Swing Kids (2018) - Movie Review

Swing Kids is a Korean film that resembles a 1993 film of the same name. The 1993 film was about a group of Hitler Youth who secretly met at night to share their love for swing music and dance. The original film, which starred Christian Bale, was based on a true story. The Korean film appears to be an adaptation of the original. It is fiction, but placed into a historical context.

Geoje Prison Camp has seen some violence. Anti-communist and communist POWs have engaged in a violent riot that has cost lives. The camp commander has been replaced with General Roberts (Ross Kettle), a calculating, sadistic camp commander. In response to tensions and continuing violence in the camps, Roberts orders that the unruliest communist prisoner, Roh Ki-soo (Kyung-soo do) be released. In order to lift morale, Roberts tasks a former Broadway performer, Sgt Jackson (Jared Grimes), with putting together a tap-dance team. Roh Ki-soo has dreams of being a dancer, but the war has interfered with is dream. He is deemed a communist hero merely because his brother is a renowned fighter. He reluctantly joins the team which includes a soldier who claims to have gotten on the wrong truck (Jeong Se-oh), a Chinese inmate suffering from angina (Xiao Fang) and a local woman trying to make money (Hye-soo Park). The team must navigate the anger, distrust and ideology rampant in the camp in order to achieve their dreams.

Swing Kids was written and directed by Cheong-Cheol Kang. It is his seventh film, but the first that I have seen. I liked the film, which had interesting characters, sharp dialogue, great choreography, interesting (anachronistic) music choices and great humor. Korean humor is different from British humor, but has a common thread. It can be visual and dry, maybe a bit zany. Combined with the unlikely background of a prison camp, the humor added a light touch to an otherwise dark film. I thought some of the characters were a bit flat and the ideology aspect seemed to equivocate a bit between capitalism and communism. While ideology is ideology, I don't think I would equate those two ideologies to make them the same. The antagonists were drawn a bit heavy handed, as well. But overall, this is a funny, interesting and unique story.

The cast was interesting. I didn't know any of the actors, to include the American actors. The casting choices were not all the same. I didn't love Jared Grimes, but the dancing was impressive. Kettle's character was wholly unbelievable to me, but he was well cast in the role. The performance I liked best was Hye-soo Park, who was once a contestant on a Korean talent show called K-pop Star. She wasn't a finalist, but her talent was on full display in this film, to include a bit of humor. She sang, danced and even hauled straw (you have to see the film to get the reference). She is funny and talented. I hope to see more of her. I enjoyed Kyung-Soo Do as well. Although I couldn't really picture him as a rebellious prisoner. The transformation is never depicted and he seem a bit soft to me. I like most of the roles, to include a few of the minor roles that were recurring. They often infused humor and tension into the story, which added depth that may have been lacking in some of the character development. The story is funny, sad, engaging and different.

Swing Kids is unrated. It might slip into R territory depending on how the MPAA views the violence in this film. There is some violence, although it is interspersed throughout the film, there is a fairly intense scene with quite a bit of bloodshed. It has a moderate gore-factor on the continuum of war film violence. The film has strong language to include racial epithets. There are adult themes, primarily centered on working girls, although handled very discretely. The film doesn't have much in the way of nudity, other than a single scene of men squatting to collect their excrement. Overall, this film was contextual. I would probably shoot for a thirteen and up audience baseline. The film was a little bit slow at times, which resulted in an extended run time of two hours, thirteen minutes.

Swing Kids is a solid film. If you are looking for something fresh, you will find it here. If you enjoy dance and music, you will particularly like this film. This is funny, but dark. All films about dance do not have happy endings. This is one. The story was intriguing, but some of the characters, particularly the antagonists, were flat. The equivocation between communism and capitalism irritated me. But the dialogue was sharp with a strong sense of humor added to lighten the film. It will take you through a range of emotions and give you some worthwhile distraction, although a bit long. 7.5/10.

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