Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

elshikh4 It's a very funny cartoonish flick, nearly a good modern fairytale with all the cool Kung-Fu and the dexterous special effects, but this movie could, inadvertently, raise the predicament of the genre's holiness !Look at it, from the start it's nothing but the action comedy that close to visual farce, with all the lovely elements of fantasy. THEN suddenly, at the third act, it's the bloody violent action ! Where almost all of the nice characters of the old minters got killed, the last one got tortured, and a long sequence of one last, very serious and too rough, battle !! Is it a sin?, is it the way we used to watch? Is it a no no when it comes to renewal the genre a bit? Actually when they had done it in a way made the taste strange to weaken the movie as well as disturb its own condition, then something really is wrong. We've learned that mostly there is no killing at the comedy, so how about THIS comedy in particular which was apparently too light to be dark ! You'd sense oddity like being with unstable personality ! Moreover after being straight harsh at the climax, it returns at the anticlimax - irritatingly I think - to be that smiling childish venture again ?!!Just compare the beautiful intro scene (which's great and promising), or the droll sequence of training the hero, with all the body count, or the HEEE and HOOO of the end's fight to catch on that there was something unusual about it ..Or correctly badly unusual ! (Arahan) proves how the Korean cinema gets a lot of great potentials (wonderful action, big production, advanced technique, clever imagination..). But (Arahan) also suffers from being comic fantasy that skewed a little for tenebrous mood and drastic nastiness. As the script sorrowfully manipulated the whole thing not to shake the genre up !, but to make a statement about the capability of creating a strong action, yet inharmoniously.It was 2 unfinished movies, undoubtedly well-made, but you'd feel uneasy as the sweet becomes sour at times, and you'd be unsatisfying as none of the 2 was totally complete.

Shawn Watson I ain't no fan of chop-socky Asian martial arts movies. You could run off a list of any of the 1000 films Jet Li made before going to America and I'd say, 'Um...Kiss of the Dragon?' So, that's how bad my knowledge and devotion is. It was surprising therefore to discover that Arahan is actually a very funny and very exciting movie that zips along loud, fast and funny.Sang-Hwan is a lowly beat cop. He's clumsy, accident prone and bumbles more than the average bee. He doesn't believe he has any special powers, but when he makes friends with a group of five old masters, they recognise his potential and recruits him to help preserve the balance of the world from evil...or something. Which is great timing, because an ancient bad guy has come out of a long, long hibernation to seek the key to the ultimate nirvana and spread order over the whole world...or something.Yes, it's gobbledygook. In fact, it's alarmingly similar to Bulletproof Monk, only not total crap. There are loads of laughs to be had. Arahan has a great sense of comic timing and the ability to jump from silly gags to serious action in just a few seconds.When it comes to plain old hands-and-feet fighting, Hollywood movies seem to be lacking of late. It's all CGI and spandex. Eye candy it may be, but it's good to see something filled with practical fighting effects, despite the final showdown going on a bit.The one bad thing that costs it half a star is the nasty Eighties synthesised score. Doesn't Korea have anything better than those shoddy Yamaha keyboards that I used in music class in high school? Hell, I could do better myself.You can criticise the film for being mindless - hey, just because it's subtitled doesn't mean it's artsy fartsy - but for two hours of fun, Arahan will do nicely.

Rock Savage "Arahan" adds nothing positive to the Kung Fu genre. To compare this confused motion picture with the inspired craziness and quality of Stephen Chow's films is a mistake.Firstly the fight scenes are nothing new. All that is presented here has been done before and better by the likes of Yimou Zhang, Tony Jaa and Jackie Chan. Fights in intelligent Motion Pictures need logic. There seems no point serving blows that have no damaging effect as in the "Matrix" sequels.The attractive female lead So-Yi Yoon captivated the screen but she never convincingly conquered the physical demands of the role as Ziyi Zhang had done so easily in "House Of Flying Daggers". Having a Martial Arts background serves well in Kung Fu movies. To cast actors inexperienced in these skills is a serious mistake (See Aya Ueto in "Asumi") unless you are a very talented director which as "Arahan" proves Seung-wan Ryoo is not.

dj_bassett A geekish cop is, unbeknowst to him, a secret chi master: he falls in with the 7 Grand Masters (although there's only five left) who are busy trying, and mostly failing, to find their way in the world. A bad guy turns up who wants a magic key that will make him God, or some such agreeable nonsense: our hero and his friends try to stop him. A lightweight, fun Asian action-adventure movie that is what it is, but is a good example of what it is: nice wire work, good fights, a little lowbrow comedy, and a nice slambang conclusion. Some fun is had with the characters trying to adapt to changing times: a sequence with the Grandmasters on a television show is priceless. Manages to entertain without getting in the way of itself; recommended.