THE FOUL KING (2000)
March 12th, 2011 by Mr. C
Director: Jee Woon Kim
Actors: Sang Myeong Park,Kang Ho Song,Ho Kyung Go
Korean comedy,drama: wrestling
It’s been hella fun participating in writing about K-inspired films in conjunction with the Korean Blogathon 2011 from March 7-13th! I’m still discovering about Korean films new & old everyday and this blogathon is a great hitlist for me to explore after the smoke clears! It’s nice sidestepping away from my usual Hong Kong fare!
Generation X slackers, let me hear you say Dae HO-ooo! Tell me if you’ve ever hated your pencil pushing job while dressed in that penguin suit, despised your boss, or disappointed your parents because you still act like a child, but you have this deep passion for…professional wrestling?! This movie is based on all of the above told in a comedic clothesline undertone that will grab you by a fistful of hair, ram you into the turnbuckle, & pile drive you into oblivion!
Im Dae Ho(Kang Ho Song) plays a bank clerk who struggles with his office space job, is late for work everyday, & hates his boss who tries to instill fear into him by clamping him in a headlock that he cannot escape from to insinuate that this is the real world, & that only the tough survive. My man is disillusioned with life as he slacks away. Dae-Ho’s light bulb turns on when he sees an ad for Jang’s Pro Wrestling gym! He races to the gym to pledge his allegiance & finds out that the coach is one of his favorite wrestling idols of yesteryear, The ULTRA TIGER MASK with the famed ultrapower boom boom aka ultra tiger power bang as his signature fatality move! Ho professes his love for wrestling by mentioning old school wrestlers with their famed move, but the ULTRA TIGER thinks that he is a flake, & pushes him to the curb stating that this is not gym that any Wang Kang Bulgogi can walk into and train like in a Tae Kwan Do studio. Dae-Ho begs him to at least show him how to breakout of a headlock & the master/minister/mister(comedy from movie) obliges. The secret technique ends up to be…tickling! He goes home & has a nice intimate dream of being a wrestler in his elvis uniform adorned in all the ruffles & embedded crystal gems as he kicks the crap out of his boss in the ring! Life continues at the office space as he continues to be late, & the boss continues to scold & scoff! The boss attempts the headlock move on him again, but the tickle technique is applied which broke the stronghold! The Ho is on top of the world! His luck will further continue as the master from Jang’s Gym calls him to ask if he is interested in training in wrestling to specialize in the “cheating move”. The cheating technique is one when the wrestler uses props “illegally” in a match which of course, is all staged. Im Dae Ho is in heaven as his not so Ultimate Warrior training is underway! The Ultra Tiger’s daughter, Min Young whips the little kimchi in shape! Im’s character is to be named the “Foul King” & he is decorated in a face mask! He learns various props like a wooden fork painted in silver to look like stainless steel, slippers, white powder, & a two fingered thrust that would frighten Moe, Larry, & curly! The daughter shows him proper techniques of the back drop, & other leg maneuvers that could even turn the Iron Sheik into a kebab! Dae Ho is a training machine as he studies wrestling moves from tapes of Stone Cold Steve Austin vs the Undertaker! He finds himself using the straphangers on the city subway as training devices! With these new found skills especially when he wears his face mask, he finds solidarity, enthusiasm, confidence, & strength! The mask symbolizes a new life with no fear, but he is crippled because he heavily relies on physically wearing the mask in order to manifest these feelings. A few scenes from the film which show him with this persona include the skit with the young punks, his father, & his confession to a girl that he likes at work. The attachment to this face mask will soon be challenged when he is signed up for a tag team match with some scary, talented mothersuckers! It’s the FOUL KING-ASURA X & the HUMAN KONG-KING KONG vs the SULTAN OF STRENGTH- No Ji Shim & the “Best in technical wrestling”, YUBIHO ! You will see some serious flying dropkicks, backward somersaults off the top turnbuckle, suplexes, backdrops, a move called the firebomb, & bodyslams that will make your ancestors feel the pain! There will be a skirmish that would be developed outside the ring that involves chairs, barricades, a bell, a stick, & other immovable objects that look painful! The guest referee of this tag team duel was the lead actor from The City of Violence, Doo Hong Jung! References of Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, & Julia Roberts are even thrown in the match! The “Requiem in the Ring” would incite a revelation to Im Dae Ho aka the Foul King! The final scene in the movie involves the Ho man & his boss!
Funny flick, y’all which is worth a Hulk Hogan leg drop! I’ll give it a dropkick and a half myself!
Tags: hokyung go, jee woon kim, kang ho song, korean blogathon, korean comedy, sang myeong park, wrestling
Posted in movies, mr. c | Comments (0)
