A film about a primitive man, born as a bear, perhaps appropriately has some pretty primitive filmmaking. With Na Woong-nam (Park Sung-woong) born in 1997, on eating garlic he becomes human, as with the Danggun myth. And 1997 feels where this film belongs, in what is a fairly simplistic action comedy, rooted in the last century.
Bear Man is screening at New York Asian Film Festival
Woong-nam is discovered by Bok-cheon (Oh Dal-su) and Kyung-sook (Yeom Hye-ran), and the couple adopt him as their own son. Now twenty-five, his keen senses have earned him a place in the police force, but his lack of wit and concentration see him lose this role. He, therefore, has little more to spend his time than feature in friend Mal-bong's (Lee Yi-kyung) aspiring YouTube videos. But similar bear-child Lee Yung-hak (also Park), a mob boss' muscle, is caught in the act and becomes a wanted man. A dead-ringer for Woong-nam, the police reinstate their former employee in the hope that he can be trained to mimic the sophisticated bodyguard to an increasingly dangerous pharmaceutical giant/criminal mastermind and infiltrate his internationally-devastating plots.
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Directed by comedian Park Sung-kwang, this is played for laughs, but as such all ideas feel half-baked, with no one really putting in the effort. It feels a throwback to 90s US comedies, where all characters are caricatures, rather than rounded individuals. As such, you struggle to really feel much for any of them. The plot is rushed and glosses over details, and you spend the whole film knowing which way this will go.
There isn't much here that hasn't been done before, with the main focus being on how its lead is a bit slow. Park is suitably gormless as Woong-nam, but doesn't offer a huge amount as Yung-hak, with the supporting cast hamming it up a little too much in parts. Woong-nam's mannerisms feel straight out of the Stephen Chow school of “Kung-fu Hustle”, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but is unoriginal a couple of decades along; as is the “Drunken Master” parody.
And this is “Bear Man's” problem. The comedy, story and special effects largely belong back in the 90s, and feel very outdated in this day and age. They do produce some laughs, but they're hidden in some very simplistic comedy; and Yung-hak's take down does have some good fight choreography, while also providing some of the film's stronger comedy moments.
If there is anything new on offer here, it is the comment of how Mal-bong's social media is a greater news source than mainstream media, with the police reliant on it. But this fails to place itself as a central theme, and so is perhaps incidental rather than social commentary.
You can grow into this as it progresses, and it's entertaining enough, but is very limited by its own lack of effort. It puts in little, so asks little of you in return. Popcorn fodder? Yes. But you can find much better options out there.
