I am back! I know, I know… quite a long hiatus I did. I guess Siti never sleeps indeed slept. And I have no excuse at all. I did not watch as many movies as I used to and even when I did, I did not do any reviews as I had no motivation at all.

Well, this year, I decided I should go back to doing my one movie a week and back into writing, which I miss so much. I wanted to watch The Mule last week but I was meh about it. And I’m glad. Because I chose Swing Kids as the first movie to watch in 2019 and… it’s the best decision I’ve ever made in my entire almost-35 years of my life. Truly.

Swing Kids is set during the Korean Peninsula War in Geoje Prison Camp, where the US Army placed those captured from North Korea and China. A prison camp that was divided into two – those who are for communism (North Korea) and those against it (South Korea).

At the heart of it all is Roh Ki-Soo (Doh Kyungsoo), a North Korean prisoner of war, the notorious rebel on the North Korean side of the camp. He chanced upon tap dancing when he found Jackson (Jared Grimes), a US Army sergeant and former Broadway actor, tapping away in the small auditorium they had in the camp, and fell in love with it. Luck on his side (or not), the commander of the camp tasked Jackson to form a team of dancers to perform during the Christmas party to put him in the good light. We were then introduced to the other characters – Yang Panrae (Park Hyesoo), a talented girl who could speak in 4 languages, Xiao Pang (Kim Minho), a Chinese soldier who wanted to lose weight, and Kang Byungsam (Oh Jungse), a wrongfully accused South Korean man who wanted to find his lost wife. All five of them then form a team called the Swing Kids, founded by their passion to tap dance.

But of course, since it is set during the war, it is not always happy. And if I tell you more, I would be spoiling the entire movie for you.

You know, if I could write that much to introduce the movie to you, it means the movie leaves a deep impression enough for me to remember from start to end. It is one of the best Korean movie ever made, and probably the best movie Korea has ever come up with. It’s really disappointing that it 1) came out really late in 2018 in Korea, and 2) was introduced to the rest of the world much later. It could have been a serious contender for the Best Foreign Film in the Oscars (and I still hope it does for next year’s Oscars).

What impresses me the most about the movie is the hard work and effort put by the cast and you can truly see it in the movie. The cast members had to learn tap-dancing for months before they filmed it. The main cast member, Doh Kyungsoo, had to learn it in 5 months due to his tight schedule as not just an actor but a member of a globally popular K-pop idol group, EXO. It amazes me how much he looked so comfortable tap-dancing like he’s born to do it. Apart from that, he had to learn North Korean accent, which he did not know before, lost weight and shaved off his hair (being an idol, shaving his head is a risk to his image but he did it anyway). Apart from that, he immersed himself into the character so well that I do not see the actor but the character. The director is right, you cannot see anyone else who could play Roh Kisoo.

The rest of the cast are also amazing. You can truly feel the chemistry between the characters and believe that they are one family. Park Hyesoo should win something for her acting. I love her character so much, such a strong-willed female character in a male-dominated movie. She held her own here.

I am also truly in awe of the brotherhood bond between Jared Grimes and Doh Kyungsoo. It transcends beyond language. They speak through music and tap-dancing. It’s really amazing.

For a cast of unknowns, they made this movie a really remarkable one and together, put the message across – idealogy is the true villain.

Behind this amazing movie is Kang Hyeong-cheol, who directed Tazza and Sunny. This movie is his comeback into the film world after four years. He was stubborn enough to stick with Doh Kyungsoo, who is not a well-known lead male film actor, and willingly changed stakeholder and delayed the production of the movie. I applaud his eye for details – he recreated the Geoje camp using the archived photos and videos from the past. You know, it is not easy to make a movie that is part-Footloose, part-Whiplash, part-Unbroken but he somehow managed to do that without making it awkward at all.

And the songs he chose to put in the movie is brilliant. As far as I’m aware of, it was hard to get The Beatles to agree to have their song played in a movie but they gave the license for Swing Kids to use “Free As A Bird”. If you watch the movie, you will know why this song is absolutely fitting. Another song that he managed to have in the movie is “Modern Love” by David Bowie and the scene and the song just absolutely killed it.

This movie made me laugh, made me want to dance, made me cry snots and all, and left the deepest impression on me. It is the best movie if not one of the best movies I’ve ever watched.

Therefore, I will give it… 4.5 out of 5 (0.5 is because I am now emotionally distraught and suffering from a headache from crying too much).

Trailer…