Wretches was the english title given to this film directed and written by Kim Beak Joon shedding light on some of the bullying Korean students suffer in high school. The translated title is monsters but that might have been too common a name to use so I understand. Lee Won Geun, Lee Yi Kyung, and Park Guy Young star in the Korean film.
In class where bullying and power reign supreme, the class target is forced to transfer schools after an incident leaving the boy's best friend to be the next one bullied. He is forced to be the servant of another student because of his connections gang life and his feat tactics. Soon enough is enough as all hell breaks loose.
Monsters AKA Wretches wasn't as brutal as all the reviews and hearsay led me to believe. Watching the film unfold has a lot of evil moments done by the bullies to the victim but Wretches never quite reaches that chilling dark place of other films I've seen. I felt for the characters emotional thanks to their performances of right and wrong blurred into a momentum of uncertainty. What's crazier is how Korea chooses to forget that there's other very morbid Korean films about bullying far worse than Wretches. Still denouncing to this fact, Korea treated this film like it was exposing a dirty secret to their youth, like these kids don't already experience this everyday under adult supervision. I don't think Wretches deserved the 18+ rating it received. Sure, the film has a lot of violent tendencies however, most of what is shown turns out to be very PG13 in my eyes. Lee Song Hee's Night Flight jumped in the mud to show viewers a raw portrayal of bullying when the film wasn't specifically about bullying. It was only a side conflict to the plot. Wretches promotes it's self to be a bullying tell all and has a great opening that can't escape falling into a normal revenge story. This here was very disappointing to me. Yes, the plot tries to flex brute strength on viewers by showing you scenes full of victim terror until you realize that you see more of the actor's reaction verse the acts which would have drove the emotion of bullying home for me had it actually had been shown. Plus the way in which the female lead was handled was very strange. Who knows why there was a look alike for the character? I still don't know. Maybe I need to re-watch the film again. Wretches was good for what was given, just not a raw nail to hammer story like some of the other true to heart Korean bully films out there. If you are not use to bully films from Korean, then this might be shocking to you but not to me in the slightest.
I loved Lee Yi Kyung as the bully. He honestly steals the show in the whole film. I hated him with all my might then hated him some more. His moments of weakness were very enjoyable only because he's such any evil character. I don't even think he was that intimidating…. It was the people he messed with that were intimidating. Without all the threatening and violence, he's pretty harmless. Of course, behind every bully is a strong reason for why they do what the do. Lee portrays all these facets of his character well.
I would recommend Wretches as a revenge drama that just so happens to have bullying as a side conflict. The plot is more about a grab for power. You learn what people will do to get control even in hight school.
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