Shit Up!

aka None Of Your Cheek
aka Kkabuljima
Korea, 2004
Dir: Oh Ji-myeong
Genre: Comedy, Action, Crime



Of all of the countries of South East Asia, my favourite movies are the films of South Korea.

I've talked before how it was films like The Host and Old Boy that turned me on to Asian film in the first place -- both films that have played a big part in popularizing Korean films abroad. And initially, I just watched the stuff that was critically acclaimed at had already gained the attention of an international audience.

The more films I watched though, the more I fell in love with the place. Not just the movies, but the country as well, with it's tragic backstory of the last hundred years or so, and the huge economic miracle that the Korean people have pulled off since 1945, in which they've gone from being economically equivalent to one of the African states, to the thirteenth wealthiest country in the world, on a par with somewhere like Spain.

So now, I watch them all. Not just the good stuff, but the mediocre stuff as well. Not just the critically acclaimed, but the lowliest genre cinema. I don't really watch the horror movies -- though they're very highly rated by people who enjoy that genre. But the dramas, the melodramas, the romantic comedies, the costume dramas -- the sort of commercial stuff that I wouldn't watch if it were a British or American film -- I'm all over when it's a Korean movie. And I love them.

If I had to choose a favourite though, it would be the Korean crime movie, and particularly the Korean gangster movie. In fact, this blog takes its name from just such a film, Guns and Talks. As we've never really had a relationship with Korea here in the UK, we really don't know much about them, so much of what I do know, I've had to summarize from the films, or from this Wikipedia article on the Kkangpae. They appear to form gangs while still at school, and then get recruited by a local boss, at which point they operate in ways that seem very similar to the Japanese Yakuza, in very rigid, heirarchical organisations in which the footsoldiers appear to pledge absolute fealty to the boss, who beats and humiliates them regularly. The film Three Fellas aka Bar Legends aka Riverside Legends provides an entertaining account of this sort of process at work.

One explanation that I've read for the lack of info. on the Kkangpae is that the Koreans are deeply ashamed of their existance, and so they've never really done any significant reporting on the issue. Consequently, there's almost no information in English about them. No books whatsoever. But if this were true, how the hell can they have so many films in which they play a central role?

The most famous of the Korean gangsters is the much revered Kim Du-Han, a beggar who became a politician and was lionized in legendary Korean director Im Kwon-Taek film, The General's Son. I'll discuss this movie and the work of Kim Ki-Duk in a forthcoming post, but if the films are to be believed, the relationship between gangsters and politicians is a deep and abiding one, and one that continues to the current day.

So gangsters play a peculiar role in Korean life -- and in their movies. Like the Yakuza, they seem to have a quasi-legitimate role insofar as they're used by politicians and some businesses. They play an abiding role in the Korean melodrama, where they are often seen being used to put the poor out of their affordable accomodation to make way for property redevelopment and the construction of luxury high-rise buildings. (c.f. Holiday) or acting on behalf of loan sharks who have loaned money to the credit unworthy at horrendous interest rates (cf Sympathy for Mr Vengeance). But they also appear in a host of lighthearted comedies as lovable rogues -- vaguely incompetent and anachronistic, a relic of old, traditional Korea as they struggle to come to terms with things like the Internet and the new financial markets. (cf My Boss, My Hero)

Shit up is a movie in the latter tradition. A group of older Kkangpae have recently been released from prison, having sworn to get even with the co-conspirator that put them there. Instead, they take a job acting as a bodyguard for his daughter.

The actors who play the leading roles are among the most popular and experienced veterans of the film and theatre scene, and the performance that they turn in in this movie is more than competent. Unfortunately, the story on it's own just isn't strong enough to carry the movie. I understand that a lot of the humour is based on the wordplay in the film, but as usual, this just doesn't make it across into the translation for the English subtitles.

Shit Up wasn't a terrible film, but it's only really worth seeing if you're an obsessive completist of Korean Gangster Movies. Fortunately for you, (and unfortunately for me), I am.

I watch films like this so that you don't have to.

2.5 out of 5. Mediocre and eminently missable.