Review of Once Upon A Time In High School

Introduction

When I went to school, nary a day went by that one student didn`t inflict some form of kung fu upon another. Then again, this was the seventies, I was in primary school and the television show to watch was Kung Fu, with liberal sprinklings of The Water Margin and Monkey for good measure. It got to the point that our headmaster tried banning us from watching the David Carradine masterwork, and being the gullible six year old that I was, I spent Saturday evening dreading the arrival of a stern teacher at my front door. Still, the martial arts skills of a primary school child in the seventies wouldn`t have shamed Hong Kong Phooey, let alone Bruce Lee. The VCR was still a luxury item, and few of us even knew who Bruce Lee was, let alone watched one of his films. But if you shift the venue several time zones eastwards, where Bruce Lee`s influence was more keenly felt, and increase the age of the school student, then going to school could be a far more painful experience. Once Upon A Time In A High School, released here by Premier Asia looks at just that.

It`s 1978, and Hyun-soo`s family have moved to a new area in the hope of making a profit when the property prices rise. For Hyun-soo that means a new school to attend, and Jungmoon High School is not the most hospitable of academic institutions. Bullying is rife and institutionalised, and violence is a way of life. Still, the shy Hyun-soo makes friends, most notably the popular Woo-sik whose attitude towards life is to confront it head on. The two become firm friends, and school seems an enjoyable time despite the harsh discipline. But as is the way between friends, it is a girl who comes between them. Eun-ju is a hard working student aiming for college, and from the first moment Hyun-soo sees her, he`s in love. But being shy and retiring is a drawback, and Woo-sik gets her first. Their friendship disintegrates because of this, while the violence at the school intensifies. His home life no better, Hyun-soo is soon facing stress from all quarters. But there is a way for him to fight back, the teachings and philosophy of his idol Bruce Lee, and the martial art of Jeet Kune Do.

Video

Once Upon A Time In High School gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer. It is a nice, clear image with just a hint of grain and very little print damage as befits a recent film. There is a hint of moiré that becomes apparent with one of the character`s checked shirt, and during the last half hour there are a couple of scenes that are curiously jerky, but by and large this is a more than adequate transfer.

Audio

The sound is presented in a DD 5.1 Korean track, with optional English subtitles. The dialogue is clear and subtle, but effective use is made of the surrounds. The film has a nice music soundtrack, with songs from the seventies quite prominent.

Features

Premier Asia present this film with the usual animated menus with clips of the film`s action sequences running in the background. There is also information as well as trailers for 8 other Premier Asia titles.

For the film itself there are a couple of featurettes, beginning with The World Of The Supporting Role, which sees interviews with the supporting cast members over 17 minutes. There is also some behind the scenes footage to go with this.

A Martial Arts Textbook lasts 10 minutes and sees Action Director Shin Jae-myung interviewed about how he created the film`s fight sequences, as well how the film pays homage to Bruce Lee`s style.

The Promotional Gallery contains the original theatrical trailer as well as the UK trailer.

Finally there are outtakes for the film. Six scenes are presented here, with alternate or flubbed takes for all of them. This isn`t exactly a gag reel, and doesn`t add anything to the film.

Conclusion

It`s not a martial arts movie, and anyone who buys this expecting `Bruce Lee Goes To High School` is going to be disappointed. That may be quite likely given how it is being presented by Premier Asia, with the trailer and the DVD presentation all emphasising the Bruce Lee connection and the martial arts scenes. Once Upon A Time In High School is more an action romance if there is such a genre, a coming of age drama with more in common with The Breakfast Club than Enter The Dragon. Well… maybe not. There is fighting and martial arts in the film, and it does get brutal and bloody, culminating in a rooftop battle between Hyun-soo and his tormentors. But this isn`t the fantasy violence associated with kung-fu movies; rather this film is very much set in the real world. These are students who idolise Bruce Lee and his movies, and try to emulate him (a lot more effectively than we ever managed in our school, I must add), but the violence in the school has a very real world basis, and the fights are realistic, brutal and painful, with the combatants always coming away bruised and battered. These are real world conflicts with real consequences, not glamorised at all, and the only dramatic licence is that taken with the nunchakus, which here cause far less damage than they should. The only fun is when the friends re-enact `that` fight from Game Of Death, made all the more humorous as their PT uniform just happens to be orange with a black stripe.

Once Upon A Time In High School is a far more effective character piece, following Hyun-soo`s time at school, and how he grows from the rather introverted and shy character that we initially meet. The Korean school system seems vicious and arbitrary at first encounter. It`s a place where the upperclassmen pick on the juniors, the student patrol can mete out punishment at whim, the teachers believe that education is best applied at the end of a stick, while the headmaster isn`t above backhanding an underachieving teacher, and there is a military figure present to dish out discipline to any and all he sees fit. It all seems unrealistic, until you remember that until very recently South Korea was effectively a military dictatorship, and had been since the end of the Korean War. In fact the current flowering of the Korean film industry is largely down to the easing of government restrictions on the types of films that can be made. That oppressive atmosphere is naturally reflected in the school hierarchy, and made all the more nasty when students themselves become part of the oppression.

You would think that a gentle and introverted soul like Hyun-soo would be out of place in an institution like this, but it`s his friendship with Woo-sik that eases the days in and outside the school. The two are radically different personalities, but are united by their liking for all things Bruce Lee. It`s when they meet Eun-ju, a girl who goes to a nearby school that their friendship is tested. They end up rescuing her from a bully, and Hyun-soo is smitten. But his shyness causes him to hesitate, while the demonstrative Woo-sik makes a quick impression on her. Woo-sik is the `love `em and leave `em` type, while the more sensitive Hyun-soo has deeper feelings, and the tension strains their friendship to the breaking point. It all goes to prove that unrequited love is a bitch.

The seventies setting is adequately accomplished, naturally with an emphasis on Bruce Lee, but also the fashions and the music of the period are evoked well, with more than one visit to a disco. The performances are excellent, with the core relationships between Hyun-soo, Eun-ju and Woo-sik central to the story and sensitively handled. The supporting characters are just as colourful, with the curiously named Hamburger quite prominent, funding his education by becoming the school`s porn baron.

Once Upon A Time In High School is an insightful coming of age movie, set against a brutal background. While the action scenes and fights are impressive, and choreographed with an eye to realism, the heart of the film is strongly character based and comes through to make a lasting impression. I thoroughly enjoyed this film, and found it to be refreshingly original and observant. I also appreciate the non-Hollywood ambiguous ending. An action romance! Who`d have thunk it? Comprehensively recommended.