MasterChugs Theater: 'Attack the Gas Station'

One of the most popular films in Korean history, Kim Sang-jin's surprise hit from 1999, Attack the Gas Station is an absorbing action/comedy that is also a sly satire of South Korea's social turmoil. The film begins as four teenage punks rip off a gas station, only to quickly become dissatisfied with the relatively small amount of cash they stole. Deciding that running the station would be more lucrative, the four return the next day to hold the station attendants hostage and rob the customers that come in. As can be expected, wacky subtitled hi-jinx ensue.

The acting is very good from everyone here, though most of the supporting roles--the luckless station manager, the hostages, the incompetent police--are necessarily two-dimensional to give the humor something to play against. Lee Sung-Jae is particularly good as the gang's tough and efficient leader, No Mark, and packs a lot of just-under-the-surface emotion into his screen time. For the gang in general, there's a lot of anger in these otherwise clueless protagonists, and in the hands of less-capable actors these characters would probably come off as being unlikable if amusing stereotypes. The direction itself is good, with a few deft camera tricks and a good objective sense of narration, but the director knows he's working with good people--there are a lot of tight shots on each of the characters to give us an idea of what they're thinking.

The triteness of the "society is to blame" message works in the film because it's ultimately the director who's pointing this out--through some good foreshadowing and well-placed flashbacks--and not the characters. There are no Breakfast Club speeches about an unjust society or any self-justification as to why they became punks. We're never beaten over the head with any heavy statement about corrupted authority either, and it's almost as if the message is offered as a possible explanation of the gang's behavior, for us to accept or reject. The movie comes across as being honest because it never insults our intelligence despite its tidy ending.

Attack the Gas Station is an extremely original stylish piece of comedy. The story is very imaginative and a lot of things that happen during the movie are the kind of things you'd say "Wouldn't it be cool if this and that would happen" but it never does, in attack the gas station is does happen. This movie is simply fun and sometimes the best things are simple. The story is simple to follow and is very entertaining. The film is put together in such a breezy, enjoyable style anyway that it'd be impossible for anyone to feel robbed of his or her ninety minutes after watching. You can't go wrong with it at all.