Review: With an outstanding resume that boasts such titles as Champion, and the highly acclaimed coming of age gangster drama Friend, Director Kyung-Taek Kwak branches out from the realm of the powerfully dramatic and into more comedic territory with his latest film Mutt Boy. Unfortunately, the execution and the subject matter at hand both come across as being neither dramatic enough, nor comedic enough to provide a truly worthy follow up to his previous endeavors.

Subtitled in English by the folks at STARMAX with the seemingly more appropriate title of “Stray Doggy”, we spend the entire first half of the film following around this Ddong gae as though we were homeless pups ourselves. In the beginning, we are given the grand tour through Chol-Min’s past, starting with the funeral of his mother, and leading up to his present state of twenty-something slacker worthlessness with only a short pit stop in between to establish the bond and tragic loss of a canine companion.

Due to the nature of the character, or perhaps a shameful attribute to the folly of poor writing, the viewer finds himself dragged along from one boring interaction to the next with no sign of a destination. Only after an hour into the narrative do we find the semblance of plot showing itself in the form of conflict between the corrupt, land hungry business men and the citizens of the small town in which the film is set.

Perhaps the presence of a more accomplished character actor might have eased the medicine down. Instead we find ourselves at the mercy of the rather awkward Woo-sung Jung. While there is no doubt that he is capable of bringing a powerful presence to his usual role of the angst encumbered leading man, I feel that it is arguable as to whether or not he has the varying chops necessary to pull off the kind of character that this film should have required. Most anyone can pull off “goofy”, but this film tries to fluctuate between the tale of a simpleton and that of a misunderstood warrior, and while it does not exactly pull either off very well, it might have helped the overall experience if the viewer was able to form a stronger bond with the main lead. The few occasions where his performance managed to make a lasting impact were the scenes directly connected to physical violence. The tension in these scenes feels very real and the junkyard dog in Chol-Min bares his teeth a time or two, resulting in more than a few bouts of gritty, realistic, fisticuffs. Unfortunately violence alone is not enough to save this mutt from the pound.