Very rarely does a film so nail a premise.
Narcotics detectives, looking to get the drop on some organised crime, take over a fried chicken shop as cover . So successful, the birds soon starts to sell out daily, even attracting mass media attention.
A premise ripe for exceptional comedy, we could have spent a lot more time at the coalface.
Book-ended by extended crime-fighting acts where the hapless troupe more actively track down bad guys, the middle act where at least some of the team find a true calling is abundantly entertaining. The big bads predictably entering the mix but all a little too late, had Extreme Job settled on more greatly telling this story of unbeknownst entrepreneurship it might not have so strayed into noticeably more generic comedy-crime fare.
Kicking off with the film’s most slapstick-orientated sequence, drawing inspiration from both classic cinema’s death-defying stunts and modern action tropes, it’s an entertaining encounter the visuals likes of which are not emulated until the very end. Saving some of the very best for the finale, it’s more than a little frustrating to only learn about these characters,’ let’s say sets of special skills, at such a late stage. The explanation via a major exposition drop rendering the conclusion just a tad more digestible, Extreme Job’s venture into the ever more ludicrous is still very funny given the creators, unusually so for action cinema, welcomely choreographed the fight scenes with an emphasis on the individual characters’ traits rather than simply being content with just having punches indiscriminately thrown.
Featuring a second act that could just as well have served for greater lengths of the film, Extreme Job’s comedic tonal-fusions fly every which way but when they do land they land very well.
“I think our program was received terrifically well this year,” said KOFFIA Artistic Director David Park of the Sydney and Canberra runs. “We sold-out more sessions than ever which resulted in 2019 being our most attended year out of all the festivals we’ve had so far! This is an astounding thing to takeaway for our 10th year in Australia.”
“I hope our audiences will be able to really enjoy themselves and the films we’ve lovingly curated,” said David, who has travelled to Brisbane ahead of the Queensland program launch. “It’s the 100th anniversary of Korean cinema and the 10th year for us in Australia so I hope our guests feel like they’re attending a celebration when they come to our screenings!”
Extreme Job screened as part of the Korean Film Festival in Australia in Sydney and will screen in Melbourne on September 6
on Falkenscreen
