Brave Citizen: Meow Meow

I fell hard for Brave Citizen pretty quickly. Once director Park Jin-Pyo and screenwriter Yeo Ji-na had established this action movie is all about a failed female boxer who's going to combat high school bullying by donning a cat mask then punching the perpetrators, I was completely in. (I was one of those teens who reveled in WWE storylines and Brave Citizen is basically the bargain basement version of a superhero origination story without special effects or delusions of grandeur.) As the central pugilist-turned-teacher So Si-min, Shin Hye-sun does a terrific job at being both downtrodden and determined. You know she deserves better than this secondrate job at a high school where the overaged senior Han Soo-kang (Lee Jun-young) is making life miserable for faculty and students alike because he's rich, sadistic, and has connections in the police force. And you can see how she'd naturally make strong aliances with experienced educator Lee Jae-kyeong (Cha Cheong-hwa) and boyfriend cop Lee Kwon-joong (Lee Chan-Hyeong).

Then once you meet her goofy dad (Park Hyuk-kwon), you just know that she's unlikely to take the safe path to job security if it means overlooking the horrendous hazing being directed at Jin-hyeong (Park Jung-woo) who happens to be the grandson of the sweet old lady (Son Sook) who street-vends the best kimbap in her neighborhood. Is Brave Citizen predictable? Very much so. Farfetched? Oh, hell yes. But I liked watching a cat-masked Si-min overcome obstacles while executing fabulous taekwondo moves, whether the man getting kicked in the face is in the ring or on the sidewalk. This one's a knockout. Sequel please.