Jumeogi unda (2005)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Seung-wan Ryoo

Writer:

Seung-wan Ryoo (writer)

Release Date:

1 April 2005 (South Korea)

Genre:

Drama | Sport

Plot Keywords:

Boxing | Prison | Father Son Relationship | Delinquent | Former Athlete

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Min-sik Choi	...	Gang Tae-shik
Seung-beom Ryu	...	Yoo Sang-hwan
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kil-Kang Ahn	...	Head warden
Hie-bong Byeon	...	Sang-hwan's coach
Ju-bong Gi	...	Sang-hwan's father
Ho-jin Jeon	...	Sang-chul
Byeong-ok Kim	...	Detective
Won-hie Lim	...	Won-tae
Mun-hee Na	...	Sang-hwan's grandma
Dal-su Oh	...	Yong-dae
Hye-rin Seo	...	Sun-ju (Tae-shik's wife)

Also Known As:

Crying Fist (International: English title)

Runtime:

South Korea:134 min | USA:123 min (2005 New York Asian Film Festival) | Australia:134 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:15 | Australia:M | Germany:16 | Japan:PG-12 | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

South Korea

Company:

Sio Film and Bravo Entertainment

This is a solid effort

Another day, another Corean film, but another good one. This one is a boxing movie. But it's not really a boxing movie in the sense that Rocky is a boxing movie. It's rather a drama foremost, about down-and-out losers and their sad pathetic lives, and then a boxing movie: boxing being the means by which they can lift themselves out of their conditions.

The two characters are quite different in some sense, one being a former silver medal winning Asian Games champion with no job and on the brink of losing his marriage and family and the other being a troubled street youth with a compassionate family. At some point, both characters lose out and find their hope in boxing, whether on the streets as a human sandbag or in the prison gym. And then a greater hope is found.

Of course, unlike a typical boxing movie, you have two protagonists and when their paths cross, you don't know who to root for. Both are sad sacks and hard to love people, but have enough humanity still in them that you can't help but wish for them to make it in the end. But... the movie brings up the strange conflict of... who? All the same, that sort of conflict is fairly realistic in any one vs. one story when you think about it. There's hardly a truly villainous villain like the villain of Rocky IV.

The film is shot in two different styles, for each characters stories, although they're tied together well by overarching style elements and the characters are fairly well developed and superbly acted. I will admit that the younger character's story is a little incredulous sometimes and a small bit contrived for extra sympathy, but the movie is generally so watchable overall that I was able to ignore it. With mostly solid writing, great acting, excellent direction and high production value, I'd have to say that Crying Fist has turned out to be one of my favorite boxing films and possibly even sports film. Which isn't to say it's one of my favorite films.

Some of the contrivances are still glaring, and it's hard to fully ignore, but all the same, this is a solid effort and a film that I could recommend highly. Good stuff! 8/10.