[KFCC] Arahan Review

Story: Sang-hwan is a young, naïve, but kind-hearted policeman always trying to clean the world from injustice. However, the reality is that he can’t even bring the smallest of local gangsters to justice. During an attempt to arrest a purse thief, he ends up getting accidentally knocked out by Jang Woo-rim, Jaun’s daughter. Jaun is a high member of the Seven Masters, a group of martial art masters, guardians of the secrets of Arahan.

While waking up Sang-hwan from the knockout, Jaun accidentally discovers that Sang-hwan has incredible Chi powers and has the high potential of becoming a formidable disciple. Meanwhile, the evil HeugUn, an original of the Seven Master’s group, has escaped from his eternal prison and is again seeking Jaun who holds the key to his ultimate power.

Review: It seems that those old fashion martial art movies are starting to be outdated now. These days, in the eyes of movie production companies, every martial art films need CGI and visual effects to get people’s attention. It’s true that it’s attractive for the eyes, but most of the time they usually have a poor storyline and only count on superficial visuals in order to impress.

Fortunately, it is not the case for this latest film from the South-Korean director Ryoo Seung-wan. ARAHAN is quite an oddity in his short filmography. First, he got Asian movie fans attention with is low budget youth drama, DIE BAD, then he got the Korean film industry’s attention when an American company bought the rights to remake his second movie, NO BLOOD NO TEARS. And finally, here’s ARAHAN, a Kung Fu/Comedy/Fantasy movie featuring his actual brother in the main role, which is getting great attention in film festivals around the world.

ARAHAN has a very commercial/mainstream appeal, though simple reason should not hold you from not watching it. Yes, the story is pretty basic, evolving around many clichés of the genre: bad guy appears, old master trains the young disciple, and then young disciple fights bad guy. However, even if the story won’t surprises anyone with its minor plot twists and generic characters, the movie is still very entertaining with many fights sequences and great humorous moments.

Another aspect that was not particularly impressive is the character designs. The idea of the idiot becoming a super fighting machine is starting to get old. Sang-hwan, played by Ryoo Seung-Bum, did a fine job for the acting, but the character is really stupid and can get on your nerves. However, I have to say that even with that in mind, you will still cheer for him when he’s kicking the bad guy’s asses.

Yun So-Yi, a very cute newcomer in Korean cinema is excellent in her role of Jang Woo-rim. We can bet that with her very charismatic face, she will give some serious competition to Jeon Ji-Hyeon (My SASSY GIRL) in the very near future. The famous Korean actor Ahn Seong-Gi plays Jang Woo-rim’s father and like most of his past performances, he is simply marvellous in this role. His character also brings a great balance of seriousness to the film. The other Seven Masters are interesting, but we don’t see that much about them.

The martial arts ability of the actors was limited. This becomes very clear during the training sequences, especially when the characters are performing a form by themselves. They feel awkward for someone familiar with martial arts, especially if you know about Chinese martial arts as the style mainly showed in the movie is Wushu. However, during the fight sequence that inability is totally gone. Camera tricks, editing, wires and stunt doubles create fights that appear flawless and impressive. If you want to see this film only for the fight scenes, you won’t be disappointed. The restaurant fight sequence will sure become a classic fight scene, worthy of any good fight scene produced by Hong Kong cinema.

I still remember a few years ago when Volcano High came out. People hated or liked the movie, but I personally ended up hating it. Both movies share a lot in common, but I don’t believe ARAHAN will give the same divided opinion as ARAHAN is superior to VOLCANO HIGH in every point. Even if ARAHAN doesn’t have any real memorable characters nor an innovative story, the great quality fight sequences and the fun comedic aspects of the film will awe most viewers.