[HanCinema's Film Review] "The Legendary Lighter"

Seong-bin (played by Kim Hae-joon) was once known as The Lighter, a legendary figure who could single-handedly wipe out platoons of goons. Present day tough guy Yong-ho (played by Ha Jae-yeol) recounts the story with gusto at one of those outdoor tent restaurants that's so popular in South Korea. Yong-ho is naturally unaware that Seong-bin is serving him at this restaurant, resigned to a middle age of middling opportunity now that he's an ex-convict.

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The premise of "The Legendary Lighter" is quite strong. What happens to one of those badass guys who's really good at fighting but lacks social skills, and also any interest in the kinds of criminal organizations that would actually hire him? Seong-bin also has the misfortune of a terribly misleading face. He looks vaguely creepy, but not actually threatening enough that anyone is intimidated by him.

Seong-bin is repeatedly harassed by a group of not terribly bright high school students in part because no matter how obviously dangerous Seong-bin is, they refuse to acknowledge the blow to their teenage pride. A lot of Seong-bin's life is just enduring petty indignity. And there's also moments where we can see that Seong-bin seriously wants to give that up. Seong-bin wants to go back to being The Lighter less because he wants to be violent and more because he just wants to be treated with some bare minimum level of respect.

Unfortunately the movie doesn't really delve into this character conflict very much by the time we hit the second half. Mostly this is because of Jin-ah (played by Park Sharon), Seong-bin's love interest. Initially Jin-ah is a fairly interesting character. She mistakes Seong-bin for a stalker, then we find out that Jin-ah actually had good reason to be paranoid about being stalked. Her story starts to seem like a possible path for Seong-bin to gain a sense of purpose to his life.

And this does happen, but in a much more boring way than was originally implied. Jin-ah suffers a rape attempt, then has a consensual sex scene with Seong-bin that featured a lot more nudity than I was expecting. And then she's just a bog standard damsel-in-distress. Yes, I've basically spoiled the entire movie at this point but the problem is once we get to the rape attempt everything else is painfully predictable. Even a hilariously cool shot of Seong-bin punching through a window can't compensate for the sheer triteness of the plotting going forward from there.

It especially doesn't help that the various fight scenes are likewise generic. Plus, the ratio of fight scenes to exposition is quite low for a straight to streaming title like this. "The Legendary Lighter" meets the bare minimum standards for this kind of low budget picture, and I did kind of like the bleak cinematography in the rough yet pleasant neighborhood where the characters live, as well as the cozy little tent restaurant where Seong-bin works. But mildly interesting location shooting alone does make for a good movie.

Review by William Schwartz

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"The Legendary Lighter" is directed by Chae Ki-jun, and features Kim Hae-joon, Park Sharon, Lee Dong-joo, Hong Dal-pyo, Ha Jae-yeol, Jang Jae-hyuk-II. Release date in Korea: 2019/10/29.

 

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