Break Out (Korea, 2002)
Directed by: Jang Hang-Jun
Starring: Kim Seung-Woo, Cha Seung-Won, Park Yeong-Kyu

Character is destiny in BREAK OUT, a precision tuned, laser-guided Korean comedy of chaos. Written by Park Jeoung-Wu (Attack the Gas Station), and starring Cha Seung-Won of Kick the Moon, this flick sets patient, diabolical, Rube Goldberg plot devices in motion with the sole aim of slamming incompatible characters into each other at the point of maximum resistance.

Bon-Gu (Kim Seung-Woo) is one of life¹s little losers, now stranded after a day of army reserves training with no money for the bus home and nothing to his name but a hard head and a disposable lighter. Gangster, Yang Chul-gon (Cha Seung-Won), a fashion plate with empty pockets and a loyal gang who haven¹t been paid in a year, impulsively swipes the lighter in a public bathroom and horns are locked: one man wants his lighter back, the other won¹t admit he stole something so cheap. Everyone winds up on a runaway train crammed with vivid supporting characters, surrounded by a SWAT team, and headed for disaster.

People splutter and fume in the face of everyone else¹s stubborn refusal to admit reality, and for every bullheaded fool, there¹s a bigger fool right around the corner for him to butt heads with. Scored to a triumphal lite-rock soundtrack, BREAK OUT is about that one inch of our souls that no job can own, and no one can tamper with. Social comedy as a weapon of mass humiliation, it¹s all about our dignity, and how undignified we look when we fight for it.