ACTION BOYS (2008)
June 8th, 2012 by Mr. C
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Director: Jeong Byeong-gil
Stars: Kwon Gui Duck,Kwak Jin-seok,Sin Sung-il,Jeong Sye-jin,Kwon Moon-cheol,Byung-gil
Genre: Korean documentary on stuntmen
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I’ve been anxious to get my hands on this film ever since I found out that some of the subjects in this documentary on stuntmen have worked in two of my favorite Korean movies: CITY OF VIOLENCE and THE GOOD-THE BAD–THE WEIRD. And one of the stars also had a role in CRYING FIST – another recent favorite of mine thanks to a wandering…asian!
ACTION BOYS is a behind the scenes look at the life of a few stuntmen that were lucky or (unlucky) enough to make it to the school of hard knocks — The Seoul Action Stunt School! The particular year that this film was documented was from the class of 2004. Oh and by the way – the director of the movie was also a student at this academy! The Seoul Action Stunt School runs a 6 month INTENSE program and only 36 can make the cut through auditions and interviews. 17 candidates would drop out before you can say bulgogi. In the end, only 8 would complete the entire program! The film is not a technical one so don’t expect to see training sessions or the nuts and bolts of the academy. However, we will get glimpses of off the wall stunts, crazy car maneuvers as well as some intense fighting scenes on film shoots! The doc seemed to aim at getting a more personal look at what makes these stuntmen/ragdoll wannabes tick by interviewing the subjects, their family members, and trainers. To be frank, the film is quite disorganized often meandering about led by the narrator which then unsmoothly transitions to interviews then to showing footage from auditions, back to behind the scene film shoots, then back to interviewing again. It seemed like the film could of used some structure by editing, BUT the content of the film was tremendous right down to the human story level. The filmmaker didn’t just showcase the superhuman feats of the stuntmen – he also flashed the mortal, personal, and more realistic side of the coin as well. I suppose they could of trimmed down the run-time of the film a bit but I kind of liked the raw dog style of the edits!
After 4 years removed from the graduating class of 2004, only 3 are still working in the business during the filming of Action Boys. The doc would basically concentrate on 4-5 of these stuntmen. Among them are GUI DUCK who worked in construction, fancies a few dance moves, and is a real daredevil-outlaw type known for performing dangerous stunts; JIN SEOCK – a real life boxer turned hairdresser known for his six pack of abs. Jin Seock played a boxer in Crying Fist; SUNG-IL passed the audition based on his good looks and personality despite demonstrating mediocre martial art kicks. Sung-il was called in to work on The Good, The Bad, The Weird which was filmed in Shanghai. SYE-JIN was the supposed horse expert who let a fortune teller convince him to embrace a tiger on his back! Byung-gil, the director of this film was flagged as the candidate who was that weird guy with the crazy look in his eye! Byung-gil attributed that creepy look to just being released from korean militiary service. Last but not least was Moon-Cheol Kwon – a specialist in acrobats, dancing, and singing. Would he give up a career as a stuntman to be a singer?
The Seoul Action Stunt School co-produced the film, CITY OF VIOLENCE. As quoted from one of the 2004 graduates of the stunt school, City of Violence was an unforgettable experience. All members of the Seoul Stunt School worked on The City of Violence! It would be the 1st film that the school would co-produce! Gui Duck even choreographed some of the action sequences. There was a scene in COV that involved fighting while running on the roof of parked cars that Action Boys highlighted and slowed down the film in order to show Jin Seock, Sung-il, & Gui Duck in this movie sequence fighting Jung Doo-Hong!
After watching this documentary, I had a sudden urge to revisit City of Violence, The Good-The Bad-The Weird, and Crying Fist!
If you are a fan of any of these 3 movies or just a plain action fanatic, I highly recommend tracking down Action Boys! Besides showing that the stuntman is often the guts with no glory piece of an action film, this documentary reminds us that they are the true unsung heroes to the films that we love!
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Tags: action boys, city of violence, documentary, good bad weird, korean
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (0)
