🎬 Swing Kids, 173rd Film, Feb 15, 2023 [Yuzuru's Movie Note]

This morning's movie was
[#Swing Kids].
#Netflix viewing
*Header image source: https://www.asiadramatictv.com/

Released Feb 21, 2020
40th Blue Dragon Film Awards: Best Editing (Nam Na-young) and others
55th Baeksang Arts Awards: Best Director (Kang Hyeong-cheol) in the Film Category
39th Korean Association of Film Critics Awards: Best Supporting Actor (Oh Jung-se)
39th Golden Cinematography Awards: Best New Actress (Park Hye-su)
and others

Cast: #D.O. (EXO), #Jared Grimes
#Park Hye-su, #Oh Jung-se, #Kim Min-ho
#Ross Kettle, #A.J. Simmons, #Son Jae-ryun, and others
Director: #Kang Hyeong-cheol
Screenplay: #Kang Hyeong-cheol

#Filmarks as of Feb 15, 2023, is 4.1
Personally, this is... 5.0 ...I was blown away... The excellent sense of editing really hit the mark☆
(*My personal rating: 1: Terrible, 2: Boring, 3: Average, 4: Quite good, 5: Excellent☆)

Th-th-this is...
This movie was...insane, wasn't it...☆

It's a serious and deep...war movie.
But,
it's not just a serious and deep war movie.

It's a comedy movie.
But,
it's not just a comedy movie.

It's a dance movie.
But,
it's not just a dance movie.

It's entertainment.
Andit's a human drama.


......I mean, it's just,
everything is packed into it...
and it makes me feel so moved... by how truly amazing Korean cinema is.
Japanese historical and war films...


are often tough to watch without prior information or historical knowledge...
I've watched many of them, lol.
This movie...


is set right in the middle of the Korean War...but...
the first... 3 minutes.Here, through footage and animation?
There is footage shown just like the US military cast sees in the film,
saying, "This is fabricated film."
If you just keep this,
these 3 minutesin the back of your mind,even roughly, you'll be able to follow the rest of the movie.



The content of those 3 minutes is... in short, below:................................
The North Korean side and the South Korean side were fighting on the Korean Peninsula,
the South Korean side was losing...

the US military joined inand turned the tide.Then, the North Korean side was losing...
the Chinese Communist army joined in.In effect,
it became a war of China vs. the US.And, on Geoje Island at the southernmost tip of South Korea,

North Korean and Chinese Communist soldiers were taken as prisoners
and held there.In North Korea,

South Korean and US soldiers were taken as prisoners
and held there.Both sides supposedly followed the Geneva Convention,guaranteeing freedom for vocational training and hobbies based on human rights protection,

providing sufficient food and leisure...
Though, I suspect the North Korean side would call that "fabrication."
And among the North Korean and Chinese Communist prisoners,

there were quite a few people who said,


"I want to stay on the South Korean side like this! I don't want to go back!"
...so...the prisoners' ideologies split, leading to killings

...and the US military struggled to suppress this...It's a story about... inside that South Korean prisoner-of-war camp☆


How is that? That's how I understood itas I watched. (I'll accept counterarguments, lol)................................

And!
(

Is this... one of those difficult war movies...?
)is what it made me think at the start...(
Huh? Is this a comedy movie...?

)is what it made me think...And then!(


Oh... is this a dance movie...?
)Haha.And the flow of the first half... the visuals were just...wonderful☆


The number of cuts, the camera angles,

and the sense for editing them
...outstanding!!☆This movie,was shot from so many different angles...
and matched with upbeat dance music...

edited☆Oh man... it's wonderful... truly......... *sob*

But, it couldn't just end as a fun and interesting dance movie...

It couldn't.
There, you see the figures of people tossed about by history.There is the history of the division between North and South Korea that still continues today.
To show that... through such entertainment...


Funny, rhythmic, pop, and yet sad...
What is this sense...And also,
the base



is tap dancing...and it unfolds...The leader is a Black man... this person...Jared Grimes...
He's said to be one of the world's top tap dancers...
He's performed with world-class artists,
and is called the best dancer on Broadway...
So,
if you think only he is good... that's completely wrong.

The other members... also polished their skills amazingly.
Ah... I'm writing too much lol
Yes. Anyway, it was great!!!




Superbly great☆ And, I cried at the end......☆
Please, don't think (this kind of Korean/North Korean history stuff... seems difficult)...and I want you to give it a try? lol.


↓ The trailer was also... a good vibe☆
I'm sure there will be people who start tap dancing... because of this movie, right?♬

Yes. So, for those who have already seen it,
a review containing spoilers...
I'll try to keep it... really brief... lol
Writing it now☆
↓

They really... shot so much footage, didn't they...
How much... while filming,
(connecting this and that like this...), do they
think about it... it's amazing...

And, looking at Wikipedia...
for this director Kang Hyeong-cheol's works...
the editor, almost all of them? A person named Nam Na-young...
is the one...

And,the screenplay is also all by the director...
and there aren't that many works yet...
It's amazing...

For now...
The first film, 'Scandal Makers'
The second film, 'Sunny'
I think I can watch these... I'll check them out☆
By the way, this film is... the 5th in his filmography.

That... the Chinese prisoner of war role...
Kim Min-ho.
That person...he's not usually that feminine... right? lol
It was exquisite, wasn't it...
Seeing that dance in the first half... lol


Yes, andif I start writing about the dancing, there's no
end to itright? lol

The lead, Ro Ki-soo, is D.O. ...is it okay to call him D.O.?
I'm not familiar with Korean idol groups... so I...
EXO... so this is Exo... oh!
When I type 'Exo', it comes up in predictive text!
(Is that obvious? lol... I guess it's that level of a group)

After 6 months... half a year of rigorous training...that
dance performance, apparently...
In other words...
the other team members in this movie too...
that dance, that tap... came after
considerable practice, right... it's amazing☆

When Jackson (Jared Grimes) and
Yang Pan-rae (Park Hye-soo) are...
talking, there's a line...

“Damn ideology Fucking ideology.”

I think this was the most... impactful line in the movie...

And then, one more thing...

When Ro Ki-soo (D.O.) accused
Man-cheol (Lee Kyu-sung) of selling out his comrades to the US military,
he says...

“The ideology that kills people and divides the country is ridiculous”

Yes, the line he said while shedding tears...

This is it...

Ideology... thought... it's difficult, and
it might be inevitable that opinions divide and clash,
but...
still... I don't want to say or think that
killing many people and dividing a country is inevitable...

That... Gwang-guk's (Lee David)...
missing limbs...
that... is amazing.
So that can be done with CG and VFX...
I actually thought the actor was an amputee...

Yes, I'm wrapping it up here☆ lol

You know, in that final scene...
The light reflecting onto Jackson's face as he sat in the back of the truck...

that light...

It was the soles of the tap shoes the body was wearing...

That just... hit me so hard... and I just started crying...

That was... so tough...
Ah, even just remembering it... I feel like I'm going to cry again~ lol

Is there anyone else... who felt the same way during that scene???


Yes, that's how it felt☆

Phew, that was a good movie~☆ The end♬