BRAVE CITIZEN Review – Fantasia International Film Festival 2024

Wrapping up the Fantasia coverage, we end our run with Park Jin-pyo’s “Brave Citizen”, a tonal shifting, webtoon-based action film about bullies and kickass revenge.

Synopsis

Follows a former female boxing champion that now works as a substitute high school teacher and how after witnessing intolerable violence, she decides to take justice on her own fists.

Review
When it comes to school bullying, a film could go for the poignant (the 2011 documentary “Bully”), the extreme (Larry Clark’s 2001 “Bully”) or the comedic (“Mean Girls”). Park Jin-pyo’s film “Brave Citizen”, based on the popular webtoon of the same name, teeters more on the comedic, outlandish side, with a dose of poignancy sprinkled throughout. The South Korean film follows So Si-min (Shin Hye-sun), a former professional boxer who is now a substitute teacher at Mooyoung High. On the outside, it looks like a nice, peaceful secondary school but beneath the surface, bullying is a major issue with the head perpetrator being student Han Su-Kang (Lee Jun Young). Witnessing Su-Kang’s brutality first hand with one of the students, So Si-min decides it’s time to drop the innocent part-time teacher act, don a mask and take a stand against the relentless bully. School bullying is a hot button topic in schools across the world and this film, teetering between moments of over-the-top comedy and cruel brutality periodically runs the risk of not being the best arena to comment on such a topic. Granted the film is based on a webtoon but when the film tries to recapture the same…cartoonish pace as its source material, instead of approaching the topic seriously, it can sometimes lose value.

From its opening montage of cruel bullying, the film can be triggering from the onset. Even though it doesn’t keep this same unflinching energy throughout, “Brave Citizen” keeps its audience engaged through the hero journey of its lead. So Si-min, a woman with a good heart and a wayward past is a character we want to root for. She’s an underdog, a teacher that is trying to pay off the debt of her father So Young-taek (Park Hyuk-kwon) so he can keep his gym. She wants to live a simple life, be an encouraging, lively teacher while leaving her violent, boxing past behind her. But as she learns, life is not that easy and sometimes, leaning into your past can help you determine your future. Shin Hye-sun’s performance of So Si-min makes her a character worth rooting for, her switch between forced happiness and focused determination proves why she’s a great leading lady. In contrast, there’s Lee Jun Young’s diabolical performance as the evil Han Su-Kang. To say Su-Kang is evil is to put it lightly, he’s a young man that takes pleasure in others’ suffering. He has rich, powerful parents that vindicate him. His cruelty goes so far as to even make a teacher commit suicide. It’s almost comical how much power this kid has over the school – teachers are complicit to the violence and the principal is afraid to have him expelled because of the power his parents have over the administration. Young’s wicked performance in this role makes us root for Si-min even more and anticipate seeing her deliver the ass whupping of the year.

As an action comedy with a sobering message at hand, “Brave Citizen” suffers from a lot of tonal shifts. Hye-sun and Jun Young try their best to keep it all together with their engaging performances and the choreography is action-packed and stylish. Under lesser hands, a film like “Brave Citizen” would take the cop-out route and end with a “turn the other cheek” message. This film thankfully doesn’t carry that message and we are treated to a great final battle that has terrific hand-to-hand choreography and, as stated before, a totally satisfying ass whupping.

Closing Thoughts
Tonal shifts aside, “Brave Citizen” is an entertaining action-comedy that is one of the more fun films to come out of Fantasia. Wrapping up my coverage, “Brave Citizen” is a fine film to end my Fantasia run. With an underdog hero as crowdpleasing as So Si-min and a villain as despicable as Han Su-Kang, the film has enough to carry it along as an entertaining spectacle. Great action choreography paired with a solid cast makes this film a satisfying watch for fans of Korean action flicks.

Trailer