Revenger (2018) Review

“Revenger” Korean Theatrical Poster

Director: Lee Seung-won
Writer: Bruce Khan
Cast: Bruce Khan, Park Hee-soon, T.J. Storm, Yoon Jin-seo, Kim In-kwon, Park Chul-min
Running Time: 101 min.

By Paul Bramhall

The Korean martial arts movie can more or less be said to have died out at some point in the 1990’s. Sure there’s been a few attempts to revive it, the likes of 2006’s City of Violence and 2013’s The Suspect were both sold on their action, but when was the last time a Korean movie was sold purely on a guy kicking the daylights out of everyone!? For that you have to go back to the days when guys like Dragon Lee, Casanova Wong, and Hwang Jang Lee lit up the screens with their impressive array of kicks, and those days are long gone. Until now.

If you haven’t heard of Bruce Khan, it’s entirely forgivable. A master of both Taekwondo and Hapkido, Khan made tentative steps into the local film industry in the late 90’s, at a time when Shiri had pretty much put the last nail in the coffin for the Korean martial arts flick. Thankfully one of the directors he worked with had connections in Hong Kong, which led to a successful audition for a small action role in Gen-X Cops. Like many Korean martial artists, Khan was a teacher of martial arts first, with his ventures in the film industry second. Having established schools in both the U.S. and Korea, he also found time to work on the fight choreography in Jackie Chan’s The Medallion, and in 2005 landed a role in front of camera to fully showcase his skills, in fellow Korean Young Man Kang’s kung fu and Christianity hybrid, The Last Eve.

He’d appear onscreen again as the Japanese villain that frequently duels with the title character of 2012’s K-drama series Bridal Mask, however Khan’s real ambition was to create a pure Korean martial arts movie. In that regard, you could say that Revenger is the realisation of his dream. It may have taken him until he was 51 years old to become a headlining action star, but any doubt around if he’s left it too late are quickly cast aside within the opening few minutes. This guy can bust out the kicks with a lethal precision that makes guys half his age look like geriatrics. Playing a former cop that gets sent to APA-101, a lawless island penitentiary populated by death row inmates, Khan’s real mission is to kill the ruthless criminal who murdered his wife and child. That same ruthlessness, has made the criminal he’s after become the feared leader of the island.

Khan is responsible for both the story and script, and together with first time director Lee Seung-won, Revenger has a visually unique aesthetic. The setting of the island (which was filmed in Indonesia) gives proceedings a post-apocalyptic feel, with the inhabitants decked out in tattered clothing, and running around armed with axes, spears, and maces. The ‘good prisoners’, for want of a better expression, have made their own hidden commune accessible through a cave, where they hide out and practice martial arts, in case they ever find themselves on the run from one of the “human hunting” expeditions the ‘bad prisoners’ like to indulge in. It’s bizarre in the same way many of the Korean kung fu movies from the 70’s and 80’s were bizarre. In fact that’s probably the best way to describe Revenger – it’s like a 2018 version of a Dragon Lee or Elton Chong flick.

For anyone that happens to stumble across Revenger on Netflix that’s unaware of the genre, I’m sure it’ll be a jarring experience. For those of us that have worked our way through the infamous IFD distributed Korean kung fu flicks of old though, it’s hard not to smile. There’s a completely out of place comedic troupe of inhabitants, led by Kim In-kwon (The Divine Move), that mug and gurn their way through every scene they’re in. We get a cross dressing grandpa character sporting one of Mike Wong’s grey wigs (see Magnificent Natural Fist or Invincible Obsessed Fighter for points of reference!). There’s even a double sword wielding hunchback with a mohawk, who looks like he just walked off the set of Enter the Invincible Hero. Throw in crash zooms, ridiculous English dialogue (no IFD needed here!), and random plot threads that are never explained – there aren’t too many Korean kung fu movie tropes that aren’t ticked off.

One thing that is missing though, is the ridiculous attempts at wire work. In fact, there’s none. Revenger is like the antithesis to those movies filled with unnecessary wirework (re: everything coming out of China and Hong Kong right now), with Khan decimating waves of attackers like a one-man army. One particular sequence has him raiding a rundown building to rescue a child who’s been abducted, and he gets to unleash his full array of kicks and throws. Legs get snapped, heads are smashed into boxes, and it all culminates in a face off against American martial artist T.J. Storm (The Martial Arts Kid). The concept behind the sequence reminded me in some ways of the Muay Boran showcase Tony Jaa dishes out in the finale of Tom Yum Goong. Sure, nobody seems to have a chance of laying a finger on Khan, but the technique on display is so impressive that somehow, that’s just fine.

Arguably it’s the quality (and quantity) of the action on display that makes Revenger’s  shortcomings for the most part forgivable. Anyone who likes coherency, or in some cases basic logic, to accompany their action quota will likely leave frustrated. The 100 minutes have clearly been constructed around the action, and as such everything else is considered superfluous. Even details that somehow feel they should be important, for example how the prisoners arrive on the island, are considered unnecessary to explain. Like an episode of Ex on the Beach, in the opening scene Khan simply wades through the shallows onto dry land, and begins kicking seven bells out of a group of assailants bothering a mother and daughter. Don’t even ask why he’s wearing a straitjacket and mouthpiece. In terms of movies that deliver impressive scenes of kicking while in a straitjacket (I’m sure there’s many), this is right up there with Rage.

Despite plot holes aplenty, Revenger is far from being filled with unknown actors, and if anything is quite the opposite. Yoon Jin-seo, an actress known for her roles in the likes of Old Boy, plays the mother Khan rescues in the opening scene. It’s revealed along the way that Khan was the cop responsible for sending her to the island several years ago, where she’d give birth to her child, but it’s a point which is never explored beyond it acting as a reason for there being tension between the pair. Park Hee-soon, last seen in The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion plays the ruthless criminal running the island, who’s brush with fire allows him to looks a modern day version of Tatsuya Fujiwara’s character in the Rurouni Kenshin series. His face, obscured by the bandages that cover it, allow for Hee-soon’s villain to be one of the more visually striking bad guys in recent memory, and he’s able to deliver the moves when called for.

Indeed the final fight between Khan and Hee-soon lasts over 6 minutes, and is uninterrupted, making it a pleasure to witness. If one was to be critical of Revenger, it would be that for the majority of the runtime Khan never has an opponent to match his skills. Admittedly, there’s joy to be had in watching him kick his way through various opponents with a steely faced Steven Seagal-like level of brutality, however at some point it’s important to give our hero a threat that allows us to feel a sense of risk to his well-being. The finale delivers that for the most part, with a thrilling two-on-one sword fight (involving the previously mentioned hunchback), which segues into the one-on-one against Hee-soon. It’s a small gripe on my part, but I wish they hadn’t gone the ‘soft’ sound effect route for the punishment dished out. I know it’s reflective of reality, but what can I say, I prefer my kicks to the face be delivered with a meaty thud.

This is nit-picking though in what, regardless of which way you look at it, is a glorious return to the kind of action that Korea used to produce, back when “You’re tired of living” was a prerequisite line to any of its kung fu output. Bloody, brutal, and with cleanly shot fight scenes that don’t need to cut away every couple of moves, if Khan wants to make another movie just like this one, I’d be first in line to watch it. It’s true I have no idea what era Revenger is supposed to be taking place in, and I couldn’t for the life of me tell you if Bruce Khan is a good actor or not (the ratio of lines spoken:kicks to the head is about 1:10), however none of that really matters. Khan has made a movie in which everything that’s old is new, and if that involves occasional bewilderment in return for killer action, then it’s a trade-off I’m willing to make.

Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7.5/10