‘Swing Kids’ is a Korean drama motion picture, about prisoners of war in the Geoje POW camp, a real camp that held North Korean and Chinese prisoners who ended up captured by UN forces in the course of the Korean War (1950–1953). It is dependent on the Korean musical “Rho Ki-Soo,” prepared by Jang Woo-Sung. The camp is true but the people are fictional.
When is a movie a gem?
I define a “gem” as a movie or sequence that somehow slipped less than the radar, or managed to slip below my K-drama radar and was stumbled upon unintentionally. ‘Swing Kids’ is a K-drama film musical, released in 2018. Not confident why but ‘Swing Kids’ is not obtainable in the United states by means of Netflix. On the other hand, it is readily available on Amazon Key, Rakuten Viki, and YouTube. Additionally you can enjoy it cost-free on Tubi with adverts, which is exactly where I unintentionally found out it. I am a K-drama junkie and if this film musical slipped beneath my radar, it is possible it has absent unnoticed by numerous K-drama fans. This movie is a “gem” mainly because the scriptwriters dealt with the ache and injury brought about by the horror of war, divisive political dissimilarities, and racism and advised the tales of 4 distinct men and women, all the whilst applying an wonderful soundtrack and fantastic dance moves. The POW camp is a serious historic put and even though the tales are fiction, the actors portrayed the characters so nicely that you preferred to consider they were authentic men and women.
Why ‘Swing Kids’ was a tough movie to view
This film was difficult to view due to the fact it was painfully reasonable. In actuality, the only time you felt a little little bit of pleasure or contentment or aid, was when they were dancing.
First: The American commander, Brigadier Standard Roberts (played by Ross Kettle), was a moron! He was arrogant, manipulative, stupid, and racist! He ordered one of his subordinates to teach some POWs how to faucet dance. By his logic, this would present “proof” that deep down in their hearts, those people “yellow gooks” actually wished to be Westernized.
Second: The American soldier — “Jackson” (played by Jared Grimes) — was a black gentleman who utilised to be a faucet dancer on Broadway. He desired to be reassigned to an additional article. The commander purchased him to be a dance instructor. The buy was ample for him to obey, but he was also “promised” that he would get a transfer from Korea IF he succeeded in teaching the prisoners how to tap dance.
3rd: There had been 4 (4) men and women that the soldier would instruct to faucet dance: three (3) male prisoners and a person (1) woman civilian. These four (4) people today could have had a excellent life, have been it not for the war brought about by “ideology”. If you have an ounce of human compassion, your coronary heart will bleed for just about every of them. The prisoners every had their very own factors for wanting to master how to tap dance.
Meet the Dance Group
- Yang Pan-Rae (performed by Park Hye-Soo) ~ She was not a prisoner in the camp but was on your own in the planet since both of those of her parents experienced died. She figured out to converse distinctive languages, which includes English, and volunteered to provide as a translator for the American soldier. She hoped that currently being a element of the dance staff could open a doorway for her to depart Korea and go to dwell in America.
- Xiaofang (performed by Kim Min-Ho) ~ a Chinese soldier who would have come to be a brilliant choreographer if it ended up not for the war. Effectively! If he just cannot reach his aspiration of starting to be a choreographer, at least, he can desire a little, by understanding to tap dance.
- Kang Byung-Sam (performed by Oh Jung-Se) ~ a South Korean, thrown into prison for the reason that he had been falsely accused of becoming a communist sympathizer. As a end result, he turned divided from his wife and assumed that if he turned popular his wife would be equipped to discover him.
- Rho Ki-Soo (performed by Do Kyung-Soo) ~ a North Korean “hero of the people”. He noticed the American soldier tap dancing and desperately wanted to master. But how could he study that Yankee dance? How could he even want to study? It intended he would be looked on by his fellow North Koreans as a traitor! And however … he seriously needed to learn how to tap dance!
As a viewer, and a fellow human being, you felt a link with each individual of the dancers and the American soldier who taught them. You actually hoped for a satisfied ending for the dancers. No spoilers, but the way how the motion picture finished broke my heart.
Exciting Reality: “Swing Children has been stated on the major 5 dance videos alongside legends like the Hollywood flicks, ‘Chicago’ and ‘Happy Feet’ and the very first ever Korean film in historical past granted to use the Beatles track “Free as a bird” as component of the film soundtrack.” (Estimate source)
