웅남이 「Woongnami」
Release Date: March 22nd, 2023
Duration: 97 mins.
Director: Park Sung-kwang
Writer: Kim Hwang-do (Screenplay),
Starring: Park Sung-woong (Na Woong-nam/Lee Jeong-hak), Oh Dal-soo (Na Bok-cheon), Yeom Hye-ran (Jang Kyeong-sook), Lee Yi-kyeong (Jo Mal-bong), Baek Ji-hye (Yoon Na-ra), Choi Min-soo (Lee Jeong-sik)
Look at that title. Bear Man. What does it make you think of? Probably a superhero in the Batman mould. Maybe you might have traumatic flashbacks to Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man (2005). Well fear not, Bear Man is a much more light-hearted and fantastical film where bears-turned-human deliver audiences doses of crime, furious fisticuffs, and a constant stream of chucklesome comedy.
It all starts with an animated sequence showing two bear cubs eating mugwort and garlic and turning into boys. It is a riff on the ancient Myth of Dangun, but set in the present day as the boys are separated and adopted by two very different people.
First we get Na Woong-nam (Park Sung-woong), who was adopted by a researcher (Oh Dal-su) and his wife, both of whom raised him like their own son in a bucolic small town setting. Meanwhile, Na Woong-nam’s twin brother, Woong-buk (also played by Park Sung-woong), was discovered by a drug trafficker named Lee Jeong-sik (Choi Min-soo) and given the name Lee Jeong-hak and raised in the underworld.
Both retained something of their former animal nature as they grew into bear-like men. Tall in stature, well-built, powerful in strength, super swift in speed, and strong in senses so his hearing, sight, and smell. They are superior to a normal people. Their personalities are very different, however. Na grew up into an easy-going guy who did a stint in the police force and he spends his days amiably hanging out with friends and talking to animals while Lee became a gangster. Alas, both of them are on opposite sides of the law and so Seoul police detectives recruit Na to infiltrate Lee’s criminal gang by pretending to be his brother.
After this solid set-up, the film becomes rather schematic as it takes on the expected buddy/police comedy framework and pits long lost brothers against each other in a final confrontation.
While it doesn’t go anywhere surprising, the material audiences get along the way is rich in moments that will have viewers chuckling along – maybe even laughing. Na’s training sequences include amusingly silly martial arts moments involving a Drunken Master, a hilariously ridiculous movement coach whose metier is replicating Jopok (Korean gangster) film cliches, and a selection of incompetent and exasperated cops and friends, all of whom establish love-hate relationships with each other that are sure to elicit laughs thanks to the actors gamely exaggerating expressions and reactions to just the right degree. Na’s best friends, Jo Mal-bong (Lee Yi-kyeong) and Yoon Na-ra (Baek Ji-hye), are a particular source of laughs, the former a hopelessly YouTube-addicted clown while the latter is a kick-ass cop with a taste for action.
Central to the film is Park Sung-woong as he plays both brothers. His performance alternates between the slightly dim but loveable Na and the cold and ruthless Lee. There is some superficial distance between the two characters in terms of costuming, make-up etc but his performance is where he really shows the difference between them. Park uses big dopey grins and loose movement to suggest ebullience in Na’s behaviour while Park reins it all in for Lee and gives dead-eyed stares, silences, and closed body language that suggest discipline, suppressed emotions, and trauma.
Never forgetting the bear-backgrounds of both men, their animal-based “super powers” are used throughout the film in many amusing moments such as catching fish and cheating on tests while their strength allows the film to go in for a few big-brawl battles involving multiple bruisers. Punches, kicks, locks and throws performed by Park send stuntmen hurtling into cars for painful and impressive-looking results that will offer just enough fisticuffs to satisfy action film fans.
While the overall tone of the film is fun – slick editing for scene transitions, fast pace, many scenes set in the sunny countryside – flashbacks to their respective childhoods offer solid character arcs as we see how they grew up to be different. Na gets comedy scenes of talking to CGI boars and scooping up beehives and these are contrasted with Lee’s beatings. When their paths finally cross, a big confrontation ensues involving strategic cuts and body doubles to essay a solid brother-on-brother battle but for the finale what is most felt is how their lives are tragically different.
So, while the comedy and action flows smoothly from the story, the film has a heart and it is quite moving at the end.
Consistently running through events is a sense of family and the contrasting fates of the brothers emphasises how much love can change a person. Na benefited from family and friends to become a warm-hearted and good-natured person – especially thanks to his supportive mother, Jang Kyeong-sook (Yeom Hye-ran). Tragedy is felt from Lee’s fate and the ending does reckon with this and so it is sure to elicit a few tears from the audience in its melodramatic moments.
Ultimately, this is a fun and undemanding film that makes good on its premise. It carries plenty of emotions and a solid run of comedy that should make it appeal to a wide audience and give them an entertaining time at the cinema.
Bear Man plays on Wednesday, July 19, at 15:30 at the Walter Reade Theater, Film at Lincoln Center. It plays again on Saturday, July 22nd, at 15:30pm at the Barrymore Film Center.