderful action, big production, and advanced technique. But (Arahan) also suffers from being comic fantasy that skewed a little for dark mood, and heavy nastiness. As the script sorrowfully manipulated the whole thing, not to shake the genre up, but to make a statement about the capability of making a strong action, yet inharmoniously.
It is 2 unfinished movies in one, undoubtedly well-made, but you have to get uneasy; as the sweet becomes sour at times, and feel eventually unsatisfied; as none of the 2 movies is complete.
Look at it. From the start, it's nothing but the action comedy, being close to visual farce, with all the lovely elements of fantasy. Then, SUDDENLY, at the third act, it's the bloody violent action, where almost all of the nice characters of the old minters got killed, the last one got tortured, and a long sequence of one last, very serious and too drastic, battle!
Is it a sin?, is it the way we used to watch? Is it a no no when it comes to renewal the genre a bit? Actually, when they had done it in a way that made the taste strange to weaken the movie, as well as disturb its own condition, then something is really wrong. We learned that mostly "there is no killing in the comedy", so how about THIS comedy in particular which was apparently too light to be dark?! You have to sense oddity like being with unstable personality. Moreover, after being straightly harsh at the climax, it returns in the post-climax - irritatingly I think - to be that smiling childish again!
Just compare the intro scene, which's super and promising, or the droll sequence of training the hero, to all the body count, or the HEEE and HOOO of the climactic fight, to catch on that there was something unusual about it, or - correctly - badly unusual!
(Arahan) proves how the Korean cinema has a lot of great potentials, in terms of clever imagination, wonderful action, big production, and advanced technique. But (Arahan) also suffers from being comic fantasy that skewed a little for dark mood, and heavy nastiness. As the script sorrowfully manipulated the whole thing, not to shake the genre up, but to make a statement about the capability of making a strong action, yet inharmoniously.
It is 2 unfinished movies in one, undoubtedly well-made, but you have to get uneasy; as the sweet becomes sour at times, and feel eventually unsatisfied; as none of the 2 movies is complete.