Hi-Five - Hilarious Comedy Action Superhero Movie Perfect for Stress Relief and for Fun

I saw the trailer to this movie once few weeks back and thought it looked like fun. And my wife who is major fan of South Korean dramas & films would love to see it. So when it was released on Friday, we set our schedule for another movie marathon on Saturday, which frankly was a bit challenging due to the inconvenient timing in our favorite theaters. Luckily there was one cinema whose schedule was quite nice for us to see two movies. Without further ado, here's more on the film.

Brief Story Line

A group of people just received organ transplantation which somehow gave them unexpected power. They consisted of high school girl Wan-seo (Lee Jae-in - Hard Hit, Night Has Come TV series etc), screenwriter Park Ji-sung (Ahn Jae-hong - Rebound, LTNS TV series etc), unemployed man Hwang Ki-dong (Yoo Ah-in - Seoul Vibe, Hellbound TV series etc), fresh delivery lady Kim Sun-nyeo (Ra Mi-ran - Miss & Mrs Cops, Cold Blooded Intern TV series etc) and factory manager Huh Yak-sun (Kim Hee-won - Project Silence, Han River Police TV series etc). Determined to do good deeds, they started to help people using their powers despite their obvious inexperience and constant bickering between Ji-sung and Ki-dong.

Unfortunately though, a wealthy cult leader Seo Young-chun (Shin Goo - Forbidden Dreams, Kairos TV series etc) who also received transplantation wanted to acquire the power from other organ recipients and started to do so even by force.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

It's been a while since my wife and I were able to laugh our hearts out during a movie. This film was exactly the kind of hilarious action comedy that I have been missing for a long time. While my wife felt the last time she laughed this hard was when we saw another Korean movie Extreme Job, I thought the one that truly reminded of such experience was when I watched Stephen Chow's Kungfu Hustle. Whichever it was, this movie had one pretty long comedic sequence in the middle that made the audience could not stop laughing. In addition, there were some other scenes that were pretty funny, though not as great as that particular scene.

This movie's plot was pretty simple. It was like an origin story of these 5 individuals through some adversities. The pace was not slow at all and it was quite easy to understand what they story was all about. Although the film had plenty of comedic moments, there was a lot of action as well. It was full of special effects (frankly a bit slapstick) that were used in some super heroes movies in the past but not the spectacular kind. It also had some drama, though surprisingly it was not overly melodramatic like in most K-dramas. The finale was also satisfying and there was a mid-end credit scene that would please audience. Only thing that I thought missing a bit was the info on the donor. But after finding out more information, apparently there was a special webtoon inspired by the movie that focused on this part. It would seem that the film was not based on any webtoon, but it was the other way around instead.

The movie itself was written and directed by Kang Hyoung-chul who made the commercially successful and critically acclaimed movies like Scandal Maker, Sunny and Swing Kids. Although it's unclear yet whether critics are impressed with this one, but at least in term of box office it's looking good as it already made the Top 10 in South Korea after its 2 weeks of release. Yes, it was pretty brand new movie and Indonesia was among the first few countries to have its theatrical release. Aside from the names I mentioned above, there were also appearances of Oh Jung-se (Cobweb, When Life Gives You Tangerine TV series etc) as Wan-seo's father Park Jong-min, Jin Hee-kyung (Sunny, The Killer's Shopping List TV series etc) as Seo Young-chun's daughter Choon-hwa, Park Jin-young (Christmas Carol, The Witch TV series etc) as important character and several others in support role.

The duration of the film was 119 minutes which was pretty long but I thought it was just nice to cover the whole story. I am not sure about future plan of this movie, however I think there are plenty of other materials they can develop further if it's successful enough. In the end this was an entertaining film heavy on the comedy side. It might not match the taste of every one but it was something that would delight people looking for some hilarious comedy in an action movie like me and my wife. It was nothing fancy or something to get too serious about, just a plain simple fun film. So if you are in the mood for such, then this would be a good option. But if you want to look for high quality super hero movies heavy on spectacular action or expensive CGI or focusing on character developments then this might not satisfy you. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars