Arahan is a Korean Martial Arts action movie with a mystical theme, some decent action mixed up with some comedy.
It starts off as a thief steals a purse from a woman and tries to make a getaway on his motorcycle. A young rookie policeman named Sang-hwan goes after him in hopes of bringing him to justice.
But Sang Hwan is too late as a young woman named Wi-jin beats him there. She takes out the criminal and then accidentally takes out Sang-hwan as well, using a powerful ‘hand blast’, which is something like an invisible ‘haduken’ style move.
Wi-jin brings Sang Hwan back to her father, where they discover he has great Chi flow. He is then nursed back to health sent back into the world. As a policeman, Sang-hwan faces corruption and decides to tell a powerful gangster what he thinks of him. The gangster and his men then beat Sang-hwan up badly. Sang Hwan then returns to Wi-jin and her father to learn how to fight.
Sang Hwan beigns training but not just to brawl. Sang-hwan is being taught to ascend to Maruchui, a powerful warrior with tremendous Chi power. But as his training starts an evil and extremely powerful master named Heuk-woon escapes from his imprisonment and tries his best to steal a key from Wi-jin’s father to become an Arahan (an all powerful warrior) and rule the world.
Naturally the entire team tries their best to stop Heu-woon but it is up to Sang-hwan to summon his tremendous Chi energy and defeat him.’
Comedy / Action?
This movie was coined as an action comedy, but the comedy was not as in your face as I expected.
The movie still revolves around laughs a fair bit, but it’s mainly around the character of Sang Hwan who is extremely awkward and clumsy despite the fact he is training to be an awesome martial artist / warrior. This seems to be the contrast they went for to give this movie a ‘unique edge’ as a comedy / action.
Honestly, it’s not bad, but it’s not great.
The story is pretty standard, big powerful bad guy comes to take over world, Chi masters fight to defeat him. The first half of the movie I watched it, mindly entertained. As the movie progressed more and more I couldn’t wait for it to finally end – but then the first fight scene happened!
The Action
The first big fight scene happens about an hour in. It’s that sweet combination of good action and an enemy you really want to see get smashed.
The thugs who beat Sang-hwan at the beginning of the film try to pick a fight with him and he takes them all out. The action is fast, hard hitting and full of impressive moves and it got me extremely pumped up! It was pure, well choreographed justice! It is definitely the best fight of the movie.
The rest of the action seems to take place after this fight, and is a combination of good action and CG / wire work. The fights onward are good but just not as entertaining as the first.
Overall the action is decent, but this movie isn’t groundbreaking in my opinion, and more just a good fun film to watch on a weekend.
