Four delinquents go on the rampage in Attack the Gas Station!, an anarchic, decidedly antisocial comedy with something to say about its country of origin. Since opening in South Korea in early October, pic has become one of the year's biggest hits, clocking up some 800,000 admissions in Seoul alone during its first month. Largely due to its anti-authoritarian tone, the movie's dialogue is often extremely funny for local auds. Zippy intro has the quartet - a disaffected baseball player, a long-haired rocker, a spaced-out painter and a beefy bozo - trashing and robbing an all-night gas station. Post-credits, they decide to return to do the same thing again ("just for fun", as a caption notes), but this time the manager has sent his wife off with most of the day's takings. Unsure what to do next, they hold the staff hostage upstairs, ritually humiliate the middle-aged manager (whose young employees start to turn on him), absentmindedly insult customers or stash them in a car trunk. Some of the humour does demand a superficial knowledge of modern South Korean mores and the status quo, but in general the role-reversal theme - in which almost every sector of society has the carpet pulled from under it - is clear enough. Script maintains a high level on invention and detail, taking a new turn just when you think the writer has run out of ideas. Mainstream helmer Kim Sang-jin (Two Cops 3) largely employs a handheld style, bringing a slightly exaggerated verismo feel to the movie and making the most of the single location.
Derek Elley