Swing Kids Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Swing Kids Blu-ray Movie Review

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got David Bowie.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 20, 2019

While a rose by any other name would (reportedly) still smell as sweet, not all Swing Kids are created equal despite identical titles, if one may be permitted to mangle a legendary Shakespeare quote. 1993’s Swing Kids (which has yet to see the domestic Blu-ray light of day, evidently) was a supposedly “historically based” film which documented the exploits of jazz loving youngsters in pre-World War II but still increasingly Nazi-fied Germany. This 2018 South Korean film, on the other hand, takes place in the 1950s, which might make that whole “swing” thing in the title seem a little odd, since American popular music at least had moved on from big bands to more of an “easy listening” ambience which frequently featured singers as the focal point. That said, this was evidently culled from a South Korean musical called Rho Ki-soo, which I'm assuming is an alternative transliteration of the main (North) Korean character in this film, which the subtitles on this version transliterate as Roh Gi-soo (Do Kyung-Soo, a K-pop sensation himself in his own music life). Swing Kids begins with a supposed newsreel which I assume is meant to somehow ground the film in some kind of reality, since it seems to be documenting what was a real life Prisoner of War camp (for North Korean prisoners) on an isolated island in South Korea, where some kind of fracas broke out and several prisoners were killed. (This Wikipedia article details the camp and the uprising that took place there.) That aspect of violence may be more than a bit of foreshadowing, and it also hints at really bizarre tonal mishmash in this film, one which goes from near delirious tap dance routines to solemn sociopolitical philosophizing to perhaps most disjunctively a really tragic climax.

It’s almost hard to know where to begin with Swing Kids since it’s such an odd property and has so many potentially confounding elements. So, let’s just start at the beginning, or at least after the introductory newsreel, when the first American character, a General named Roberts (Ross Kettle) is introduced, except — if he’s an American, why is speaking with that odd accent? (In doing some background research in preparation for writing this review, I discovered Kettle is South African, which kinda sorta explains that, though doesn’t address why he wasn’t directed to speak with a more “traditional” American sound.) Roberts wants the POW camp ambience “lightened” a bit, and that gets Gi-soo released from what one assumes was some kind of imprisonment.

Soon enough Gi-soo sees (and hears) an African American Sergeant named Jackson (Jared Grimes) going through some dance maneuvers in a quonset hut with a stage (because — well, just because). Roberts has tasked Jackson with putting together a little holiday extravaganza to brighten the mood of everyone, which in turn means Jackson needs some dancers. Guess which formerly troublemaking North Korean prisoner has a particular interest in tap?

All of this might have been fine, despite some truly weird source cue choices (the first one which really stuck out like a sore thumb to me was the Isley Brothers’ “Shout”, which is obviously not from the fifties, and there are even more contemporary tunes utilized later in the film). But Swing Kids tries to work in a whole series of subplots, many of which are not developed fully and therefore are kind of touched on and then discarded. There’s a lot of roiling emotion in Swing Kids, and one of the most interesting things is how patently negative toward the American presence in Korea the film often seems to be. And this is a South Korean film, mind you.

There are a number of nicely staged dance sequences in the film, and director Kang Hyeong-cheol stages things quite effectively throughout the story. But somewhere around the halfway point (of an arguably way overlong film, one which clocks in considerably over two hours), melodrama takes hold, something that makes the film’s emphasis on some goofy, almost slapstick laden, comedy in its early going even more tonally odd by comparison. When the film builds to a gruesome climax which includes outright violence and some shocking deaths, it’s kind of hard to segue into song and dance again, but bizarrely, Swing Kids at least tries to.

Swing Kids Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Swing Kids is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. Once again the IMDb provides little to no technical data on the shoot, but a bit of internet sleuthing turned up a number of references to the Arri Alexa on this shoot (one of the references was weirdly from Brasil for some reason). I am assuming this was finished at a 2K DI. Aside from some minor banding which is evident as early as the newsreel opening the film, this is a largely engaging and often quite vividly colorful presentation. The POW camp is full of vivid blues especially, and detail levels are routinely excellent in the outdoor scenes. Even some of the dimly lit interior scenes have decent amounts of general detail and shadow definition, despite some pretty heavy grading at times toward yellow tones. Close-ups offer expressive fine detail on elements like fabrics and facial features.

Swing Kids Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Swing Kids features a boisterous sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which is listed as being in Korean, but which in fact features a good deal of English language material. For those who care about such things, the optional English subtitles only translate the Korean sections and offer nothing during the English language moments. The track here benefits from a wide variety of music, as referenced above, and the score regularly pumps through the side and rear channels with a good deal of energy. Dialogue is cleanly presented, but can be a bit hard to decipher at times in the ostensible "English" sections, due to a number of rather thick accents (another reason it's perhaps unfortunate the subs aren't "wall to wall", so to speak). There are occasional bursts of LFE due to elements like gunfire. Fidelity is fine throughout the presentation, and dynamic range surprisingly wide.

Swing Kids Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers

  Passion (1080p; 1:25)

  
  

  Rhythm (1080p; 1:06)

  
  

  Swing (1080p; 00:59)

As usual with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the disc has been authored so that the above trailers play automatically one after another (so that clicking on Passion is essentially a "Play All" button, though even clicking on Rhythm will still move on to the next item(s). After these three trailers play, the disc is authored to move on automatically to trailers for other Well Go USA releases. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Swing Kids Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Did I mention that Sergeant Jackson's first initial is M? As in: M. Jackson. And he dances. That little piece of subliminal "time shifting" may go hand in hand with some undeniably odd choices for music like the Isley Brothers and even David Bowie (not to mention other choices like an electric guitar in a band that looks suspiciously post- fifties to yours truly), just one indication that this film seems to be trying to be both "historic" and "modern", while also attempting to blend dramatic anti-war sentiments with a happy go lucky musical format. It's all very weird at times, but it does have a frenetic energy, especially in the musical moments. Technical merits are generally excellent for those considering a purchase.