Korea, as a nation and people, is a country that is very proud of its cultural and regional heritage and as such, there are several regional festivals that take place round the year in different parts of the country that celebrate the specific region's specialties and historic importance at different times and seasons. For his debut feature, Kim Hong-ki places the drama around organizing and successfully executing one such festival, to comedic effect.
Extreme Festival is available from KT Alpha
Startup event management company Jealousy Is Our Motto have taken the responsibility of organizing a regional cultural festival, an event which for CEO Hye-soo is proving to be more than she bargained for. The local administration has changed the name and thus the purpose of the festival at the last minute, which means that the play that has been prepared for the event needs to be changed. The many inputs from the governor are not helping, who not only wants to give the prepared historical play a post-pandemic treatment, much to the chagrin of the performing theatre troupe, but also have her performance artist son perform.
Short on staff and ideas, Hye-soo's boyfriend and business partner Sang-min, a celebrated author of exactly one book, enlists the help of old employee Leo, while enthusiastic local girl Eun-chae also joins the team as an intern, looking for a job and an escape from her family situation. With her eye on the region's biggest festival later in the year, Hye-soo perseveres, but the day on the festival is about to prove a lot more than what any of them bargained for.
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Through the problems Hye-soo and her staff face, Kim Hong-ki's debut opts to put a humorous spin on the issues that many startup companies on one of their first contracts face. The last minute hiccups, the man management and working while understaffed and underpaid and giving in to the clients' whims and wishes are all portrayed accurately. The importance of perseverance is emphasized through the character, and it helps that Kim Jae-hwa is particularly honest in her portrayal of Hye-soo, keeping the proceedings believable yet, for the most part, giving it the necessary humor. This humor particularly is a strong suit, which, while rarely being laugh-out-loud funny, manages to not make the narrative a scathing commentary.
“Extreme Festival” however works best when it moves away from the actual festival and into the lives of some of its characters. This is particularly true with Eun-chae, who represents the regional South Korean youth, who will take a job, any job just to escape her small world. In a wonderful, otherwise insignificant scene early on, her filtered perspective brought on by looking at online streamers in Seoul is nicely established. Thanks to the lovely Jang Se-rim's performance, the character ends up being a very relatable one.
Leo, played by Park Kang-sub, too is one such character, embodying the repressed artist suffering a block, brought on by one thing or the other. Through his interactions with the Japanese rockstar character, Kim also comments on the fickle nature of stardom and the celebrity's plight once they become old news. Another excellent commentary comes with from theatre troupe, through which Kim portrays the difficulties such performing arts face, especially in this day and age. The fact that the first-time director manages to fit all of this in a 93 minute runtime without the production feeling crammed or without losing its funny bone is commendable.
Since the majority of the events of the story take place in a single location, giving an almost play-like effect, the cinematography doesn't try too hard and is satisfied with the camera being a silent spectator. The music too is sparing, but effective, with the piece used in the opening credits particularly being very enjoyable. The editing is precise and, by keeping the runtime tight, keeps a production that would otherwise dull down with a detour on its path.
There is something to be said about the universality of “Extreme Festival”, or its lack of it, with the core festival and its historic and cultural significance not being fully explained to the uninitiated, but outside of that, it manages to talk about some relevant and interesting topics and be entertaining while at it.
