A gangland tale from the streets of Pusan

Jan Dong-kun's new film Friend (Chin-gu) is like a large plate of spicy kimchi -- it's explosive and, in a way, uniquely Korean.

The film was a surprise blockbuster in Korea, selling over 8 million tickets this summer to audiences made up in large part of 30- to 40-year-old men, not the usual target demographic for a commercial feature film.

But then, as its title suggests, this is a film about male bonding between four inseparable 13-year-old boys in the port city of Pusan in 1976.

One, Jeong-suk (Yoo Oh-sung), has a gang leader for a father; Dong-su (Jang Dong-kun) is the son of an undertaker; the diligent Sang-taek (Seo Tae-hwa) lives in a normal family; and Jeong-ho (Jeong Un-taek), a restless entertainer, has parents in the smuggling business.

The film is set at a time just before Korea's economic miracle of the 1980s. It was a time when students were forced to wear Japanese-influenced black uniforms and endured persistent and intense academic pressure as well as frequent corporal punishment.

The four boys in the film are rebels. They show up wherever they go with their collars open, sleeves rolled up and looking for fights. They smoke cigarettes on the school roof, and their favorite pastimes are to watch Bruce Lee movies and chase checker-skirted girls.

Twenty years pass, during which the four have gone in their different directions, but fate reunites them and poses a test to their friendship: Jeong-suk and Dong-su have become gang enemies, and both must kill the other to survive in their respective groups. Sang-taek and Jeong-ho can only sit at the sidelines and watch, pretending nothing has changed.

Friend is most successful in depicting the nostalgia for the 1970s. The director's beautiful photography, the classroom settings, the costumes, and the shots of Pusan blend seamlessly into the plot. In proper "guy flick" style, even the mass punch-ups are touching for their youthful, naive spirit. As the movie approaches its end, the plot gets more emotional as former friends confront each other knowing that the other is facing death. The violence then becomes more brutal and sensational.

The script, however, fails to explain the relationships between the four friends in sufficient detail, making their bonds a bit thin. The young and handsome Jang Dong-kun, who has a fanatical fan base in Taiwan, disappoints by posing too much as the typical bad boy rascal. Yoo Oh-sung, on the other hand, is more convincing as a conflicted killer.