Friday, April 15, 2011

Arahan: Urban Martial Arts Action

 A Korean martial arts film, Arahan: Urban Martial Arts Action, takes place in the capital city of Korea; Seoul. The main character Sang-hwan is a clumsy policeman who cannot even run after a thief without getting hurt. However, he wants to fight for justice in the world. When six masters of Tao meets him, they believe that he has the special power to become a Maruchi, a powerful warrior. He trains to control his heart, learns that benefiting others is more important than winning and realizes that when he can sacrifice himself he can become a powerful warrior. 
However, the evil power, Heuk-woon, accidently gets released and attacks masters while Sang-hwan fights gangsters in a restaurant. The evil power is looking for a key so that he will have the power to dominate the world. When Sang-hwan and Eui-jin faces the evil power, Sang-hwan gives him the tattoo that has strong power, and the evil power gets destroyed by it because he did not have strong enough power to handle the tattoo. 
The Tattoo symbolizes the power that could dominate the world. Only someone who will used the power to benefit others will obtain the power. The director also picks the main character to be a clumsy policeman who cannot even do his job instead of someone with some martial arts experience. It suggests that martial arts is not all about just fighting. It is all about using martial arts for the right reasons, to practice justice. 
During fight scenes, there are a lot of moments where the director slows the scene down or take all the sounds away. It dramatizes the fights and creates this fantasy-like scenes. 
This movie ends with Sang-hwan and Eui-jin fighting for justice in the city of Seoul using their power, which is kind of an ending that one can easily find in many Hollywood films. 

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