Ra-di-o seu-ta (2006)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Jun-ik Lee

Writer:

Seok-Hwan Choi (writer)

Release Date:

27 September 2006 (South Korea)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Joong-Hoon Park	...	Choi-gon
Sung-kee Ahn	...	Park Min-su
Jeong-yun Choi	...	Kang Suk-young
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yeo-woon Han
Hyeon-seong Hwang
Gyu-su Jeong
Seok-yong Jeong
Yong-won Jo
San Kang
Ji-heon Kim
Jae-gu Lee
Jun-ik Lee
Seong-woo Lee
Jun-Sang Yu

Also Known As:

Radio Star (International: English title)

Runtime:

South Korea:115 min | South Korea:112 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

South Korea:12

Filming Locations:

South Korea

Company:

Achim Pictures

Nicely told, patiently paced, accessible little story about a has-been and his loyal manager

Radio Star, the follow-up to Lee Junik's surprisingly popular period piece, A King and His Clown, although set in the present and is the story of a has-been music artist and his manager, still has a lot in common with the previous piece: it's the story about a bond between men. And like it's predecessor, it's a small, but well constructed story.

The story is essentially about a has-been former award winning rock musician who's currently down on his luck and supported faithfully by his manager. The rock star gets into some trouble, which the manager only manages to bail out by accepting a gig as a DJ in a rural town. As they arrive and bring back to life a tiny radio station, a cast of minor characters show up, including a similarly rejected show producer, a quartet of rock worshipers (the only band in the town!), and a cast of other amusing characters from the small town.

I suppose I have to credit the writer and director (they collaborated previously on King) for coming up with such a subtle and nuanced story. Only a few elements seem at all forced and you instantly can get a sense of the ties between the lagging arrogant titular character and his loyal and compassionate manager. The primary themes explored are of the natures of friendship, loyalty and sacrifice. Not everything works well in the story though--the resolution to the story is a little ambiguous and there is little detail in terms of what actually caused the major turn in the story. Furthermore, I can't quite appreciate the sub-story between the manager and his family (being on the road, leaving them to their devices). The resolutions do seem a little too easy.

A device I felt was a little too abused during the film was the musical montage. While the first one was acceptable, the film sandwiches together two montages with a little bit of actual development between and I think they played a little too close, because I felt like I was a little robbed by not getting to see why the characters became successful. On the plus side, even though some of the scenes did smell like schmaltz, it actually makes sense in the context of the fact that the broad masses really fell for the show. The public eats up sappiness.

In terms of overall direction and production quality, everything's just fine. The piece really just homes in on the story and so it doesn't worry about flourish (as can be seen during the perfectly serviceable, but otherwise unspectacular montage sequences). The principle thesps, Park Joonghoon and Ahn Sungki are excellent throughout and have great chemistry (having a long history of working together) and the rest of the cast handle their minor roles fairly well (although the antagonist seems to overplay a little). Production is clean and contemporary and does its job on focusing the film on the story.

Overall, Radio Star doesn't attempt to reach to great heights. It's only interested in exploring this relationship and the themes that it carries, as such, it's quite successful at what it tries to do. It's a little slow for the mainstream movie goer and yet the story also seems too accessible for a film snob, so perhaps it's a film for more patient mainstream moviegoers or unpretentious film lovers. As such, I think it's a decent small film about two friends and can recommend it to those that like those kind of movies. 7/10.