Crying Fist

“Crying Fist (Chumogi Unda),” packs a
considerable punch. The film returns
to the darker and moodier palette of
earlier works, but with the knowledge
and skills gained from making the
technically sophisticated Arahan.
Crying Fist is actually two fists, or
more accurately, two pairs of fists.
The film follows the separate
trajectories of two down-and-out men
who look to boxing to change their
lives, and their eventual collision.
In one corner, we have Sang-hwan (Ryu
Seung-beom), a bitter and angry young
man with a huge chip on his shoulder.
Despite the efforts of his father,
Sang-hwan’s criminal behavior finally
lands him in juvenile prison. There,
at what seems to be the lowest moment
in his young life, a guard turns him
towards boxing to channel his rage
against the world.
In the other corner is Tae-sik (Choi
Min-sik), a middle-aged man whose
moment of glory came long ago, when he
won the silver medal as an amateur
boxer at the Asian Games. But now,
with his family life falling apart due
to mounting debt, he earns his income
as a novelty act, standing out in the
street and offering up his body as a
punching bag to passersby for money.
The moviegoer knows that at some
point the two characters will end up
meeting inside the ring, but as the
saying goes, it’s not the destination
but the journey that matters.