"KUNDO : Age of the Rampant"

Jo-yoon (played byKang Dong-won) is the saddest villain. "KUNDO : Age of the Rampant" makes an extended point of spelling out the guy's terrible childhood. What it boils down to thematically is that Jo-yoon tries to get the approval of his father by brutalizing and humiliating every single poor person he can find, but nothing that Jo-yoon does is ever good enough for His Excellency Jo (played bySong Yeong-chang). Why is that? Well mostly because His Excellency Jo is a big fat jerk.

It's a fascinating dynamic, honestly. This movie is about a literal rebellion against the rich people who insist on making poor people suffer, and Jo-yoon always just looks so hurt. Whether it's his terrible dad or Dolmuchi (played byHa Jeong-woo),Kang Dong-wonalways has this look on his face that just says, you know, that really hurt my feelings. I wish you'd be more considerate of how I feel. I just want to murder all my political opponents and take over the world.

Too bad he's not the main character. Dolmuchi is an all right protagonist, really he is, and his meat cleaver fight scenes are always a treat to watch. But his story by contrast is just so generic. The main interesting thing about Dolmuchi is that he also has a vindictive streak against nobility- an interesting parallel to Jo-yoon's attitude, with one essential difference. Dolmuchi humiliates the people he hates by giving them a bad haircut. Jo-yoon kills and tortures them. Oftentimes personally. I imagine that this is an attempt to get his father's approval. Spoiler alert- it doesn't work.

The metaphor for class struggle is surprisingly apt, even if the movie is set in antiquity. Everybody's just really unhappy and they're stuck in a big fight trying to make the other person more miserable. It's actually pretty pointless- except to the extent that, as a summer action flick, the main purpose here is to provide a vehicle for cool action scenes. And they are pretty neat- when they show up.

Unfortunately only Dolmuchi and Jo-yoon get much individual focus. The most interesting character here in terms of spectacle is actually Tianbao (played byMa Dong-seok), but he only gets to use that crazy looking ball and chain in a few scenes, and just in acrobatic beatdowns of various mooks. It's almost a pity that "KUNDO : Age of the Rampant" spends so much time on backstory- the variety in the fights is decent. It's just that it could have been epic if only the movie weren't already too long.

Still, what we have is pretty good. The Western aesthetic is excellent. The music is wonderful, even if some of it was taken from another highly publicized film in the same genre. All in all the movie looks great and it's a fair amount of fun to boot. But then, I was getting a little caught up in the weirdness of Jo-yoon's plot about class consciousness and why being the heir to a family of rich jerks isn't necessarily a good thing. Others might be bored. At the very least though, there's plenty to chew on.

Review by William Schwartz

"KUNDO : Age of the Rampant" is directed byYoon Jong-binand featuresHa Jeong-woo,Kang Dong-won,Lee Sung-min,Jo Jin-woong,Ma Dong-seokandYoon Ji-hye.