Harry here... I saw this film earlier this year due to the helps of a magical eastern block dwarf agent of mine, that smuggled to my eyes VOLCANO HIGH. VOLCANO HIGH must simply be seen to be believed. A complete reinvention of the 'teen superhero' concept. Vastly superior to TEEN TITANS or NEW MUTANTS or any of the 'teen hero' work I've read in Comic Form. It is such a complete universe of its own form, feel and nerve that you watch most of it with drool being shook from your face as you exclaim "whatthefucks" over and over again. I can't recommend seeing this enough, if you get a chance. Amazing. Here's a lucky fellow that actually saw it projected on a big screen in Melbourne! Here ya go...
Hi Harry,
Stu here reporting from the Melbourne International Film Festival. Not sure if someone has told you about this flick from South Korea, but if no one has you really should get onto it.
Okay people, now this is how martial arts films should be shot. When you're getting a bit sick of serious flicks in this genre and can't really be bothered with all the "the grasshopper is quiet to catch his prey" sort of lines then this film will really put you back on track. I don't think I have ever seen a film that is so funny and at the same time pump out some really awesome special effect loaded fight scenes.
To back up how good I thought this film was I have purchased a ticket to the second and last screening of the film for the festival, if you are reading this and live in Melbourne snap one up quickly.
Oh, and this film is from South Korea, they are really putting it up to the Japanese film makers with this one.
Right. If people don't know the story I'm going to try and explain it as I saw it, it is a little hard to explain because it is far from normal.
Kim Kyeong-su, played by Hyuk Jang, is bleached blonde teenage with some anger management issues. After being kicked out of 9 high schools already he is onto his 10th, Volcano High. This school is definitely not your normal western, or eastern school for that matter, but a dark and ominous place. Cold rusted steel and dirty gray concrete makes up about 90% of all the materials used to make the school. Adding to that you have constant black storm clouds hovering overhead with not a ray of sunshine in sight.
Anyway, before we get to the Volcano High, the film starts at possibly his 9th school, where we see why he gets kicked out. Misbehaving in the class by reading a book, the teacher, who is busily writing on the blackboard, realises this and commands "no reading books!!" or something and fires his chalk at Kim in The Matrix fashion. Using some sort of force field from his mind, Kim stops the chalk centimeter's from his head before making it spin around and fires it back at the teacher, knocking up against the board with an explosion of chalk. Now if that makes any sense then the rest of the film will.
The story, or there lack of, continues with the school bully Jang Rang (Ox) trying to out muscle Kim in the school yard. I don't really want to give away much more because the stupidity of the story is really what makes this film so much fun. You have some other crazy kids at the school like Icy Jade and Orange Head who are captains of sporting teams in the school and also have a passion for fighting.
The film then escalates into a hunt for a mysterious manuscript and a showdown between the teachers and the students in a struggle for power for the school. Normally you could say "fill in the blanks" but with this film you can't, weird flash backs and amazing fight sequences fill in the some of the time, while for the rest you are laughing at the unusual characters and plot developments.
Having just seen The Princess Blade and nearly falling asleep between the long laborious 'feeling' moments, Volcano High (Whasango) really does kick in the Princess in terms of fun, action and visuals. A must see for kung-fu film lovers.
Stu
