Volcano High (2001)

So much average

It is a performances centric movie

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Imagine THE MATRIX set in a high school and you'll have the jist of VOLCANO HIGH, a ridiculous slice of high-octane action that exhibits all of the tendencies I hate in action cinema. In order: flashy direction, overblown cinematography, dated CGI enhanced fight scenes and frenzied editing. If watching guys flying through the air or performing stunts all with the aid of lots and lots of wires is your sort of thing, then good for you; me, I prefer my action gritty and realistic, not fantastic like we get here.The virtually non-existent storyline involves a rebellious high school student struggling to fit in with the various gangs and factions in his new school. However, the students soon find themselves having to team up to tackle a bigger menace in the form of the crafty principal (played by the delightfully twitchy and bug-eyed Hie-bong Byeon, the best thing in the movie by far) and his new, thuggish teacher recruits.VOLCANO HIGH is a truly soulless affair that seeks to emulate popular Hollywood hits instead of finding its own niche. It's also intensely boring, with lots of repetitive, CGI and wire-enhanced fights that go nowhere, characters so paper-thin that you can almost see through them, and a resolute lack of likable people. Okay, so the inevitable all-action climax is mildly entertaining, filled with wave upon wave of CGI-fuelled mayhem, but like the rest of the movie it feels very pointless and so last century.

At 121min this movie may only seem a little longer than the average film but it felt like 3hours. Not much of anything happens throughout. In fact those fantastic fight scenes some people spoke of just did not ever present themselves. The plot was completely predictable and their explanation of his powers were completely weak.I gave it a 4 though instead of anything lower because I'll admit there were some humorous scenes in the beginning. However, after those scenes it's all down hill. The acting from most was fairly good but the material they had to work with made their hard work in vain. The film produced a certain surreal atmosphere that played well to the story but they just relied on this and CGI way too much.

Volcano High tells the story of Kim Kyung Soo, a high school student who has super natural powers, after he is expelled from his last school he is sent to 'Volcano High' a place where he thinks he'll be able to control his abilities with other students who have similar powers such as he.Soon he locks horns with the school bully Jang Ryang while he tries to win the affections of the most beautiful girl in school. the gorgeous but deadly Jade, but another problem for Kim presents itself in the form of the five lords of discipline, five teachers who travel from school to school controlling the most unruly of students oh and they all have super natural powers also.I LOVED this movie, I got such a kick out of watching it. Everything about this movie is great the acting,the action and sometimes even the script.Watching this you'd think it was based on a Japanese manga comic but it isn't, the director Kim Tae-Gyun was heavily influenced by these comics and animated movies and set out to do a live action japanime movie and he was successful in every aspect.Jang Hyuk who plays Kim does such a wonderful job in this role he is able to be a serious hard-ass one moment then straight away making himself look like a total goof.A great highlight in the movie are the fight scenes, in my opinion they make good use of wire work and visual effects which is very reminiscent of movies such as 'The Storm Riders' or 'The Avenging Fist' The humour is some times lost in the translation which is to be expected if you don't speak Korean. This movie is one of the few which has been making Korean cinema more and more prolific over the past few years its up there with such other Korean gems as 'Friend' 'Bichunmoo' 'Musa' and 'Guns n Talks' I recommend this film to anyone who is a fan of Andrew Lau f/x laden fantasy epics or Japanime, you will not be disappointed.I also recommend you try and pick up the Region 2 Premiere Asia DVD as it contains the best version(The 95 minute one) and also contains the cut footage and the second disc full of great extras.

...I watched this film, regardless of all the bad reviews I have read (even on HKFlix who are usually very, very reliable!) and I don't get it?I don't mean I don't get the film...I don't get the bad reviews!The film ended 20 minutes ago and it will always stand as one of my all time favourites. As soon as it had finished I wanted to go through it all over again!It is the closest I have seen to a live action anime in the style of Tenchi Muyo or some other comical action series. Many people loved City Hunter with Jackie Chan but not this....when they both are as slapstick and absurd as each other at times...the anime humour and silly site gags.As for the cast....brilliant acting throughout and the Vice Principles habit of calling the Head a "silly old bugger" all the time kept me chuckling from the onset.The effects were very nice and the fight beat the snot out of that joke that is Matrix (which is a complete rip off of so many other things I don't even know where to begin!).So if you love anime and are willing to put up with the great action and slapstickness (it'll be hard to do so, I know!!) then go see it now.If your in the UK....buy the Hong Kong Legends 2 disk collectors & remastered edition with all those lurvely extras (yummy Yummy) as I have just done now 8o)