:
Song Kang-Ho,
Lee Ki-yeong,
Jang Hang-seon,
more...
:
Kim Jee-Woon
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: Tai Seng Entertainment
: Comedies, Foreign, Slapstick, Korea, Sports Comedy, Sports, Sports Comedy
: 112 min.
: Cantonese, Mandarin
: English
see additional details...
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The sophomore effort of writer-director Kim Jee-woon, who had success on the festival circuit with his 1998 black comedy The Quiet Family, Banchik Wang opens by introducing us to harried office grunt Im Dae-ho (Song Kang-ho). Nagged by his father, hassled by his boss, and secretly in love with a female colleague, Dae-ho finds solace in wrestling and the so-called "foul kings," or take-no-prisoners championship wrestlers who will do anything to win a match. He decides to try his own hand at the sport and is eventually -- if reluctantly -- taken on as the pupil of a weathered coach (Jang Hang-seon). Training by the coach's daughter (Jang Jin-yeong) allows Dae-ho to develop self-confidence, and after becoming the accidental victor of his first fight, he prepares for a tag match against reigning champion Yubiho (Kim Su-ro), who wants an easy win to further his career in Japan. ~ Rebecca Flint, All Movie Guide
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| It's the Only Version They've Got
by Signalstation
March 11, 2007 - 11:27 PM PDT
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The soundtrack for this Korean film does manage to not have any Korean in it. Which is disappointing.
But the movie's fun and maybe it's some small comfort if you know that the dubbing for the main character is done by Stephen Chow of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle fame.
I can't know if that will get you over purist objections regarding the lack of a Korean soundtrack, but when I watched the film, recognizing the familiar comedic voice provided enough sugar to swallow that bitter pill. |
| A pretty good comedy, but a horrible DVD
by ColonelKong
June 11, 2003 - 8:53 AM PDT
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13 out of 13 members found this review helpful
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I don't feel like I can review the movie itself right now because the DVD was so bad that it was signifigantly detrimental to my enjoyment of the movie. There is a all-region NTSC Korean disc which I thought I was going to get, but instead I got the Tai Seng US release. The disc I got had an awful tranfer, it looked more like I was watching a 3rd or 4th generation tape than a DVD. Also, for some bizarre reason, no Korean language track is included, only Mandarin and Cantonese ones. I found this to be very distracting, not only was it the wrong language (I don't know any Cantonese, but I've certainly heard enough of it to recognize it when I hear it), it just felt....wrong, as if a lot of nuance from the actors' vocal performances had been lost. (Were two of the wrestlers really called "Big Bear" and "Dorky Face" in Korean?) Anyone who's ever watched a Hong Kong movie dubbed into Mandarin will probably know what I'm talking about, it feels sort of like watching a French film dubbed into Spanish.
If I had a chance to see this movie again properly, I definitely would. I feel like I should wait until then to review the movie, since there are several movies I've responded to much more favorably after I've seen a much better copy of it than what I had seen before.
If you have an opportunity to see this movie, do so, but avoid the Tai Seng disc like the plague. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.94)
33 Votes
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