Shark: The Beginning

Shark: The Beginning (2021) is a webtoon adaptation that adds combat sport to Korea's long line of school bullying stories. Woo-sol is beaten regularly at school. One day he fights back and the incident ends in a serious injury. He is sent to a juvenile detention centre. There he meets Do-hyun, a former mixed martial arts champion, and begins learning to fight from him. What makes it interesting is that it refuses to become a triumph story. As Woo-sol gets stronger the problem outside is not solved; he simply becomes another person who has learned to hit. The detention centre is not drawn as a place of salvation either, but as another bullying order with its own hierarchy. Korean film and television have worked on school violence for a long time. This one sits at the more physical end of that group: little talk, a lot of fighting. Wi Ha-jun was still in his pre Squid Game period here. The webtoon was written by Woon and drawn by Kim Woo-sub. A sequel was made. It was released online without a wide theatrical run. It runs 108 minutes. Good for: Korean action, fight films, and webtoon adaptations. Less good for: the bullying and violence are harsh, there is an eye injury, and the story does not fully close.