Make It Big

Hi All,

We have another guest blog from one of our long time readers named Rae. She runs her own blog called Cutting Edge Creativity and you should definitely check it out. She is also a regular contributor to Incognito Music Magazine . You can also follow her on twitter @Raesblog. Rae is one of our favorite people and has been a regular on our site since day one and we all appreciate her here at the 3 guys so make sure to check out her site!

Make It Big (일단 뛰어!)

Director & Writer: Jo Eui-seok (조의석)
Starring: Song Seung-Heon (송승헌), Kwon Sang Woo (권상우), Kim Yeong-Jun (김영준), Lee Beom-Soo (이범수)
How I Watched It: DVD
Review By: Rae

This is a super delayed review.  I meant to write this up back in January for the 3 Guys crew and just never got it done.  Shame on me, I know!  Anyhow, I finally settled on reviewing a Korean movie because I didn’t think it would be something that they would be reviewing any time soon.

The Korean movie I chose is Make It Big, whose English title for some reason is completely different from the literal translation of the Korean title,  일단 뛰어!, which is “For now, just run!”  I’ve never understood why the English releases of Korean movies and dramas tend to be given titles that just make no sense, but in any event that’s usually what happens.

The English title is also pretty ironic because I don’t think this movie really made any kind of impact in Korea.  Of course, from what I’ve seen, Korean movie-goers tend to like movies that are realistic and depressing.  Movies like this one, that are more comedy and nonsense than anything else, don’t really stand a chance overseas.  It’s a shame though, because it’s these type of movies that I think are the best. Then again, I really enjoy lame humor, so that probably has a lot to do with it.  This movie definitely has plenty of that.

I bought the DVD copy of this movie back when I was a junior in high school.  Song Seung-Heon and Kwon Sang Woo were two of my favorite actors—they were also pretty big names at the time—and I had been obsessed with collecting everything they were ever in.  I took a chance on purchasing the DVD even though I hadn’t heard anything about it, mostly because SSH and KSW were in it.  (And from a fan girl’s point of view, the fact that SSH and KSW are both best friends in real life and play best friends in this movie is an additional bonus.)

From the beginning I thought the movie was hilarious, though some of the sarcasm—both cultural and lingual—might get lost on certain audience members without any Korean background knowledge.  As for those who are familiar, again seeing how this wasn’t exactly a box office hit, they might not find the humor funny or entertaining enough.

The three main characters are pretty much high school delinquents—which is funny in SSH’s case because I think he’s always being given this type of role.  I don’t really blame the people who cast him though, because not only does he naturally look the part, as much as I am a fan, even I have to admit that’s the only role he’s ever really excelled at.  They’re pretty old for high school students too.  KSW & Kim Yeong-Jun’s characters are both 19 and SSH’s character is 21.

By the way, I’m just going to stick with the initials of the actor’s names, because I feel like if I use the initials of the characters, it might make things even more confusing (if people aren’t already lost at this point).

Anyway, the movie begins with SSH, KSW, and KYJ in SSH’s car, and SHH is telling the other two a story about how he got shot in a dark alley and was revived at a hospital after his heart had been stopped for ten minutes…which KSW’s character thinks is total BS and he says as much, ticking off SSH’s character.  KYJ’s character, sitting in the backseat, stays out of the petty argument between the two men, and this is pretty much the dynamic of their friendship for the entire film—SSH and KSW always butting heads and KYJ trying to stay out of trouble.

In the middle of their argument, KSW gets a call from his “sugar mama.”

The woman is one of KSW’s clients as a host.  If you have no idea what a host is, Google “host club” and you should be able to find a definition.  And here’s a few more hilarious screen shots just for fun.

After that, there’s a funny scene that follows where KSW is insults SSH’s car, saying he doesn’t believe the airbags would go off upon collision.  SSH, always one taking pride before a fall, decides to prove KSW otherwise by intentionally smashing his brand new car against a parking garage pillar…and there his white Hyundai goes.

To further add on to the lame humor, after the movie title, the next scene is of KYJ and his web cast, which only has 3 subscribers, SSH, KSW, and a random woman.  As a thank you to the one random female subscriber, he starts lip syncing to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.”  At the same time we see KSW doing his host thing and SSH drag racing with another brand new car—obviously he hasn’t learned his lesson.

Now that we’ve got an idea of what the kids are like, we’re finally introduced to Lee Beom-Soo’s character, who is a cop.  And this is where the “real” story kind of starts.

LBS gets assigned to track down a drug dealer, and meanwhile it’s just another ordinary day for the three high school students.  Everything seems like business as usual for both parties until a huge bag falls from the sky and lands on top of SSH’s car.

Soon followed by a seemingly dead body.

At first the boys plan on calling the police until one of them (KYJ) discovers what’s inside of the bag—a whole heck of a lot of money, and this is where things start to get really entertaining.

I don’t want to give too much of the story away so I’ll leave it at that, but hopefully that was enough to get people at the very least mildly interested in checking this out.

Based on the 3 Guys rating system, I think this is a film that deserves 1 1/2 guys.  It’s nothing earth-shattering, but I personally thought it was pretty hilarious and is at the very least worth a one-time consideration.  I don’t think it’s out for rent anywhere, but if you do a Google search, you should be able to find it pretty easily.

Tagged as: Foreign Films, Guest Reviews, Jo Eui-seok, Kim Yeong-jun, Kwon Sang Woo, Song Seung-Heon