Re-Release Trailer for Comedy ‘The Foul King’ Starring Song Kang-ho
by Alex Billington
March 15, 2024
Source: YouTube
“You think this is a joke?” Blue Finch Films in the UK has debuted a new trailer for a proper re-release of a long lost sports comedy from Korea titled The Foul King. It originally opened in Korea in 2000 but never landed in the US. It also played at TIFF and the 2001 Berlin Film Festival but it was never released in the US and has never arrived in the west (though you can obviously import DVD copies of it). Beloved Korean actor Song Kang-ho stars as Dae-ho, a timid bank clerk who is going nowhere in his everyday life. After meeting a famous former pro wrestler, Dae-ho transforms himself into a Korean wrestling villain. From acclaimed writer / director Kim Jee-woon (of I Saw the Devil, A Tale of Two Sisters, and last year’s Cobweb as well). Although he’s not talented enough to ever become a top wrestler, Dae-Ho trains diligently at night… and he is turned into the villain known as “The Foul King”. The rest is history! The cast includes Jang Jin-Young, Park Sang-Myeon, Jang Hang-Seon, Jung Woong-In, and Kim Soo-Ro. Yeah this looks straight out of the 90s (2000 is close enough), but after the success of The Iron Claw it might just find an audience now.
Here’s the new UK trailer (+ Korean posters) for Kim Jee-woon’s The Foul King, direct from YouTube:
Im Dae-Ho (Song Kang-ho) is an unproductive bank clerk who’s late to work every morning & the object of his manager’s frustrations. He was a fan of TV wrestling as a child, but can’t even get out of a headlock. He finds a local wrestling trainer and through a series of events eventually starts to train. He is slowly transformed as he begins his second job as the cheating villain wrestler known as the Foul King. He starts to stand up for himself in odd ways that are not really in his own best interest. Events get out of hand as conflicting influences come together. The Foul King, originally known as Banchikwang or 반칙왕 in Korean, is directed by acclaimed Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-woon, director of the movies A Tale of Two Sisters, A Bittersweet Life, The Good the Bad the Weird, I Saw the Devil, The Last Stand, The Age of Shadows, Illang: The Wolf Brigade, Cobweb, and the series “Dr. Brain” previously. The screenplay is written by Kim Dae-woo Kim and Kim Jee-woon. It’s produced by Lee Mi-yeon Lee and Oh Jung-Wan. The film originally opened in Korea in late 2000, playing at TIFF and the Berlin Film Festival. It has never been released in the US. Blue Finch Films will debut The Foul King in the UK on VOD starting this April. Is anyone interested?
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