KICK THE MOON (South Korea, 2001)
Directed by: Kim Sang-Jin
Starring: Lee Sung-Jae, Cha Seung-Won, Kim Hye-Soo

"...with its gentle mocking of gangster codes, police authority and hoodlum mythology, MOON is a surprisingly rich pic that repays repeated viewings."

-Derek Elley, Variety

"Everyone get together and fight. This is a war!" A love war, baby. From the cast and crew that brought you last year's hit, ATTACK THE GAS STATION, KICK exponentially increases the wildness of that anarchic blowout into a staggering fun sausage of epic proportions. Starting in the godawful ‘80s, we watch the class bully (Cha Seung-Won) grow up to become a gym teacher, and the class nerd (GAS STATION'S Lee Sung-Jae, now most famous as the star of Squid Game) grow up to become a bigshot gangster. The two collide as adults, engaging in hand-to-hand combat over the heart of a noodle shop owner in a opera buffo world of bubbling problems and seething resentments, where asking for a date can spark a riot. The Iliad of life after graduation, KICK sees high school as a microcosm for the world, or the world as a microcosm for high school. With more supporting characters than a Victorian novel, and sprawling crazily across the candy-coated city of Gyeongju, it's shot in Super 35mm so that (as the press kit says), “viewers can wholesomely share the experience.”

A heady hit of nitrous oxide, KICK THE MOON's carnival ride has something going on beneath the surface. As the gangster and the gym teacher butt heads for the love of Ju-Ran, the feisty noodle-shop owner, they make her younger brother a pawn in their powergame. Gi-Dong, the gym teacher, cranks up his bullying of the kid, promising to “make a man” out of him. Young-Joon, the gangster, becomes a father figure encouraging him to get better grades and excel in school so he can grow up to be a master criminal. Neither idea is particularly enlightened, but both suitors attack their gameplans with evangelistic enthusiasm. In KICK, society is a fluid hierarchy of who can get away with doing what to whom, be it the old cop who flings his badge around like a Frisbee, the teacher who spends his hours devising baroque punishments for his students, the city gang boss vs. the country gang boss, the local draft board, or the constable on the beat. Intimidation and bluster are the order of the day, and life becomes an eternal, running battle of WWE proportions. The only one who keeps her head is Ju Ran, and she's the one you'll remember afterwards, capable of deploying judo throws and hysterical crying to turn the strength of her opponents against themselves, and walk on by all the cavemen who want to bring her down.

Korea's second all-time, top-grossing comedy (MY SASSY GIRL is still #1), KICK THE MOON is the amiable drunk in the family, sprawled out over five seats and blocking the aisle with his feet. But behind all that bluster about the good old days, he's secretly nursing a broken heart.