Director: Ra Hee-chan
Starring: Jo Woo-jin, Jung Kyung-ho, Park Ji-hwan, Lee Kyu-hyung
Country of Origin: South Korea
Running time: 1hr 38m
When the head honcho of a heavily manned gang kicks the bucket there’s a scramble to fill the empty hotseat.
The most obvious candidate, Soon-tae (Jo Woo-jin), is a resolute chef with aspirations to own a string of Chinese black bean noodle restaurants.
Yet the expert jajangmyeon cook doesn’t want the position, not least in order to appease his disgruntled wife Ji-Yeong (Hwang Woo-seul-hye) who wants nothing to do with the Family Clan syndicate, and the fact that his daughter Mi-mi (Choi Si-yeon) is thoroughly embarrassed by his hard man image.
Ex-con turned budding tango dancer Kang-pyo (Jung Kyung-ho) only has thoughts for ballrooms rather than bar brawls and rules himself out of the job.
While short-tempered, flame throwing maniac Pan-ho (Park Ji-hwan) is considered completely unsuitable to become the next head man.
A de facto committee of the organization’s higher uppers arranges a vote to elect the new don as hapless undercover cop Tae-gyu (Lee Kyu-hyung) stumbles around in plain sight trying to expose the group’s illegal activities.
Throw in a money seeking Triad, a woefully underequipped local police department and hundreds of noodle slurping gang underlings and Boss has everything required for an old-fashioned crime romp.
Yet it frequently overreaches and relies on a brand of harebrained slapstick that provides far more near misses than hits.
Director Ra Hee-chan presents a heavily stylized and completely nonsensical story which relies on cheap and obvious gags.
There’s plenty of head slapping in a plot that is just plain daft: when in doubt whack someone on the dome – the first few are mildly amusing but it quickly wears thin – or kick them in the privates.
A cast of hundreds includes some of South Korea’s most accomplished big screen performers – Lee Sung-min as the boss who pops his clogs and Oh Dal-soo as one of the syndicate’s decision makers – yet Boss features some incredibly over the top acting.
Park Ji-hwan delivers an absolute masterclass in the dubious art of face gurning – reminiscent of the late, great Les Dawson – as easily provoked lunatic gangster Pan-ho.
I wasn’t sure whether to be appalled by his egregious scowling and pouting or to admire his commitment to relentlessly hamming it up.
Similarly, there is a manic energy in Jung Kyung-ho’s twinkled toed display, as a prisoner that finds joy in dance, which is hard to resist.
Although his character is not properly introduced until well after the first act Lee Kyu-hyung’s absolutely hopeless undercover cop is the funniest and most effective in the whole film – especially in an outlandish attempted drug bust.
Although Jo Woo-jin barely holds it all together as the master chef who can’t quite find a way out of the gang – despite a dubious fish flopping, head first fighting technique – it’s the minor characters that steal scenes.
As a bank teller completely unfazed by crazed gangsters, the brilliant Jung Sang-hoon squeals that even if they chop him up, they won’t benefit from his life insurance.
Although Hwang Woo-seul-hye and Choi Si-yeon have extremely limited screen time as Soon-tae’s wife and daughter they illuminate routine segments with a mix of weariness, fury, and sarcasm.
The overblown performances overshadow everything else in a film which straddles the line between comedy and parody but doesn’t convince as either.
It says a lot that the outtakes which play at the end credits are actually funnier than some of the scenes that made it into the movie.
That’s not to say it doesn’t have a certain charm and appeal, if you want to switch off and completely zone out then Boss doesn’t have any confusing plot shifts or require any deep thought.
Yet there is scope for so much more in an uncomplicated farce which doesn’t bring out the best from a top-notch cast.
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Stephen Kasiewicz 