ATTACK THE GAS STATION

Country: South Korean
Release Year: 1999
Genre: Dark Comedy
Language: Korean
Runtime: 113 minutes

[Cast]
Sung Jae-Lee
Oh-Seong Yu
Seong-Jin Kang
Ji-Tae Yu
Yeoung-gyu Park

[Director]
Sang-Jin Kim


Attack The Gas Station is a movie definitely on a class by itself. I mean what other movie out there that takes place pretty much completely inside and around a Gas Station?

The movie starts out by introducing four teenage punks bored out of their minds, decides to... well... attack and rob a gas station...over...and over...and...over.

The delinquents inflicts torture on the three young teenage employees of the gas station, and the leader of the punks develops a certain connection with the owner of the establishment by torturing him over, and over.

Right from the start, the viewer knows that these guys are completely disturbed, and as the movie progresses the viewer will learn that the owner of the Gas station is not very nice either and as for the three teenage employees, it will not be so easy.

They will be tortured over, and over. Also the entire movie setting is at night. After seeing this movie, I've thought twice about calling for Chinese food ever again.

The pace of the movie is very well executed. For a movie that takes place completely inside and around a gas station, appropriately named "Oil Bank" the director must place all sorts of different situations for the characters to deal with in order to get the story going and the director succeeds in doing so, by placing dynamic camera angles, dressing his characters with different outfits that reflect their personality.

The introduction of different characters interesting, or otherwise, and believe me there are a lot of them! so be prepared for the joyride.

Knowing the fact that this movie centers around four different, irate, not to mention socially disturbed teenage boys will probably turn many conservative viewers off. But as the immortal saying goes "never judge a book by its cover!"

Anyone that watches this movie will certainly get the full reward of laughter, because the movie has so many familiar and funny scenes that happens in everyday life, one may even relate with what happens to the characters in the story.

With so many different characters it's very interesting, even hilarious to watch it unfold on the screen. But of course the movie does everything to explain why each character are the way they are, and do the things they do. Certainly it leaves no stone unturned. Moral messages are scattered about as well so have fun identifying them.

I also like the idea of the director's decision in adding pop-up thought bubbles on certain scenes to help explain to the viewer what is going on inside a certain character's mind. Very nice, and hilarious indeed!!!.

Now on the technical side. The acting is very believable, a few touches of exaggeration here and there but it is only done so for comedic effect. The costume design is very nice, especially the different colors for the four main characters.

The addition of many different characters only add spice to an already crazy-cool plot. The soundtrack is well done, the set pieces are authentic, and the chemistry between each character is flawless.

In conclusion, Attack The Gas Station; will be enjoyed by anyone who watches it. For the simple fact that, anyone will find a hilarious scene in the movie that they can relate to. Even if you don't you will still end up watching a movie that is very original, smartly written, very unapologetic, and one that you have never experienced and seen before.

It will be for sometime before another movie will shine as bright as this one in the dark humor category, but in a meantime Attack The Gas Station will certainly entertain as well as tickle the funny bones.