Sunday, July 21, 2024

Fantasia ’24: Brave Citizen

Mooyoung High could use a substitute like Tom Berenger (or Treat Williams in the sequels). Instead, it gets So Si-min, a former contender in Olympic butt-kicking, as a probationary teacher. She might be enough to restore order and decency in Park Jin-pyo’s Brave Citizen, which screened at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival.

As a one-year “contract teacher,” So is constantly told to stay out of trouble if she wants to be hired as a permanent faculty member. That means looking the other way when Han Su-kang bullies his fellow students. As she quickly figures out, Han really runs the school, thanks to his powerful and litigious parents. Frankly, So only has her current position (ironically teaching ethics) because Han drove her predecessor to commit suicide.

So tries to look the other way, because she wants a permanent posting. She is deeply in debt due to her deadbeat father, So Young-taek, who was also her coach. However, she cannot ignore the savage bullying of Go Jin-hyung, who is told to take it and like it, or Han and his running mates will kill his street vendor grandmother. So refuses to stomach such injustice, so she dons a cat mask and starts anonymously administering frontier justice when Han tries to torment victims off-campus.

Brave Citizen
could breakout in America if marketed correctly. If you believe the premise of a politically-connected bully wouldn’t resonate here, think again. Could Jewish students relate after enduring genocidal threats and harassment on campus, while university administrators did nothing to discipline the bullying “protesters?” How about the owners of small businesses that were looted during the 2020 riots, as the media cheered them on and big city DAs refused to prosecute? As a result, there are a lot of Americans who feel exactly like students at Mooyoung, who will applaud So.

Park ruthlessly builds the sense of injustice, priming viewers for cathartic payback. Lee Jun-young is also exceptionally nasty as Han. He really, really has it coming. Shin Hae-sun looks credible throwing down and plays So’s angst and guilt with uncharacteristic sensitivity for a vigilante movie. Plus, Cha Chung-hwa is fantastic as Lee Jae-Kyeong, a senior teacher, who cautiously encourages So to fight back.

Brave Citizen
is physically and emotionally bruising. That is also why it is ultimately satisfying. Park keeps it all suitably gritty and scrupulously grounded. Although screenwriter Yeo Ji-na cannot be accused of ripping off The Substitute, there are some similarities that fans of the late-1990s franchise will appreciate. Highly recommended for fans of old school street justice movies, Brave Cinema had its North American premiere at this year’s Fantasia.