Big Match (2014)

Let’s get one thing straight: South Korea is not Hollywood. Trying to fuse one into the other is wrong, unwanted, and simply unforgivable.

That brings us to Big Match. They were obviously trying to make one of those Hollywood films. You know, the ones intended for the market without actual depth, loaded with action, big special effects and same old cliché dialogues. It’s regrettable and doesn’t represent the growing South Korean cinema at all.

Leaving that aside, the film was purely a mean of divertissement. The general concept isn’t off. It had the entertainment keys due to a good mixture between humour and action. Well, the comedy part wasn’t exactly ‘hilarious’, but the action half was rather good. Nonetheless, the pacing wasn’t always attention-grabbing. The run time was too long for an action packed-film.

The main reason I watched this summarises in two of my favourite ahjussi’s and Korean cinema veterans: Lee Jung Jae and Shin Ha Kyung. Well, they both did what they had too. I wouldn’t say it took much effort with the kind of characters they were offered. Lee Jung Jae wasn’t a stand-out action lead but he was faithful to the characterisation which is more than enough. Shin Ha Kyung’s ‘funny psycho’ character didn’t come out funny or impressive but the actor’s way of personifying it was perfect. Only a veteran in Ha Kyung’s calibre can make you like (or at least appreciate) an uninteresting character.

Other performers didn’t stand out at all –except for Lee Sung Min. And there were too many useless, repeated, cliché characters to stand.

The action sequences were fittingly edited –a nice work of fiction. The music was nothing different from the usual South Korean films’ soundtrack and the cinematography work didn’t stand out much.

Big Match is by no mean a remarkable Korean film. It doesn’t even hold the identification of South Korean cinema. It was basically a forgettable action comedy led by two big stars.

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Great balance between action and comedy! When I decided to watch it, i thought it will be mainly action-all serious stuff- but i was quiet surprised when they started dropping different jokes around. At first I didn't know what to think about it but I quickly realised it was a comedy... haha silly me!

All the actors were great, especially Shin Ha Kyun. I wouldn't have picked a better crazy psycho than him for this plot! If you are a fan of Shin Ha Kyun, you know that he has this little facial expression or gestures that really are his, and through this character it was even more visible which just added to the character. I was surprised by BoA's acting, she did a good job with the though character.

I would recommend this movie if you are interested in martial arts or like action movies packed with fighting scene. All the fighting was really well done and I mean you can see that the main guy really worked out to have similar body muscles as a pro fighter! It has comedy so the movie doesn't get boring from all that fighting!!

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