I am an editorial writer at The Korea Times, focusing on foreign policy, North Korea and domestic politics. My key areas of interest include North Korea, foreign interference in elections, election integrity, cyberattacks and human rights. Prior to joining the Editorial Board, I served as both Politics Desk editor and Culture Desk editor. During my career, I have reported on the Presidential Office under the Lee Myung-bak administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Assembly.
'Swing Kids' lacks luster
A still from the film “Swing Kids” / Courtesy of NEW
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Tale of POW dance team not quite convincing
By Kang Hyun-kyung
“Swing Kids” was one of Korea's most-anticipated films this year and few denied it would easily make a box-office hit.
Before its official release to the public on Dec. 19, some even made a hasty prediction that it would be a matter of time for the film to attract 10 million viewers, rounding off a great year for domestically produced cinema. The film enjoyed critical acclaim.
In a preview piece, for example, one Korean media outlet reported “Swing Kids for sure is going to be this year's best movie.”
Well, the movie has not lived up to such sweeping pre-release excitement.
“Swing Kids” lost steam. It is not exciting as the title suggests.
Director Kang Hyeong-cheol keeps audiences waiting through over 110 minutes of boredom and unconvincing storytelling to finally experience the highlight squeezed into the last 20 minutes. The multinational dancing team's Christmas performance seen in the latter part of the film was intense enough to make audiences feel that the film was worthwhile. But the plot in the former part was hard to follow and the dancing was mediocre.
Despite all the fancy elements, it is a loose-knit film that falls far short of its potential. “Swing Kids” could have been one of the greatest Korean films if it had achieved what the filmmaker set out to accomplish.
Director Kang said he wanted to pull together a fun and exciting story out of one of the darkest, most tragic periods of Korean history. The movie revolves around a five-member POW tap dancing team consisting of different nationalities.
The dance team, formed in 1951 in the prison camp located on the southeastern island of Geoje during the Korean War, epitomizes how dance in collaboration with music can make people look beyond the ideological competition between democracy and communism ― the battle between the U.S.-led allied forces and the Soviet Union and China-led communist forces that led to their imprisonment.
During the war, the camp housed around 132,000 prisoners of war from North Korea and China.
The background of the film is full of dark images as the depictions of war and a prison camp evoke for audiences the cruel and bleak wartime reality people faced.
The late Swiss photographer Werner Bischof's 1952 photo is known to have inspired the filmmaker to come up with the idea for the film. In the black-and-white photo, masked inmates dance in front of a model of the Statue of Liberty at the prison camp.
Each member has their own reason to join the dancing team.
Roh Ki-soo, a North Korean hero, fell in love with tap dancing after his encounter with the African-American G.I. Jackson played by Jared Grimes. For Kang Byung-sam, joining the dancing team is the only way for him to find his wife. If he becomes famous, he believes people will recognize him and it will be easier for him to find his love. Xiao Fang is a talented Chinese choreographer and Yang Pan-rae, an uncertified translator who speaks four languages ― Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English ― is there for money.
Filmmaker Kang failed to convince audiences that the dancing team defied the deadly ideological confrontation.
Since it hit the local theaters on Dec. 19, “Swing Kids” has attracted 1.1 million, a disappointing record that betrays experts' early predictions of success.
Before it was released, “Swing Kids” ranked first in pre-sales with 70,256 viewers and a 21.6 percent reservation rate.
As of Sunday, “Swing Kids” is in fourth place in terms of daily audiences. “Take Point” starring Ha Jung-woo tops the ranking, followed by “Aquaman” and “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
Expectations about “Swing Kids” were high partly because of the success of Kang's previous films “Scandal Makers (2008) and “Sunny” (2011). “Scandal Makers” attracted over 7.36 million and “Sunny” over 4 million.