Despite the bombastic poster and marketing, “Fasten Your Seatbelt” is a much more down-to-earth movie than the spoof it initially appears to be. Actor Joon-gyoo (played by Jung Kyung-ho) is famous for the filthy enthusiasm with which he swears. Yet Joon-gyoo is sympathetic throughout “Fasten Your Seatbelt” as his reflexive swearing is under the pressure of a difficult situation. His airplane can’t land because of strong winds, and the pilots being drunk doesn’t help matters.
Advertisement
Nevertheless, Joon-gyoo constantly apologizes for his reflexive swearing, and even tries to be nice and polite to his various fans on the airplane. This is all in spite of his exiting Japan and returning to South Korea under the cloud of an allegation that he impregnated a Japanese idol. Joon-gyoo’s exact culpability for this is unclear throughout the movie. He only strongly insists that she isn’t pregnant, which is a fairly specific denial.
We’re frequently left guessing whether or not Joon-gyoo is actually a good person. The guy’s stuck in four romantic entanglements that we know of, and seems just barely pathetic and demure enough that his reputation as a lecher might be undeserved. Jung Kyung-ho has a surprisingly nuanced performance as the potty-mouthed lead of a broad comedy. “Fasten Your Seatbelt” is loaded with nuance, and has aged surprisingly well considering how much the in-flight experience has changed in the last eight years.
The pilots, while not at all sympathetic, are more negligent and careless rather than actively malicious. They feel somewhat disturbingly like pilots that may have been in charge on your flights, you just never noticed the unprofessional behavior because these days the planes mostly fly themselves anyway. While not exactly likable the pilots, much like Joon-gyoo, seem mostly harmless as long as they aren’t being actively put under pressure.
Then strong winds make landing impossible, with the entire situation having increasingly disastrous implications as the owner of their airline has come on board for a surprise flight inspection. Yet there’s no real stakes. Every character largely exists in their own self-contained universe. Joon-gyoo freaks out in part because people are encroaching on his space in a crisis that’s extremely dangerous.
Joon-gyoo’s sense of panic is acute in part because every other character is panicking a lot less, begging the question of who the real troublemaker on the flight is. Joon-gyoo starts having borderline religious experiences, praying for safe passage, and repenting for his lifetime of evil. This is both sincere and, for the most part, just seems to be related to his habit of constant swearing.
The ambiguity behind Joon-gyoo’s personality is the main point of intrigue “Fasten Your Seatbelt” has- which isn’t necessarily a good thing, when the movie in question is a comedy. The performances are so realistic, and so like the common behavior you might expect from normal people on a plane, that the action never really rises to the level of genuinely funny. All the characters are just sort of mildly annoying, yet harmless as long as they aren’t trying to talk to anyone else.
Review by William Schwartz
___________
“Fasten Your Seatbelt” is directed by Ha Jung-woo, and features Jung Kyung-ho, Han Soo-hyun, Kim Jae-hwa, Choi Kyu-hwan, Kim Ki-cheon, Kim Byung-ok. Release date in Korea: 2013/10/17.
[HanCinema’s Film Review] “Fasten Your Seatbelt” (2021/12/18)
Source: Laban Lang Philippines
0 comentários :
Post a Comment