Kundo: Age of the Rampant

In nineteenth-century Joseon, Dolmuchi, a butcher, loses his family and joins the band of outlaws in the mountains. The band takes from the rich and gives to the poor. Against them stands Jo Yoon, the illegitimate son of a noble house: the finest swordsman in the country and a man rejected by his own father. The film is not interested in an outlaw story. It is interested in two outcasts facing each other: both Dolmuchi and Jo Yoon were pushed outside the system, and one chose revolt while the other chose acceptance. The film makes both comprehensible. The form speaks western: wide landscapes, a narrator, fights in slow motion and a score referring openly to Italian westerns. Korean historical film and spaghetti western are fused. Yoon Jong-bin directed. It was a large box-office success in Korea and among the most watched historical action productions of its period. Ha Jung-woo plays Dolmuchi and Gang Dong-won plays Jo Yoon. The latter's sword sequences are the most discussed thing in it. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean historical action and western hybrids. Who it is not for: anyone after historical seriousness. The film uses its period freely, the pace is uneven, and the outlaw comedy in the middle weakens the main line.