previously published on Asian Movie Pulse
It
might look like that comedy as a genre is slowly, but painfully dying
out, drowning, at best, in pop-cultural references that would not
last very long, or, at worst, in a pool of body fluids, with
undercooked pre-ordered jokes and underwhelming physical gags take
their place in the middle of the two. Saving grace this time comes
from South Korea, in the form of Lee Byeong-heon's action
comedy "Extreme Job" that works superbly on both levels,
being properly tense and funny-to-die, while also adding an
additional of satire and social insight in its sub-text. The results
in the terms of admissions and box office, both home and abroad, are
not just impressive, but record-breaking for a good reason. We
finally seized the opportunity to see it in Art Film Fest Košice's
Eastern Promises programme section.
The
plot revolves around the team of incompetent narcotic detectives lead
by the jaded Captain Ko (Ryu Seung-ryong, seen also in the
previous record-holder, "The Admiral" directed by Kim
Han-min) and consisting of an equally jaded surveillance expert
Young-ho (Lee Dong-hwi),
the apparently crazy Ma (Jin Seon-kyu), the rookie Jae-hoon
(Gong Myung) who is pretty green and too fired up to prove
himself and the only female Jang (Lee Hanee). After botching a
routine arrest action by causing a severe material damage in quite a
wide area, they get a bone thrown by a rivalling police team: a
notorious gangster Mubae (Shin Ha-kyun) is putting together
his old crew in order to reclaim the throne of the drug-dealing
kingpin after some time of absence.
The
inner circle of a gang is located in a building across the street
from a fried chicken joint that is about to get closed. The team
comes to a "brilliant" idea to buy the place off and to
make it the centre of their stakeout mission, lead by an information
that the ones holed up in the building have a habit of ordering the
food from there. It does not seem as a bad plan, until their business
reaches some sudden and unexpected success thanks to Detective Ma's
cooking abilities and bold imagination to serve the sticky chicken in
a beef marinade. What seems to be a cure for their ailing finances,
might prove to counter-productive for the case they are supposedly
working on, so they have to tone the success down a bit in order that
they could work. But whatever they do, the place gets more and more
popular. Until they catch another lucky or "lucky" break...
As
the plot progresses, starting quite physical in the sense of comedy,
then developing a smart context, it is destined to end up in the orgy
of unbelievable laugh-out-loud moments and the pleasures of
choreographed violence. "Extreme Job" works on so many
levels, hitting many targets often in the same scene and employing
different approaches and techniques. It is fast-paced both as comedy
and as an action movie, but the pace is not just a trick to cover up
the plot holes, since the rhythm of the whole thing is simply
amazing, with all the punchlines, figurative and literal, temped to
perfection.
Occasional
logical acrobatics are also there, but it never becomes a problem for
Lee Byeong-heon and his screenwriter Bae Se-young. Lee directs
in a smart and studied manner, usually insisting on short, hand-held
close-up to mid-distance shots, infusing the film with mock-TV news
reports, and quickly switching the tone between action and comedy,
while remaining faithful to the very smart sub-text of poorly paid
and trained police officers as a result and also a source of
corruption rooted in the country's notorious history of violence and
power abuse.
The
actors are disciplined in following the director's lead, but are also
quite aware of one another, so the interplay between the characters
is as funny to watch as are the perfectly placed moments of pure
slapstick and cartoon-like violence. One might argue that they are
all pretty broadly sketched, but it is not a problem for this kind of
film. We even get a bit of Captain Ko's backstory, which Ryu uses as
a clue to perfectly channel his character's frustrations, while
others have also their perks and quirks.
Comedy
might be underestimated as a genre, since it is quite hard to do it
properly and the trick is to make it look easy and effortless. In
that and every other sense, "Extreme Job" is an enormous
success with a high score for laughs and probably one of the best and
most hilarious comedies in years. The success is even bigger having
in mind that Korean cinema is not usually known for that kind of
comedies. Well, maybe the filmmakers should have tried it earlier,
but it is never too late.
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