The Art of Fighting Review

Jae Hee - best known for his recent work in Kim Ki-Duk’s stellar 3-Iron - stars as Song Byung-Tae, the only son of a single and almost entirely absent policeman father. Believing his son to be unsuited to academics and in need of toughening up Song’s father has forcibly transferred him into a rough technical school that focuses on practical trades over academics. Populated by thugs and wannabe gangsters the school seems just one small step from a reformatory and Song’s hardened classmates recognize him for the fragile thing that he is and prey upon him mercilessly.

By chance one day Song happens to see Oh Man-Su, a hardened gangster played by Save the Green Planet’s Baek Yoon-Shik, put a beating on a gangland goon and recognizes in Oh a possible road to his salvation. He must learn to fight and Oh must teach him. He then follows Oh everywhere begging to be taken on as a pupil, a role that Oh finally, grudgingly takes on.

On first blush it is easy to say that The Art of Fighting is little more than an unfunny action comedy, an impression bolstered by those misleading ads and something that no film should strive to be. And there are indeed attempts at comedy that largely fail, and fail for a very simple reason. Those big, expressive eyes and fragile features that made Jae’s performance in 3-Iron so effective make him singularly unsuitable for this sort of comedy. There’s nothing even remotely funny about seeing this young man being beaten down by his peers again and again, it’s horrible and tragic. He’s a little more than a child thrown to the wolves and the wolves are tearing him to pieces.

What saves the film from abject failure, however, is the simple fact that the director seems amply aware that Jae simply will not work if this is cast as a comedy and he gets away from that approach hard and fast, most notably in a devastating sequence that features a desperate Song graphically slashing his own wrist to convince Oh of the depth of his need. Anyone who could include this sort of scene in a film is clearly not trying for comedy and this is the point where, misleading ads or not, it becomes abundantly clear that the film has an entirely different agenda than the marketing would lead you to believe.

More than anything The Art of Fighting is the story of two outcasts meeting and forming a surrogate family. Oh becomes the father figure that Song so desperately needs and - in the process - gets to transcend his own violent nature, the simple act of caring and investing in another person allowing him to become something greater than his past. It’s a story not about fighting – though there is plenty of that – but about Song learning to take pride in himself, learning that all the strength he needs is already inside him if he can only learn to trust in it.

The film is not entirely successful, the fusion of elements not entirely complete or compelling enough, but the leads are strong and the direction assured. Baek Yoon-Shik is simply a magnetic presence on screen and Jae Hee is slowly building an impressive body of work that belies his pretty boy looks and image. Jae may not be the next coming of Depp or Asano but he certainly seems to be taking his cues from the likes of them rather than his answering the call of easy teen idol status that must surely be within easy reach. And so The Art of Fighting is not a clear cut success but it’s not easily dismissed either, the end result may be a little muddled but the blend of ingredients and unusual approach yields some truly fine moments.