Han Dae-hee is a seventh-grade civil servant, and he has it all. A predictable work schedule, a comfortable salary, respect at the office for his advanced PowerPoint skills and seemingly endless knowledge of random facts. In contrast to his coworkers, who get worked up over citizens’ unreasonable demands and complaints, Dae-hee is eternally cool and unruffled. That’s the secret to success for a civil servant, he says: to never become the victim of one’s own excitement. Each night, settling into bed at an early hour, he comforts himself with the thought that he has the best job in the world.
But complications lie ahead. He works in the Mapo-gu office, and his district encompasses the hub of the Korean indie music scene, Hongdae. One day he oversees the eviction of a struggling indie band from their rented room, and a series of unexpected events leads to the band taking up residence in Dae-hee’s basement. Dae-hee doesn’t particularly like music, and the cultural gap between the impulsive young bandmembers and the preternaturally steady Dae-hee couldn’t be greater. A conflict of some sort seems inevitable, which begs the question: will Dae-hee be able to resist becoming “dangerously excited?”
This wry, funny story from director Koo Ja-hong (The Wolf Returns) is one of those unexpected pleasures: a film that is able to take a very ordinary situation, and turn it into something vivid, memorable and thoroughly entertaining. Dae-hee doesn’t seem at first glance to be the kind of character who can grab our sympathies, but he’s so well drawn and so well acted that we inevitably surrender. Although Dangerously Excited does contain some laugh out loud moments, much of the humor comes at us from an angle, and is just as funny when you think about it a day later as when you’re sitting in the theater. The film is neither structured nor styled like a comedy, but it’s still hilarious.
The former theater actor Yoon Jae-moon will be recognizable to many fans of Korean cinema for his supporting roles in Mother, The Good the Bad the Weird, A Dirty Carnival, and many other recent films. He’s got that rare ability to light up the screen whenever he appears, and so it’s a particular treat to have him front and center for this entire film. His naturally wry demeanor makes him the perfect fit for the self-satisfied and smug character of Dae-hee. It’s also both to the actor’s and director’s credit that the arc taken by his character never feels forced or unrealistic. In the end, this is one of the most memorable screen performances and characters of 2012. Audiences will remember him warmly long after they leave the theater.
Darcy Paquet