Kundo: Age of the Rampant (2014)
January 29, 2025 4:51 PM - Subscribe

In 19th century Korea, a gang of outlaws takes on the corrupt nobility.

This action movie, directed by Yoon Jong-bin, was a blockbuster at the Korean box office.

80% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
posted by mark k (2 comments total)
 
I've been trying to fill in some of my movie-going gaps by tracking down older Hong Kong action movies, but a combination of my own interests and limited streaming selection keeps routing me towards period pictures from other countries*.

I thought this was pretty good, without transcending the genre in any way. Interesting in lots of little ways, though. And the action scenes are great; if you want well choreographed sword fighting in a 19th century revenge flick, it's probably worth your time.

Plot-wise, this delivers the same big points you'd expect from an American blockbuster. But it's far more violent and bleaker than you'd get from a Hollywood take, though: Children watch mothers die, mothers watch children die, the heroic outlaws have a massive casualty rate, and innocents saved by one rousing heist suffer for it as soon as the heroes go away.

There are some nice tricks to get the viewer invested in a big cast of outlaws, most of whom we'll spend very little time with. It's mostly the arc of a butcher who fights with two cleavers. But the most interesting central point is the villain, the illegitimate son of a noble who, poorly abused, fills the gap in his soul by clawing out a space for himself in the ruling power structure by talent and ruthlessness.

The primary point isn't social commentary, but the peasants get a "Divided we are bandits, united we are people" chant going a few times and damn if that didn't did bring a smile to my space.


*This is not meant to sound like a threat! I promise not to post them all.
posted by mark k at 5:08 PM on January 29


Nah, please post them! I love reading reviews of random movies. Surely I'm not the only one!
posted by trig at 3:48 AM on January 30 [1 favorite]


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