6 min. read
It’s been a while since I had my eyes on films like Only The Strong, any of The Substitute films, or 80s romps like 3 O’Clock High and Lean On Me. Those are precisely the kinds of films you watch if you’re into stories of protagonists tackling insurmountable circumstances on school campus involving students, teen bullies and other criminal elements, and even films like Donnie Yen’s Big Brother and Ryoo Seung-wan’s Veteran measure up here.
Suffice it to say, this is where director Park Jin-pyo gets to test the waters with Brave Citizen, adapted for the screen and based on Kim Jung-hyun’s 2014 webtoon. The setting is at Moonyung High, billed as “an exemplary anti-bullying school” where the environment is as positive and forthright as the student body… well, at least to the unknowing public and foolhearty staff. Deep in the trenches is a version of the school where quite the contrary, there’s plenty of bullying to go around, particularly if you land on the radar of Han Su-kang (Lee Jun-young), a shitty rich kid with friends and parents connected all the way up in the system’s education hierarchy and law enforcement.
Han can stand to push you around for as much as he wants to, where, when, and how he pleases, and there’s nothing even the faculty can do about it to handle matters in-house when evidence runs scant. It’s bad enough that he’s allegedly the reason a previous temp “mysteriously” took their own life. Enter So Shi-min (Shin Hae-Sun), a contract temp teacher looking to make the grade and become a full-time faculty member. She is hard-working and dedicated, but beneath her coy and delicate veneer is a pissed-off former boxing prospect who wasted her chances eleven years ago, after losing a match that could have won her a place on a professional team.
The film makes it clear that this was a choice she made, even though it takes a long while for the details to fall into place, and we also know that this is a precursor for the rough relationship she now has with her father and ex-coach (Park Hyuk-kwon) who now works in food delivery. It is not long before So and Han cross paths, with the incumbent teacher bearing witness to the ornery Han and his incorrigible gang of toadies torturing Jin-hyung (Park Jung-Woo). To that end, it’s also a matter of time before So’s first major, albeit reluctant effort to report Han’s behavior to the authorities backfires with even more abuse, humiliation, and threats both on and off school grounds.
With cop confidant Kwon-joong’s (Lee Chan-Hyeong) hands tied, and the staff at Moonyoung unable to protect the welfare of its students without scruitiny, So’s thinning patience evolves into essential opportunity. Enter So’s “Cat Vigilante,” donning a cat mask and mens’ clothing to hide her alterego, and striking back at Han in the first of several scuffles that not only hail a potential new hero in the school’s midst, but also threatens Han’s status and iron-fisted influence.
The first hour of Brave Citizen is an exciting build up to the latter half of the film as the drama unravels with a few spritzes of comedy to boot. So’s father isn’t the sharpest and often butts heads with his fellow co-worker and former boxing rival, but he has a heart of gold and is eager to care for his daughter regardless of the risks he takes at times to show as much. Their backstory gets a deeper reveal well into the film and we ultimately learn the circumstances that brought So and her father to where they are from the top of the movie, and what she means when ranting about the sacrifices she’s made.
So’s code-switching is another feat to pay attention to as the story develops, and with Han’s brooding setting things perfectly in motion. He is the guy to beat if anyone wants justice, and he more than makes it clear in every scene he is in, and so every interaction they share is a close call until Han’s obsession with finding out who the elusive “Cat Vigilante” is comes to a head.
Moreover, that Han’s bullying target is the grandson of a humble kimbap street vendor, who now lets himself get routinely beaten up and degraded to protect her, lends further to the stressful conditions permeating So’s position, especially if she intends to protect Jin-hyung from his bullies, and himself. Literally. The first sign she gets comes earlier in the film when despite being told to keep her head low, Jin-hyung begs and pleads her to protect him. The film is further keen to reveal a side to Jin-hyung that bodes as all the more cautionary when suffering triggers hateful actions, or even suicidal ideations that occur when standing at the edge of a roof, believeing you have no one and nowhere to go.
Pyo’s Brave Citizen ultimately brings things full circle with a final showdown pitting legendary vigilante against her notorious challenger. There are several aspects worth noting here in Pyo’s ode to badass teacher cinema, particularly with regard to taking back control from an abuser, and with Shin’s performance as So brimming with excellence in that regard. Equally rewarding is the action, with fight sequences by Don Lee cohorts Yoon Sung-min and Heo Myeong-haeng. The cinematography gets a little skittish for my tastes, but there’s plenty to take from in the storied beatdowns, and even if Shin’s So is masked for nearly all the action, she sells it excellently with her own athletic appeal.
Brave Citizen is as ideal as it gets though. Real life doesn’t always have its share of heroes like So making sacrifices, but the film’s primary focus lands right on the nose with its messaging. Philosophers like Edmund Burke and John Stuart Mill got it, and surely, so did Park in his treatment of the hit webtoon that now outlines actress Shin’s momentous heroine role. The end clearly doles out some cheeky sequelisms and I’m not sure if this will happen. Still, if Brave Citizen warrants a second chapter, who am I to twist any arms over it?
Brave Citizen was reviewed for the 28th Fantasia International Film Festival which runs from July 18 through August 4.