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[HanCinema's Film Review] "One Punch"

Sin-woo (played by Park Shin-woo-II) is a transfer student who has simple desires in life. For the most part, he just wants something to eat. In a weird, gross scene that's highly emblematic of teenage sibling dynamics, Sin-woo tricks his twin sister Gyoo-ri (played by Choi Yeon-cheong) into abandoning her ramen, so he can jump in to slurp it up. Sin-woo also accidentally becomes a hero for the downtrodden at his new school when he uses just "One Punch" to knock out a bully who inadvertently made Sin-woo drop his ice cream while bullying another student.

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These descriptions of individual scenes no doubt make "One Punch" sound much more interesting than it really is. I was all set to watch Sin-woo just be a gross teenager who mostly wants to be left alone, only to keep getting dragged into petty high school drama he has almost no interest in. But alas, writer/director Park Hyun-soo-I spends a lot of time embroiled in high school politics, most of which revolves around characters with indistinguishable motivations and even less distinguishable outfits.

Just by way of example, Jin-hwan (played by Baek Jin-hwan) sticks out far more than the rest of the male cast just because he's a heavyset guy who at one point starts wearing undersized undershirts for no reason that's ever explained. Having male characters be mostly indistinguishable is a bit of a problem for a movie that's allegedly all about high schooler fistfights with no girls allowed. I mean, there are other female characters. Ji-sung (played by the departed Han Ji-sung) leads the effort to expose the bullies.

But none of them get to do anything really fun. I noted with some irritation that despite Gyoo-ri also being the child of a kickboxing gym master, she doesn't get any fight scenes. In general "One Punch" doesn't have as many fight scenes as you'd expect. Even bearing in mind that Sin-woo knocking guys out with "One Punch" is his signature move, there's no artistry to the fight scenes, or real dedication to this theme, or even interesting characterization to keep this eighty minute movie from constantly dragging.

Perhaps the main positive "One Punch" has going for it is that it's bad in such a way that reminds me of other, better, cheesy low budget action films. "Justice High" actually did a fairly convincing job making its characters feel like high school students, with the lead character being equal parts antisocial and oblivious in a very teenage way. "GANG" properly builds its fight scenes up by setting expectations, and then mostly meeting them.

"One Punch" doesn't do any of that. It's a movie that's so consistently dull the main memorable scenes are random throwaways, like how Sin-woo constantly being late to school and having to do planks. This isn't a particularly interesting scene, but it's at least physically distinctive. Most of "One Punch" can't even clear that low bar, with even the promise of low budget high school fisticuffs being terribly underwhelming in execution.

Review by William Schwartz

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"One Punch" is directed by Park Hyun-soo-I, and features Park Shin-woo-II, Choi Yeon-cheong, Hong Jun-ki, Choi Hyun-do, Han Ji-sung, Ock Yun-jung. Release date in Korea: 2019/04/11.

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