It wasn’t even a minute after turning on Hero that I
realised I was truly scraping the bottom of the barrel. Frankly, the only reason I watched it
was to be thorough with regards to my soon to be published 2010 Korean film
project. In order to really
examine the year’s output, I feel obliged to watch some films that I know are
going to be bad but I always hope that they may surprise me.
Hero went the other way, it landed
severely below my already diminished expectations. I’m nearly inclined to think that the whole thing is some
kind of joke, to say that the film eschews realism is putting it mildly. It seems to me that there are entire
scenes missing as the plot jumps from one place to the next. For a moment I even thought this may
have been some kind of student film but after a little research it seems that
director Kim Hong-ik has had over a decade of experience, which means I can’t
really cut him any slack.
Hero
only sold 1500 tickets in Korea and this makes me wonder what kind of market it
was intended for. With such a poor
showing I can’t imagine it was marketed aggressively for its theatre run, maybe
it was initially conceived as a TV and straight to DVD release.
 |
| Bullied in high school |
In any case,
Hero is a high school vampire film, clearly
trying to milk the global
Twilight phenomenon. Sim-dan (Kim Hyeong-gyoo-I) is a high school student,
constantly bullied, and in love with Mi-ah (Lee Da-in), who he has had a bad
habit of videotaping surreptitiously. Yoo-ri (Han
Ye-won), a vampire, bits him one night and turns him. Thereafter, he becomes stronger,
meaning he can confront his tormentors, and more confident, so he can make his
move on Mi-ah. You can guess how
the rest of it unfolds.
As I frequently mention (and celebrate) on this site, Korean
cinema is very adept at blending different genres. Hero, rather than successfully sampling different generic
tropes, simply doesn’t know what it wants to be, as it dabbles in comedy,
horror, drama, romance, etc. More
worrisome is the amateurish mise-en-scene. The editing, camerawork, and especially the sound are poor
quality, mistakes are frequent and disruptive. The soundtrack is also far too prominent, it places too much emphasis on
certain pieces of music at varying points.
 |
| Sim-dan and Yoo-ri, the vampire who turned him |
While the film starts out very badly, it does balance itself
out somewhat after the opening act, though it still leaves much to be desired. I don’t want to waste your
time discussing this film so I’ll keep it brief.
Hero should probably be avoided by all but the least
discerning spectators. Its cocktail
of bad acting, shoddy production values, and incoherent plotting is the result
of laziness on the part of the filmmakers and if they can’t respect their
audience enough to make a real effort, than I daresay you shouldn’t give them
your time or money.
Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema. For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Review Round-up, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (GMT+1).
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