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The strong points of “The Show Must Go On” are many, none stronger than Kang-Ho Song‘s (Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance/Secret Sunshine) elegant portrayal of In-Gu. The demands placed on In-Gu by his family for a normal life was paired off against In-Gu’s upbringing as a rough gangster. Even though In-Gu often did things that would make most characters seem repugnant, thanks to Kang-Ho Song’s affable performance I always felt sympathetic towards him and rooted for him to make the right choices. Rarely did this happen. In-Gu would try to gain the favor of his daughter’s teacher by giving him an expensive gift certificate to a strip club. When his daughter found out about the gift certificate, she grew to hate her father more.
As a tribute to how good Kang-Ho Song was in The Show Must Go, I don’t think there was a moment during the film where I thought of Kang-Ho Song the actor, but always saw In-Gu Kang the mobster. This impressive feat by Kang-Ho Song was more noticeable by the questionable selection of Je-Mun Yun to play his nemesis Sang-Jin. After seeing Je-Mun Yun perform similar bad guy roles in two other recent films (A Dirty Carnival & Cruel Winter Blues) I would have preferred to see a fresh new face perform the important villain role in The Show Must Go On.
The story itself was written for the most part intelligently. The script balanced well the father figure demands placed on In-Gu as well the more dramatic action scenes involving his mob activity. The more light hearted moments were well placed, especially an early scene between In-Gu and Hyun-Su reminiscing about their early days at a soon-dae restaurant. Visually the film always looked appealing even with the camera often bobbing up and down in a slightly disorientating manner. If you recall Jae-rim Han’s first film “The Rules Of Dating” he did show a similar fondness for handheld camera shots with the focus bobbing up and down. I would have preferred more stationary shots but the imagery was appealing regardless of the camera movements.
Flaws in the movie didn’t creep in until the last 1/3rd of the movie. Once the final build up started to occur there were a succession of implausible scenes or errors of logic, that detracted from the tense feeling that should have prevailed. When In-Gu and Sang-Jin walked out into the hospital parking lot this is where a few questionable decisions started to occur. The manner in which the mob of gang members were unable to pull In-Gu out of his Mercedes Benz was laughable. When In-Gu drove off with Sang-Jin through the hospital parking lot another head scratcher scene showed up. In-Gu felt the need to stop at the cross gate and pay the parking fee rather than running through the skimpy wooden cross gate. Furthermore the mobsters chasing him also felt the need to stop at the cross gate rather than driving through the cross gate. What a bunch of polite gangsters!
By this time In-Gu manages to get away and he decides to stop the car near a highway overpass. In another head scratcher moment, one of the gang members that were in pursuit of In-Gu’s car had pulled over on the highway overpass. The gangster was clairvoyant enough to walk over to the railing and see In-Gu’s car parked below. WTF??? Furthermore once the mobsters were in full pursuit of In-Gu’s car, In-Gu just didn’t have the common sense to call his boss and ask him to call the mobsters chasing him to stop their pursuit. Duh.
Anyways don’t let those few head scratcher moments scare you away from watching The Show Must Go On. The film is very a compelling gangster/family piece that is gripping from the get go. I haven’t been the biggest fan of Kang-Ho Sang in the past, but I will say that he really impressed in The Show Must Go.
The story itself keeps you engaged with its well thought out balance of tension, excitement, humor and drama. Check it out now.
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