I'd risk hyperbole and say that there was never a movie that was more made for me but right before I watched Swing Kids at SDAFF Spring Showcase, I saw another film that was literally about my (past) life. So, two movies made explicitly for me in one day? Banner stuff. Either way, the only thing to do is to immortalize the experience by adding one more to my dance movie review series.
Review spoiler: I didn't think there could be a finer dance movie than Magic Mike XXL but this movie was that great. Whereas XXL stripped out all the stuff we didn't want to see -- anything not involving dancing -- Swing Kids managed to insert dramatic tension and high stakes while maintaining the plot veracity of the actual dancing. 👏
Tagline: I don't know Korean so I'll have to settle for the American poster. That tagline was "We Want Just Dance." But the "we want" and "just dance" are separated so maybe it's "Just Dance." Either way, who cares!
1. Plot (9)
The plots of most dance movies are not that dense. Considering there’s sub-plots galore here, plus a semi-mystery, in addition to motivations for all the major side characters, this was practically the Oscar winner of dance movie plots. Oh wait, the Oscars are trash, so that is no honor.
Anyways, if you’re aiming high by combining tap dance and a POW camp, then you gotta deliver. Swing Kids delivered. I wouldn’t fast forward a single one of the non-dance scenes and it’s a 133 minute movie.
The year is 1951, the setting is Geojedo POW camp. Roh Ki-soo is the North Korean soldier who hates capitalism, traitors, and yankees but loves to dance. Jackson is a black American soldier tasked by his scene chomping commander to start a dance troupe for the benefit of journalists and wartime propaganda. What else is new? Splash a ragtag bunch of other dancers into the mix and we have a dance team.
If White Nights scored an eight in terms of plot, Swing Kids was at least a nine, and I’m only leaving room at the top for some sort of mega-complicated, multi-generational Gabriel Garcia Marquez type epic in dance form. Please tell me if this movie already exists.
Um, yeah, I’d say so. Doh Kyung-Soo in a mega Korean boy band and Jared Grimes has danced for all the biggest names. Mariah and Barack. His letter to his teenage self could use a little bolstering though. I couldn’t find out the dance backgrounds of the rest of the cast but there were no weak links. In fact, every dancer deserved and got their moments of shine.
3. How’re the dance scenes? (10)
🔥👞🔥. Two new words/terms I learned while reading about Swing Kids: terpsichorean and diegetic dancing.
- Terpsichorean: of or relating to dancing
- Diegesis: the telling of a story by a narrator who summarizes events in the plot (in the case of Swing Kids, through dancing). Here are some handy links. "What’s Diegetic?" and "Dirty Dancing and Diegesis."
This dancing was the best kind of movie dancing. Most of the scenes fit into the emotionality of the characters, and you can’t just separate out the dancing from the plot. As for specific dance scenes, there were so many that I lost count. I was very pleased that Swing Kids delivered on all the correct ratios of group on group, hero vs villain, friends vs frenemies dancing setups.There are a few individual dancing clips from the movie online but it would an injustice to watch them first in that format. Peek at the trailer but then just get on with it. Then return to the Youtubes for highlights.
Additionally, I would like to point out director Kang Hyoung-Chul’s homage to the David Bowie “Modern Love” dance sequence. Strong move.
- Trailer 1 | Trailer 2
- Dance Hall scene
- "Modern Love" scene | Frances Ha (2012) | Mauvais Sang (1986)
- Finale scene
- Behind-the-scenes
Practically non-existent. Unless you count the fact that one character was literally dancing to get famous enough so that his possibly dead wife might hear about him, and thus they could reunite. 💦Oh, did I mention Swing Kids was set during wartime? Prepare accordingly.
There is a bit of flirting here but both the execution and pay off of the romance was extraordinary and surprisingly, quite funny. Actually, let’s me just warn you that overall this movie is extremely funny. There were other warnings given to us preceding the movie but I'm not gonna repeat them as to color your perceptions. Because this post is obviously spoiler free.
You could not have asked for more winning sidekicks. And I’m not just talking about the other three dance troupe team members. There were memorable characters across the board. Heck, I even liked the asshole general a lot. Whoops.
6. Best line (8)
I can’t recall. I was enjoying the movie so much I forgot to find a favorite line. Maybe when I go rewatch it in a couple of days I’ll find one. And yes, I'm gonna go rewatch it when SDAFF screens it again next week. There was no dearth of fun dialogue in Swing Kids though. Bonus points for the numerous instances of humor as a result of purposeful false translations.
7. Music (10)
One interviewer asked Kang Hyoung-Chul this question about some of his earlier movies.
Q: It’s quite strange that you selected western songs. Were they both popular songs in Korea at the times both films were made?I’d imagine that was the polite translation of what Kang Hyoung-Chul actually said. I’ll leave the actual word-by-word translation to your imagination.
A: In the 1980s in Korea, western music was very popular, so they these songs were a useful tool to recreate the atmosphere at that time.
Anyway, there are songs by the Beatles, Bowie, and um, other famous peoples on display. For some reason some reviews really honed in on the anachronism of the music. Okaaaaaay. You realize this wasn’t historically accurate right? This wasn’t Mad Men. Mad Men wasn’t Mad Men.
Another comment, both informative and biting, from the same review: "The only thing, do you consider all Korean music to be part of ‘millennial' kpop? Cause I’m pretty sure the korean song is from the 80s and disco more than anything else.”
Translation: “do you think we/I/us all sound the same?” Burn! Here’s an explainer, “How K-pop became a global phenomenon"
Gotta mostly give this one a pass since prison movies don’t usually have a wide sartorial selection. But there was some good hair and traditional Korean costumes and masks. And a lot of facial scars, if you’re into that kind of thing. Oh wait and also some, well, never mind.
9. Cultural Impact (6)
In the US market? Not great. $200,000 grossed and a paltry 67% on Rotten Tomatoes. But again, anyone who actually takes Rotten Tomatoes seriously probably only eats at "four-stars and up" Yelp restaurants as well.
I’m not exactly sure how much this movie made in its native South Korea -- ten million? -- but I can only imagine it ushered in an entire wave of tap dancing in the streets. Right? I’ll try to go to Korea next year and research. Forever 21 and tap dancing, yes please!
Broadly speaking, I assume that having Doh Kyung-Soo, otherwise known as D.O. of EXO fame, helped Swing Kids’ international success. America just ain’t ready for a group of diverse tap dancing POWs I guess. And it's not lost on me, the non-subversive subversive aspects of the film. No sir!
To America’s savaging of this movie I have only this to say: 🖕. Or 🖕🖕, I suppose.
10. Miscellaneous (7)
As soon as we got out of Swing Kids, I had to find out what else writer-director Kang Hyoung-Chul had done. Turns out he’s the director of Sunny, aka the movie I’ve recently dedicated my life to watching — the original and all the remakes.
Armed with that fact, everything clicked because the blend of humor, angst, silliness, dance battles, American pop culture references, tidy character arcs, and very serious yet humorous political settings and asides, all wrapped up in this kind of “light” movie were all previously displayed in Sunny. Now I must watch every Kang Hyoung-Chul film ever made.
Swing Kids was based on a Korean musical that was written by Jung Woo-sung, the South Korean actor and multi-hyphenate who co-starred in The Good, the Bad, the Weird. I’d recommend watching that one as well if you enjoyed Swing Kids. And well, if you didn’t enjoy Swing Kids I guess you’re a colonizing bastard and this movie wasn’t made for you anyway.
FINAL VERDICT (86/100)
I’m surprised this wasn’t a clean 💯 since I left the theater asking myself “was that the best dance movie ever made?” All of Swing Kids' dings — in a scoring system not really designed for it — are not exactly applicable categories. But I’ll buffer in some room since I’m a renowned overhyper but there’s not one thing I would change about this film. Eh, except maybe the name, if only to distance itself from the Christian Bale Swing Kids, which I also liked but that was child me. Seuwingkizeu was made for adult me and it’s a must-see.
No, that's not a strong enough recommendation. I fucking loved every second of Swing Kids and I won't be shutting up about it for awhile. There. Let's (dance) battle.
