Attack the Gas Station
A hilarious Korean parable with plenty of womp sticks
    
by Face
August 10, 2004

The four youths before the chaos

With a young and mostly unknown cast, a bizarre and lengthy title, and the whole thing taking place within a gas station, not many people expected anything spectacular to come from Attack the Gas Station! when it was released in 1999. At the time, many Korean critics said the movie was "doomed" and "bound for disappointment". But, soon after its release, word was spreading faster than anyone could have anticipated, turning director Kim Sang-Jin's Attack the Gas Station! into one of Korea's most critically acclaimed and highest grossing films, ever.

The story kicks off with four disaffected youths, armed with pipes and 2 by 4s, robbing a gas station, just for the hell of it. Bored and restless, they come back to the same gas station just a few nights later. But after seeing their plans come to a dead-end, they decide to take the manager and his dweeby teenage staff hostage, and run the gas station on their own why? Because they feel like. Because they have nothing better to do. Who cares?

But throughout the course of the night, things will get pretty interesting. They'll force protesting customers to pay full price regardless of how much money they have. They'll battle against angry local gangs. They'll force people to repair telephones over and over again. They'll smack loudmouths on the head with beat sticks. They'll have their hostages fight and sing for their amusement, and they'll turn the gas station into a frenzied battlefield of moped driving delivery boys, enraged pipe-wielding gangsters and frustrated baton-smacking police officers in a grand finale of epic proportions. But as director Kim Sang-Jin points out, these guys aren't really bad people. They're just confused, frustrated, and disillusioned young men, letting it all out--just in a very destructive style; because of their charismatic attitudes, it's very easy for us to see them as people beyond their violent tendencies.

Filmed with a level of exuberance comparable to Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Attack is a lighthearted parable of Korean society that takes every chance it gets to poke fun at Korea's uptight and stern hierarchal social strata without ever taking itself too seriously.

This film is director Kim Sang-Jin's fourth, and in his usual form, he creates a truly unique, stylish and subversive atmosphere with every shot. His camerawork is bright, elegant and charmingly grungy at the same time, and he succeeds in turning a mundane gas station into a surreal and strikingly colorful location through exhilarating lighting techniques and equally cool camera angles. It's also surprising that the film remains creative and retains its hilarious charm throughout while everything continues to happen in the same location. Most of its success can be granted to the exceedingly awesome performances of every cast member, especially the leads, which are played by Lee Seong-Jae, Yu O-Sung, Kang Sung-Jin and Yu Gee-Tae.

The film was just recently released by Tokyo Shock on DVD, and it includes a "Making of" featurette, which is very interesting. It would be wise to get your hands on it.

Full of style and oozing with bizarre humor, Attack is an out of control roller-coaster ride jam-packed with fun, laughs, gangsters, mopeds and an extra spine tingling twist at every corkscrew.

Director:
Sang-Jin Kim
Writer:
Jeong-woo Park
Starring:
Sung-jae Lee
Oh-seong Yu
Seong-jin Kang
Ji-tae Yu
Released:
10/02/1999
Production:
Fun and Happiness
Also known as:
Juyuso seubgyuksageun
Links:
IMDB Profile
Theatrical Trailer