Attack the Gas Station

I've been on this Korean film tangent for a while. This is definitely because Chinese film has gone down the drain pipe and Japanese films are in general just so depressed about themselves. Thats arguable and I won't get into my credentials as an advisor to John Woo. In Korea this movie was a big sleeper hit. Its choppy quick and fun about a group of four bored guys who decide to just rob a gas station one night. If Jimbo were to make a movie I believe he would make something along these lines. It wasn't noticed at all in Korea by the general public upon release. The director Kim Sang Jin is not too great and known as a genre director sticking to feel good films and comedies. Besides being that this film has great social commentary on the formalities and structure of the rigid culture there and also the plot twists just get bigger, badder, and funnier as the movie progresses. A more recent release and more polished movie of his is called Jail Breakers which falls along the same lines of the oppressed trying to circumvent social barriers. Jail Breakers was also shown last year at the Seattle International Film Festival. (SIFF06 MAFIA IN THE HOUSE!)

Director Kim Sang-Jin's note: "My priority was making the film funny rather than focusing on narrative or style. I thought a comedy depicting rebellion against society should be somewhat raw and extreme instead of refined. A gas station in a city is like an island. In this isolated space I tried to show, in a funny way, the attempts of alienated young people to overturn the existing order of the world."

It starts off with them just kind of doping around. One guy is a depressed athlete cut from pro baseball, the next is an artist snubbed by his family, the other guy is a broke band member, and the last guy is just this big oaf. (insert jimbo, train, dude, goose) They go into good short flashback about how their lives have come to this point and the overall anger they have at their now delinquent behavior. And then after that they rob the gas station, punk all the older people, get involved with the police, minor gangs, the mafia, and the entire restaurant service industry in Seoul, Korea. Without a doubt the best fun is when the mob goes off on the restaurant guys. Its like Sopranos vs. Waiting. The whole time the original crew of random guys is fighting off the whole city. Oh yea, they kidnap some hot chick and make her strip, sort of. I recommend you netflix it and spend a night with open slapstick fun.