The Aggressives (VCD) (Hong Kong Version) VCD

Such is life for the young skaters of Jeon Jae Eun's The Aggressives, about a group of youths who live to skate, and skate to live. For its first hour or so, The Aggressives seems to be little more than a series of dreamy vignettes, following Soyo as he becomes immersed in the outcast world of in-line skating. (Their biggest hassle seems to be finding a place to bed down for the night and getting chased by "The Man" away from their favorite skating hangout.) Soyo's introduction to skating is Moggy and his girlfriend Hanju (Jo Yi Jin), a filmmaker with dreams of selling her extensive collection of boyfriend Moggy's skating conquests. For Soyo, the life of a skater is more than a mild diversion - it is an escape from his crumbling world.

It is in the film's second half, when a stint as a movie stuntman by Moggy gets the entire group into hot water, that The Aggressives, as well as the characters, are forced out of their carefree existence. And in the case of the movie, it returns to a more traditional narrative. Written and directed by Jeon Jae Eun (Take Care of My Cat), The Aggressives is a visually rich film that is shot at times like a documentary. There are sequences where Jeon fills the screen with drab, green colors that strikes the perfect mood, and makes you wonder what she could do if she ever wanted to tackle a thriller.

The script by Jeon takes some liberties (for instance, we never learn how Soyo can afford to keep his parent's apartment without a job, or how he stays in school), but it also turns conventions on its head. Of note is the film's stab at a love triangle, which seems to be built upon, and then headed toward, a clichéd conclusion. Not so. Like much of the The Aggressives, the love triangle takes a most unexpected turn, helped in no small part by the complex characters. There are no villains in the piece, and all three members of the would-be love triangle are fleshed out individuals, and one would be hard-pressed to root for either Soyo or Moggy to get the girl.

You can also easily understand why Hanju is in love with Moggy (she says it's because of his complete lack of ambition), and as well it's easy to see why the impressionable Soyo would fall for Hanju at first sight (she's cute as a button, after all). The fact that Jeon simply refuses to allow her characters to do anything that could be misconstrued as formulaic is a major feather in the film's cap. After seeing so many predictable movie romances (especially those in the teen genre), it's shocking to see a teen film that bucks the trend so effortlessly, convincingly, and so naturally.

Unfortunately, we don't know nearly enough about all the characters to care about of them. The most we ever learn about the other members of the skating group is that one of them tried, and humorously failed, to impress his father by showing him a skating trick. When they're not skating, the gang bunks down wherever they can, from Soyo's house to Gapba's park to everywhere in-between. The script also fails to fully integrate the Gapba character into its first half, and as a result, when the character resurfaces, the audience is liable to wonder why such an important character had stayed in the background for so long.

There's little doubt that writer/director Jeon knows all about the conventions of her film's genre, which serves to help her eschew all expected narrative plot lines. Like the free-spirited skaters, The Aggressives has an effortless ability to go with the flow, never allowing formula (or in the world of the skaters' society) to dictate its (their) progression. The characters are believable, and as a result, so are their actions.

As a pure skater movie, The Aggressives should please aficionados looking for believable action. The film seems to have a good grasp of what being a social outcast is all about. In a trick taken from Jackie Chan, the film has a 2-minute behind-the-scenes over the closing credits that shows the actors actually learning to skate for the movie. And although I'm sure there were real skaters working as stuntman in some scenes (and in fact the movie shoot sequence might just be Jeon's own inside joke), for the most part you can clearly tell that the actors do either all, or most of their own skating.

Movie Grade: 3.5 out of 5 stars

By Nix - BeyondHollywood.com