“Quick” is a popcorn action/comedy film with a slick presentation and really cool stuntwork and visual effects. It’s a film that features crazy humor at times but for those who want to see an action film and laugh at the same time, and nothing so heavy or emotional, will find “Quick” to be fun and entertaining.
TITLE: Quick (Kwik)
TELEFILM RELEASE: 2011
DURATION: 111 Minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080p High Definition, Korean DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital 5.1, Subtitles: English
COMPANY: CJ Entertainment/Shout! Factory
RATED: NOT RATED
Release Date: September 4, 2012
Directed by Beom-gu Cho
Screenplay by Soo-jin Park, Youn jk, Beom-gu Cho
Produced by Youn Jk, Sean Lee
Co-Producer: Young-min Gil, Hang-seung Lee
Executive Produced: Katharine Kim
Associate Producer: Joon H. Choi
Music by Dalparan
Cinematography by Young-Ho Kim
Edited by Min-Kyung Shin
Production Design by Hyun-chul Jeong
Starring:
Min-ki Lee as Han Gi-soo
Ye-won Kang as Ah-rom
In-kwon Kim as Kim Myeong-sik
Chang-Seok Ko as Detective Seo
Jin-mo Ju as Team Leader Kim
Byeong-cheol Kim as Detective Park
Kim Eun-ok as Miss Lee
Je-mun Yun as Jeong In-hyeok
Seung-mok Yoo as Lee Do-hyeong
Dong-seok Ma as Kim Joo-cheol
Jae-ho Song as Kwak Han-soo
Gook-hwan Jeon as Aikawa Masaiki
Jeong-se Oh as Park Dal-young
A former motorcycle gang member, Gi-Soo, makes a living as a bike messenger. One day he witnesses the building blow up. Never suspecting he could have anything to do with the bomb, he moves onto his next job―which is escorting a girl group singer, Ah-rom, an ex-girlfriend from his biker days.
From JK Films, makers of popcorn action films such as “Tidal Wave” and “Sector 7” are back again with the 2011 South Korean action comedy titled “Quick”.
Directed by Beom-gu Cho (“Bar Legend”) and written by Soo-jin Park, the film would star actor Min-ki Lee (“Romantic Island”, “Oishii Man”), actress Ye-won Kang (“Tidal Wave”, “Hello Ghost”) and actor In-kwon Kim (“Tidal Wave”, “My Wife is a Gangster 2”).
The film did well in South Korea and now will be released in the U.S. via Blu-ray and DVD courtesy of Shout! Factory and CJ Entertainment in Sept. 2012.
The film begins in 2004 and a gang of young bikers are causing havoc in the streets of Seoul. Led by Han Gi-Soo (portrayed by Min-ki Lee), he is trying to avoid his ex-girlfriend Chun-shim (portrayed by Ye-won Kang). Meanwhile, biker Kim Myeong-sik (portrayed by In-kwon Kim) is a biker who has always loved Chun-shim but is never recognized by her.
As Han Gi-Su is trying to avoid Chun-Shim by speeding, it leads to multiple, major accidents. Chun Shim is nearly killed, while Han Gi-Soo, the daredevil on a bike, manages to time a perfect jump over an exploded tanker.
Fast forward to 2010, now older, Han Gi-soo is working as a messenger. We see him speeding on his bike, trying to make a delivery, meanwhile we see Kim Myeong-sik now a police officer issuing a ticket to a young woman.
As he delivers a package to an office, while leaving, an explosion takes place and the people he delivered the package to, have been killed.
While he is held at police for questioning, because he was at the scene, he is released by police and is given another assignment to pickup a package.
As he goes to pickup a package inside a building, a mysterious person goes through his motorcycle and plants a bomb, three packages with detonation devices and his helmet is replaced with a bomb by an unknown person.
As Han Gi-soo comes out, he finds out that the package he is to deliver is one of the members of the female idol group OK Girls and he has to deliver the member Ah-rom to a televised stadium concert. But to his shock, Ah-rom is actually his ex-girlfriend Chun-shim.
As they prepare to leave, Chun-shim puts on his helmet and Han Gi-soo receives a mysterious call. That his helmet has a bomb on it and if doesn’t deliver three packages, each delivery must be made within 30 minutes and if not, the bomb will be detonated and he and Chun-shim will be killed. And to make things worse, the helmet has perfect video and audio that relays back to the mysterious bomber.
Thinking that it’s a prank call at first, the mysterious person tells him that his helmet is on top of a car near him and it will be detonated. And sure enough, the mysterious person blows the bomb up, sending several cars flying a destroying many vehicles in the process.
With both knowing that there lives are in jeopardy, they know they have no choice but to deliver the packages and follow the rules.
And as more explosions take place, the two are wanted by authorities. Detective Seo (portrayed by Chang-seok Ko) and NPCC team leader Kim (Jin-mo Ju) along with officer Myeong-sik Kim work together to stop the bomber, who they think is Han Gi-soo.
Will Han Gi-soo and Chun-shim be able to prove their innocence but also making sure they meet the goals of the mysterious bomber? Or else, they will be killed.
VIDEO:
“Quick” is presented in 1080p High Definition (Anamorphic Widescreen). If there is one thing I an say about “Quick” is that the film looks beautiful, stylish and slick! Featuring warm to cool colors, there is a good amount of tweaking to the overall video to showcase colors. Where skintones look very sharp, black levels are nice and deep and for the most part, everything looks very cool on HD. During explosions and other scenes where there are bright orange or yellows, I didn’t notice any banding or problematic video issues.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“Quick” is presented in Korean DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Korean Dolby Digital 5.1 and English Dolby Digital 5.1. For my viewing, I watched the film with its original Korean lossless track (I can’t comment on the English dub, but for those who enjoy English dub on Asian live-action films, the option is available).
As one can expect from an action film, especially one with a lot of explosions and chaos on the streets, the film does a great job of utilizing the surround channels. From the motorcycle revving to countless number of explosions to mangled metal as cars crashed into cars, the lossless soundtrack is immersive. Would have been nice to have some directional use of the surround channels and a bit more LFE but for the most part, the lossless soundtrack was very good.
Subtitles are in English.
SPECIAL FEATURES
“Quick” comes with the following special features:
- Trailer – (2:25) Theatrical trailer for “Quick”.
- Action– (17:00) A featurette regarding the hardcore stunts for this film.
- CGI – (24:42) A featurette on how CGI was utilized in the film.
- Making of the Movie Poster – (1:01:25) More like a making of the film with cool behind-the-scene footage and interviews with the cast and crew.
Beaom-gu Cho’s “Quick” is like a frenetic Luc Besson-style film, with Michael Bay explosions and throw in a motorcycle version of the 1994 film “Speed”, mishmashed all in one.
First, let’s talk about the film. “Quick” is a straight-up popcorn action film. Tons of action but also comedy that tries to pull you of any scene that could be emotional but making you laugh. Acting is not the film’s primary strength but what makes “Quick” so intriguing is its unusual presentation. Slick and stylish, a lot of shocking visual effects and I’m going to be truthful, I thought at first, the film was overdone with visual effects. There were so many death-defying moments of accidents galore and just too many chaotic moments that I thought that this film utilized a lot of CG work.
That was until I watched the special features and the ending credits.   I was shocked because a lot of the dangerous scenes were done with good ol’ fashioned stuntwork. But back then where people risked their lives (and I think back on the Jackie Chan and older Hong Kong films I watched during the ’80s and ’90s), a lot of people risked their lives to achieve certain shots. This was the case with this film. Stundrivers crashing, people on their motorcycles getting flipped over and landing on the pavement. Stuntdrivers to stunt men and women getting injured to the point that they were hospitalized or just messed up!
And to add to this, even the three major talent were involved in the action and were roughed-up and earned some battle scars through this film.
Suffice to say, in this day and age where there are fears about insuring talent (on the American side of things) and keeping the risks low but yet seeing unfortunate injuries in Asia, that this high level of dangerous work is still being done. One of the most shocking accidents was in 2010 when popular Chinese pop star Selina (of the pop group S.H.E.) and actor Yu Haoming were caught in an explosion and receiving third-degree burns throughout their body.
And that is where the special features, watching the motorcycle stunt director talking about how important it is to have great planning for these risky stunts and that people are going to get injured. But no doubt seeing the injuries that some had while making this film, and even with actress Ye-won Kang even saying that their risked their lives to make this film and her hoping that audiences will enjoy it.
So, part of me had this reaction of wow…how far would Beom-gu Cho go in making an action film and how much risk is he willing to put his actors and crew through for the sake of action-cinema? But, this is a common thing you see in films not just in Korea but also Hong Kong and Thailand. Different culture and approach when it comes to stunt people and the risks that are expected from talent.
With that being said, I respect the art of stuntwork, I have watched and reviewed Asian Cinema for several decades now to know that culturally, things work differently in other countries and risk in action films are part of the process and sometimes things can end in tragedy.
But with concerns aside, as far as the film goes, those who love the Michael Bay mass explosions and car flips, will love “Quick”. The film also has that Korean style of humor where things that could seem emotional or frantic, somehow a joke is thrown in when you least expect it. It’s a style that JK films tend to have, may it be on “Tidal Wave” or “Sector 7”, always during scenes that make you say, “WTF!”, somehow you find yourself chuckling due to cheesy dialogued or forced laughing to out and even out-of-place humor.
But I’m used to that humor within Asian cinema and seeing these type of comedy or action/comedy films, may it be from Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Philippines, etc. Westerners may scratch their head and wondering why certain scenes are a bit odd and humorous than emotionally heavy.
It’s important to note that while the film is not rated, there is mature language. So, definitely not a film to watch with your kids, if you don’t want them reading or hearing the F or S word often.
As for the Blu-ray release, the film is pretty slick in quality and overall picture quality is well-done. The colors and the use of warm and cooler colors for its presentation was eye-catching (and in my mind, I was thinking…a CJ Entertainment film and presentation like a CJ Entertainment K-Pop music video) and the Korean lossless soundtrack was immersive as well. And for those who can’t watch their film in their native foreign language and prefer an English dub, you have that option as well.
Overall, “Quick” is a popcorn action/comedy film with a slick presentation and really cool stuntwork and visual effects. It’s a film that features crazy humor at times but for those who want to see an action film and laugh at the same time, and nothing so heavy or emotional, will find “Quick” to be fun and entertaining.
