“Slate” Theatrical Poster
Director: Jo Bareun
Cast: Ahn Ji-hye, Lee Min Ji, Park Tae San, Jung Jin-woo, Lee Se-ho, Nam I-seul, Jo Sun-ki
Running Time: 100 min.
By Paul Bramhall
It could be argued that the swordplay movie has never really fallen out of fashion in Asian cinema, with each decade bringing about a reinvention of the genre in one way or another. Be it Patrick Tam’s The Sword in the 1980’s, Tsui Hark’s The Blade in the 1990’s, Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in the 2000’s, or Keishi Otomo’s Rurouni Kenshin series in the 2010’s. Korea has also got in on the action over the years, with the likes of 2005’s Shadowless Sword, 2010’s Blades of Blood, and most recently 2020’s The Swordsman being superior examples of the genre. While the quality of the countries independent action productions ranges from entertaining (Geochilmaru: The Showdown) to dire (Master Heaven: The Greatest Fighter), the gamble that dedicating 90 minutes of your life comes with when watching such movies is one I still find myself willing to take.
Which brings me to 2021’s Slate, a 2nd starring vehicle for gymnast turned actress Ahn Ji-hye (Project Wolf Hunting) after her physically demanding dramatic turn in 2019’s Our Body. After being taken into care as a child due to her alcoholic father being deemed unfit to be a parent, 20 years later Ji-hye’s character is now approaching 30 and struggling to make ends meet as a wannabe action actress. While stunt double roles are readily available, Ji-hye insists on being the heroine of any production she’s cast in, to the point of sliding her CV into a toilet cubicle in which a director of an upcoming action movie is conducting his business. With her sales pitch revolving around the classic “no stunt doubles needed!” trope that helped drive the likes of both Jackie Chan and Tony Jaa to international stardom, the director eventually invites Ji-hye onboard to be a part of the production.
While so far Slate may sound like an interesting insight into an action actresses struggle for roles that highlight their talents (and indeed the ‘Slate’ of the title refers to a film clapperboard), director Jo Bareun has other ideas. His sophomore feature length production after 2020’s similarly action themed GANG, here Bareun crafts a quirky tale that that sees Ji-hye transported to a parallel universe, thanks to the filmset being located in the so-called “Korean Bermuda Triangle”. Anyone expecting a kind of Everything Everywhere All at Once influenced multiverse adventure though should keep their expectations in check. The parallel universe here both looks and feels like the exact same filmset that she left (because it is), and the apparent likeness to the real world initially results in some head scratching.
With the parallel universe being explained as one where the “eras are all jumbled together”, the fact that most of its inhabitants stroll around in jeans, hoodies, and tracksuits made me assume it was populated by various other film crew who’d mysteriously been transported to this alternate reality over the years. This isn’t the case, and apart from Ji-hye the only other person from her reality there is a YouTuber that went missing 3 months ago, played by Jung Jin-woo (Paid in Blood, Pipeline). Sporting a look clearly inspired by Shin Ha-kyun in Save the Green Planet (think accessorised helmet and rain mac), it’s Jin-woo that explains where they are, with it soon becoming clear that the reason most of the cast are apparently decked out in their own wardrobe is likely due to budget constraints.
Being able to get past these admittedly distracting budget limitations is key to enjoying what Slate has to offer, and thankfully the more the narrative progresses the more engaging the story becomes. Key to the entertainment factor is that the parallel universe is essentially a riff on the period actioner that Ji-hye was set to be a part of, providing her with the elusive lead role she’s always sought. Waking up in her yellow hoodie and still brandishing the prop sword from the set, she’s immediately identified by the enthusiastic village head as the Soul Slayer, a travelling warrior destined to save the town from an evil force that’s been threatening their village.
The evil forces in question are introduced via onscreen text, with cool names like Rattle Snake, The Priest, Bandit King, and Philip (ok, almost all). Notably all of the cast are familiar faces within the Korean indie action scene, with the likes of Lee Se-ho (Legendary Fighter, Sirasoni: God of the Fight) and Park Tae-san (Bodyguard, Black Rain: Chronicles of Evil) bringing a pedigree of screen fighting talent to proceedings. Special mention should also go to Nam I-seul, here making her onscreen debut, as the dagger wielding Rattle Snake who proves to be a worthy opponent for Ji-hye. Her appearance may be brief (and include speaking English for no apparent reason), but she makes an impression. The action itself is handled by Sim Sang-yong, whose work can be seen in the likes of Carter and The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure, with the cast being trained in screen fighting for 2 months prior to the actual filming.
Much like the narrative, the quality of the action also improves as Slate progresses. Initial scuffles are poorly filmed even if competently executed, with one scene offering up the second time for me to watch a movie in 2023 (the first being the laborious Legend of Gatotkaca) that features a character throwing a kick filmed from the waist up. Thankfully at some point it feels like director Bareun handed full control of filming the action scenes to the action department, which results in the majority of the latter fights being captured much more cohesively. Swordplay is the order of the day, and while budget limitations mean the action doesn’t reach the same level as the Rurouni Kenshin series, what’s there is solid and fast paced, delivering the intended action beats in entertaining fashion.
The arrival of the parallel worlds real Soul Slayer, quirkily played by Jo Sun-ki (Crime Solving Special Squad, God of Ice), offers up an amusing counterpoint to Ji-hye’s fish out of water demeanour, broodingly meandering around complete with a mythical cuddly toy perched on his shoulder. The pair eventually team up to take on a life energy sucking villain called Taepyeongso, leading to a finale that mainly aims to differentiate itself from the rest of the action by introducing a supernatural element. Onscreen it means little more than the swords being given an energy like aura, however at least we know where the money the production saved on having the cast wear their own clothes went to.
Outside of the core narrative it’s clear that attention to detail on a plot level wasn’t the priority, with anyone who’s clocking in for anything other than a modest slice of sword clanging likely to be left disappointed. There are plot holes aplenty, for example Ji-hye spends several days in the parallel world, however when she returns it appears she’s only been gone for a few hours, implying that time is accelerated. However eagle eyed audiences may note that this should mean the YouTuber who’s been missing for 3 months will have aged considerably, and not look exactly like he did when he went missing like he does. Similarly there are a number of plot threads introduced which simply go nowhere, such as one of the villagers previous relationship with a villain, resulting in a few missed opportunities to flesh out the parallel world and the characters who inhabit it.
Considering the ambitious nature of Slate and the budget it had to work with though, these are minor gripes. Ji-hye acquits herself well in the lead, and the energetic production means the pace rarely lags, with an action scene always just around the corner. If you ever found yourself thinking what would The Last Action Hero be like if, instead of 10-year-old boy who idolises Arnold Schwarzenegger, it was a sword wielding action actress from Korea, then Slate could just be the movie that provides the answer (and who hasn’t asked that question at some point in their lives?).
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 6/10
I enjoyed this film! For some reason I bought the Blu Ray almost immediately after it was first advertised on COF when I probably should have waited for reviews first, but this was one time where I lucked out.
Even though it was obviously a film set, there was just something fun about the surroundings. It seemed like the type of set where you could film almost any excuse for swordplay, and the cast and crew must have been having a good time.
Sometimes I thought they were going for something like an anime-like presentation with the camera work and editing, and that would have been expanded upon if there was a bigger budget. Ahn jie-Hye’s fight with the dagger wielding assassin was a good highlight.
It’s nice when a low budget action flick manages to have that “clean” polished look to it while still letting the audience in on the fun and embracing what it has to work with.