Screening Review: KUNDO: AGE OF THE RAMPANT (2014)

SYNOPSIS:

1859. The last days of the Joseon Dynasty, where the wages of greed bring poverty and death. A pack of bandits – calling themselves KUNDO – rise against the tyrants, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. In an era where status is decided by birth, this band of thieves risks their lives for honor, in the name of the poor and oppressed. But for one man, a debt of bloody revenge is owed to the aristocrat that robbed him of his family and his name.

REVIEW:

My first foray into a film from writer, producer and director Yoon Jong-Bin is an exciting experience for any lover of Asian cinema or period films as a whole. It was a box-office hit last month in South Korea, and for good reason. And thankfully, the folks over at Well Go USA were aware of this film enough to help grant it the big screen attention it deserves beyond its domestic borders.

The film I’m talking about, of course, is Kundo: Age Of The Rampant, a sizzling and sprawling epic that is split into five parts – all centered on the adventures of the Clan Chunsul, a notorious band of outlaws from Mount Jiri led by captain Dae-Ho (played by actor Lee Sung-Min). Actor Ha Jung-Woo plays Dolmuchi, a relatively lower-class butcher in service to a rich nobleman, and his son, Jo-yoon, (played by Kang Dong-Won) whose twisted history of abuse by his family is key to understanding just how all the drama plays out, and exactly where Dolmuchi fits in the story. All of this gets explained very well with plenty of exposition shown on screen and narrated with flashbacks. Some might find this tedious, while I personally feel that when done right, it prevents viewers from getting lost in the overall plot; It depends on how you choose to watch movies. To each his own.

From there, it’s not difficult to like our heroes. Surely, they are not perfect people and all of them bear some form of internal conflict and struggle. Still, you can’t help but love them, especially the on-screen pseudo-romantic comedy relief between bandits Chun-Bo and Ma-Hyang, played respectively by actor Ma Dong-Seok and actress Yoon Ji-Hye. It was a great tool that eased the story right along and helped highlight the comradery among our protagonists and the bonds that hold them together, written or otherwise; Almost everything falls into place, really.

It was also an excellent way to help highlight just how evil our bad guy is. And Jo-yoon is EXCEPTIONALLY evil. He’s a true Chosun-era martial arts badass, whose pugilism skills with a sword are second to none. This, coupled with the angst of his troubled childhood have made him cunning and ruthless in nearly any way you can imagine, making the character Dolmuchi, later taken into the heroic bandit gang as “Dol-chi”, a true underdog to root for. Moreover, you can’t help but feel bad for Jo-yoon considering how he was raised, even though maintaining this sentiment is hard too because he’s such a cruel bastard.

This, to me, is a mark of really great writing, when you can illustrate such a stand-out villain who is so conflicting and will intrigue you in certain moments down to the end. It’s all part of what made this movie so appealing on top of its electrifying action sequences scored by one of Korean cinema’s best and most legendary stunt professionals to date, Jung Doo-Hong (Arahan: Urban Martial Arts Action, Mongol, Red 2, G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation).

Director Yoon‘s vision here is a mesmerizing spectacle full of heroics, tragedy, romance, grit, thrills, vengeance and poetic justice written in blood, blended with a perfectly fitting score by composer Jo Yeong-Wook. I found the film charming, convincing and amazing in its hybridized delivery of an Asian-style Robin Hood-esque spaghetti Western harkening back to films like the The Mangnificent Seven, Seven Samurai, and even director Tsui Hark’s memorable 2005 epic, Seven Swords – a film so deserving of sequels that I get distinctively pissed everytime I realize there won’t be one. It’s truly sad.

I loved Kundo: Age Of The Rampant, and as much as I could leave you with all my rambling to convince you how amazing this movie is (and I can’t say it enough), I’ll leave you with this final thought: The film is getting a limited big screen release in North America on August 29, and it deserves your money. It doesn’t deserve to be stolen, so don’t steal it.

I would like to thank Well Go USA for allowing me review this movie on my site. I loved every minute of it, and I know cinema patrons outside of South Korea will love it too. If you decide to see Kundo: Age Of The Rampant once, then see it twice! And bring friends!

Check your local listings, and be sure to visit the official website for Well Go USA for more details on their future film releases.