This Korean drama from 2004 and directed by Yoo Hoo, is a story about endurance and youth set in 1978. The action takes place in a rough South Korean high school, where we witness the story of a young kid that has to learn to survive in that hostile environment, where he has to deal with the cruelty of the ruthless cloister and the bullies that unfortunately every high school in the world has. That´s when Bruce Lee becomes in his most important influence to overcome all the adversities, learning from his philosophy the tools to become stronger phisically and emotionally and survive in a world in which only the strong survives, getting in the proccess scars in the heart that remains forever as a reminder of those first lessons that all we have to learn to in the way of adulthood.
Although Bruce Lee is a very important part of the plot, this is not another “Bruceploitation” as it may seems at first sight, but is closer to being a drama with the ability to awaken the nostalgia of the viewer, regardless of their background or nationality, but that have something in common, Bruce Lee as their biggest inspiration in life and his philosophy to overcome their own adversities and fight their own demons and battles to become who they want to be. Lee has trascended all boundaries and has become in something more than just a movie star, he was (and still is) a way of life that has influenced different generations and will continue doing it for many years to come.
This “ONCE UPON A TIME…” is an emotional journey filled with good doses of action, drama and desperate romance, that may feel as an “once upon a time…” for the own viewer, specially the ones of certain age, that will make them relive those days in which the future was a promise full of dreams of youth, a look back to most bitter but better days full of hope that moviegoers who enjoys experiencing their own feelings in the screen would love and enjoy as if were a look back to a past they lived or imagined.
