I didn’t like Crying Fist one bit. The aim was the start off and provide some sort of background to the film, but out of annoyance more than anything, I’m not going to offer much about the film. It wraps Korean values such as family and the dignity around the premise of amateur boxing. This is a sort of Rocky meets Rocky the Korean way, and it falls shockingly short of being interesting or plausible.
Tae-shik is an ex-Beijing Event Silver Medalist who now makes his money by standing in the middle of shopping districts and charging people to take out their frustrations on him by beating him with boxing gloves. He doesn’t make much money, and with paying off creditors, that makes his life at home even more difficult. His wife wants a divorce, and there’s the implication that Tae-shik beats her but this is substantiated. Still, she’s no better, supposedly having affairs and working as a sort of call girl to bring in her money.
On the other side is Sang-hwan, a disaffected citizen of Korea. He spends most of his time getting into fights and robbing people. His father is a quiet man who’s disappointed with his son’s choice of lifestyle, but always bails him out in a thankless task. Unfortunately for him, Sang-Hwan ends up murdering someone for pocket change, as a means to payback his father who used his savings to pay off those who wanted to take Sang-Hwan to court. Even further isolated from everyone, now in a outh prison, he immediately becomes the target of bullying but holds his own.
Through a series of tragedies and events, the two underdogs fall upon a Super Light Weight amateur boxing championship taking place, and therefore see it as a means to repent and to achieve something in their lives. With Sang-hwan having lost his father in a construction accident. Tae-shikhas lost his wife and child with them having moved in with her lover. With nothing to lose, but decide to train hard to achieve success in the event. A final shot of glory for Tae-Shik and a tribute for Sang-Hwan’s father, but only one can win.
Or something like that. Koren films are notorious for having a huge sentimental aspect to them. Crying Fist is no exception, though from the first ten minutes you expect something quite exciting. The opening is a Tae-shik earning his daily bread and Sang-Hwan with huge dreadlocks being chased by cops on a motorbike. It’s all very interesting, until it becomes a melodrama and you’ll be hard pushed to keep yourself awake or interested in watching it.
To cement this point, I only watched two-thirds of the film the night before because I just couldn’t stay awake. It was so incredibly boring that I had to finish the remainder of the film the evening after, and even then I was pining to watching something else. I made a huge mistake in grabbing this film, and certainly paid for it. It’s another one of those films that will help towards curing my insomnia.
The main focus of boxing would have been entertaining had it actually had any realism to it. It’s like watching cats fight, or some would say a girl fight. It’s more slapping than punching. There’s a distinct possibility that all that faffing around is in fact a new sport called touch boxing, where the aim is to touch the opponent into submission through the use of boxing gloves with trigger a single indicating a touch.
Even more disappointing is the final boxing match where it’s pretty appaling to watch the hundreds of missed punches. Often you see the two main stars punching air, or going into a flurry of bitch slaps. It’s tragic, in a hilarious way.
Rather than being a rock solid, powerful, explosion about two underdogs fighting for something worthy, we get two farts blowing air in a poorly directed, amazingly soppy, ambigious example of bad Korean film making.
Verdict: The only punch here is the one to your wallet if you buy or rent this abysmal film