Movie Haiku - Arahan

www.arahan.co.kr

Dir: Ryoo Seung-wan

Cast: Ryoo Seung-bum, Yun Soy, Ahn Sung-ki, Jung Doo-hang

Her palm blast floors him
Old Masters unlock his chi
now he fights evil

It's been two weeks since I last went to the cinema, I'm getting withdrawal symptoms. So while I was passing through London last week I thought I'd check out a free screening of Arahan, a Korean martial arts comedy courtesy of those nice people at Firecracker. The film follows the tried and tested formula of geek gets picked upon, geek discovers hidden powers, geek overcomes his adversaries, which has served many martial arts / superhero flicks so well in the past. Our hero this time is Sang-hwan (Ryoo), a fairly useless cop who is knocked down when shop girl Eui-jin (Yun) uses her special palm blast whilst trying to catch a thief. Sang-hwan is taken back to Eui-jin's home where he meets her father (Ahn) and is introduced to the Seven Masters (although there's only five of them). They're able to sense Sang-hwan's strong chi energy and see his potential as a new Master to work alongside Eui-jin. Meanwhile the newly awakened evil Heug-un (Jung) is determined to defeat the Seven Masters and so the scene is set for a showdown between the two forces. Arahan is an enjoyable mix of action and comedy whilst bringing nothing fresh to the genre. The humour is strongest in the first half of the film when we first meet Sang-hwan and in particular when he begins training to become a new Master; director Ryoo uses a split-screen technique to show the Old Masters explaining the different skills, whilst Sang-hwan simultaneously manages to mess them up. The action is mainly wire-fighting, and for me the best scene comes around two thirds of the way through the film when Sang-hwan instigates a fight in a restaurant with the gang who'd been bullying him earlier. As events move towards the film's climax and the inevitable battle between Sang-hwan and Heug-un the fighting just becomes a little too routine and, dare I say it, boring. Ryoo as Sang-hwan plays the geeky role just fine but his character suffers from being quite unlikable at first, although you do start to warm to him by the end. Yun's Eui-jin is the strongest character, the cold-hearted babe ("Do you want to die?" she snaps at Sang-hwan as he walks in on her changing) and she provides the much needed contrast and companion to Sang-hwan. The direction is competent without being too flashy, although the movie does sag a little towards the end. Thankfully you're sent away smiling as events come full circle and the film concludes with a similar scene to the beginning - arguably the most enjoyable confrontation of them all. Not bad, but if you want to see a proper martial arts comedy then check out the infinitely better Kung Fu Hustle instead.

soulming rating ***