The story goes something like this-
A nerdy guy and the school bully come face to face at a high school fun social event. The nerdy guy gets booed offstage while the school bully wows the crowd and then goes onto fight a much hyped inter school gang war. After 19 years, drastic differences have occurred in both their lives. The nerdy guy has turned into a cold blooded gangster(who does mask a kind heart) while the school bully has become gasp-a teacher. They are shocked at the way life has turned out and unexpectedly they fall in love with the same woman.
To win over the lady, the two protagonists start their own covert operations. Now the rough and tough teacher has to try his best to avoid getting into his fights while the one time nerd turned gangster has to learn to be gentle in his behaviour. This is far from easy and this sets the stage for gang wars, past memories and loads of comedy.
There is another side track of a group of youngsters taught by the teacher who want to become gangsters themselves. They are really cute and run into all kinds of problems trying to achieve their twisted goals. The teacher guy identifies with their growing pains but has to provide tough love to rein them in from going to the dark side.
Kick the moon is what I would call a complete movie experience.The stars of this hit Korean film were Cha Seung-won,Lee Jong-su and Kim Yeong-jun. There is comedy, love, drama, fighting, sacrifices and emotional stuff too. The fight scenes in this involve so many people from opposing gangs that I have always wondered how the hell do you figure whom to hit when you are in the middle of such a confusing fight.
While watching the story, you can see how the director has excelled in putting all the relevant scenes and almost every scene has a humorous touch to it. The best part is that the movie teaches us some good lessons on morals and doing the right thing in life, without being too preachy about it. I thought that the actors did a fine job and made a lot of the scenes very naturally comic.
At the core of it though, this is a movie about friendships. It also shows us how a one off incident can change the course of the lives of the people who are impacted by it. You cant stop smiling when you realize how life and people having certain characteristics in their youth turn out to be so different from what you expect. Watch Kick the moon and enjoy a fun fest at the movies.
