My Boss, My Teacher (Give-Away Version) DVD Region 3

For newcomers who will find themselves lost in the first 10 minutes, you should know that Jeong Jun-ho is returning as Gye Doo-Shik, now a gangster with a high school degree. However, after being pressured to deliver a college degree by his boss, he sends his right hand man Sang-Do in instead, who plays Doo-Shik as a charming college student. Meanwhile, dumb-but-loyal lieutenant Dumb-Garl (this is only according to the subtitles, the character's actual name is Dae Ka-ri) is coming up with new ways to embarrass his boss while remaining loyal despite constant punishment from both Doo-Shik and his bossy wife for his stupidity. Perhaps inspired by the hit Japanese manga franchise Gokusen, Doo-Shik is discovered by his boss and is forced to finish the degree himself via a student teacher program at a local high school, teaching a class on none other than ethics.

On the first day of class, Doo-Shik realizes that his boss, looking to complete his own high school education, has unknowingly enrolled in the class as a student. Ordered to treat his boss the same as his fellow students, Doo-Shik now has to not only protect the boss from other bullies, but also dish out various forms of corporal punishments to his boss. As if teaching high school isn't enough, he has to worry about a deal with the Hong Kong triads being constantly disrupted by Sang-Do and Dumb-Garl due to their incompetence. To add even more to the mess, there's the tough female teacher smitten with Doo-Shik, a troubled female student that Doo-Shik befriends, and a staple in all gangster films - the rival gang. If you think reading that was exhausting, try writing about it.

My Boss My Student is essentially a 90-minute film trapped in a 120-minute one. Director Kim Dong-Won (taking over directorial and co-screenwriting duties from original director-writer Yun Je-Gyun) crams as much subplots into the film as possible. The result may be a slightly more enjoyable experience than the brutal original, but also a more unnecessarily convoluted one as well. My Boss My Student, in fact, becomes so stuffed that you may forget the existence of a plot halfway through. Fans of Jeong Jun-ho may be glad to see him dishing out the punishment this time rather than taking it, but that's what he spends the whole movie doing - being boss and teacher while punishing people left and right - rarely does the audience ever see him teach. Considering that Doo-Shik would rather get drunk with his ethics tutor than being taught by him, one might wonder why he isn't fired by the second act, let alone becoming a well-liked teacher.

Then again, forget logic and plot, My Boss My Student is out to make people laugh, and that it does every once in a while. If you are a fan of people getting punished in all kinds of humorous ways, then My Boss My Student is the ticket. It indulges in finding out new ways to beat someone up, and in true Korean comedy style - no one ever seems to need any medical attention after getting hit repeatedly. But that's ok, the film is filled with funny, if not somewhat redundant, gags. Rather than following a coherent plot, each scene simply becomes a new excuse for someone to get punished for something. While the idea that a student, an underling, and a child being the same thing (the franchise's slogan is that one must always respect his boss, father, and teacher) is an interesting concept, it's replaced by another slogan - being in Korean high schools and the mob can both suck equally.

Nevertheless, Kim and the cast do have impeccable comic timing, which must've been one of the deciding factors in its success. The Korean verbal humor may get lost in translation every once in a while' the physical humor, in most part, is the highlight of the film. Apart from a strange out-of-nowhere parody of The Classic in the beginning and a somewhat strained extended finale, Kim is not afraid to wait, pushing comedic tension far enough that each laugh comes at just the right moment. Kim may not have his pacing down right yet, as several unnecessary subplots brings the film to a halt (not to mention the two-hour mark), but he definitely has a future in comedy.

A film like My Boss My Student is essentially critic-proof - it's utterly absurd and overlong, the plot is more complicated that it needs to be, and the third act dramatic twist is as contrived as they come, but it features familiar characters in familiar situations, and it actually makes the audience laugh more often than most Korean comedies do these days. It may not become a classic like the first film, but as far as Korean comedies go, it's recommendable as a flawed, but enjoyable ride.

by Kevin Ma