Arahan: Ahn Is on Deck Again

Either Ahn Sung-ki is the hardest working actor in South Korean cinema or my subconscious is seeking him out. A third of the movies I've watched this year feature this actor who started appearing in films when he was five: Mandala, Village in the Mist (1983), Festival (1996), A Young Zelkova (1969), and now Arahan (2004). This latest one is the pulpiest of the bunch, a silly action flick in which a group of Tai Chi masters — with extraordinary talents — must defend the planet from a former colleague (Jung Doo-hong) who wants that magic back tattoo for himself. (Such body enhancements let you rule the world.) Ahn plays the "good" team's leader and radiates a benign energy that makes you wish you were his mentee too.

He's got those apprentice slots filled, however, as joining him in the fight are two young trainees/lovers whose educational montage includes swordplay, hand-to-hand combat, and balacing on a big bowl of water. No one is ever shown teaching the coveted Palm Thrust which allows you to shove someone into a wall without touching them but that's the move they're most eager to learn. Like many a movie before it, Ryu Seung-wan's YA fantasy falters when it stops giving the ingenue (Yoon So-hi) a respectable heroine-in-the-making storyline. Considering her counterpart, a bumbling traffic cop, is played by Ryu's brother Seung-beom, you can forgive the mishandling. Nepotism always shortchanges someone, although in this case it's women everywhere.