I will get the chicken puns out of the way… Extreme Job is clucking amazing. This is an egg-cellent film. You’re going to want to ‘chick’ this one out. Okay, so that last one was very poor, but you get my point. Extreme Job’s comedy is a lot funnier and well thought out of then my poor attempt at chicken based jokes. The film’s plot centers around a small team of detectives led by Chief Go (Ryu Seung-ryong) who end up starting a chicken restaurant for an undercover drug-bust operation.
However, their restaurant becomes a hit thanks to a special secret sauce recipe. And the team becomes interested in making money rather than their task of capturing a notorious drug boss. When a lawyer approaches them in regards to setting up a franchise of chicken joints, they find themselves brought back into the world of the law, when they discover that their chicken chain is distributing drugs.
Extreme Job has already become a major hit in South Korea. And, when I say major hit, I am not exaggerating (or should that be eggaggerating?!). The film has grossed ₩91.5 billion (US$81.6 million) on a production budget of ₩6.5 billion (US$5.8 million) and surpassed 10 million ticket sales in just 15 days. As of May 2019, Extreme Job is the second most viewed film in South Korean film history.
“It isn’t hard to see why audiences are flocking to see this film.”
It isn’t hard to see why audiences are flocking to see this film. From the get-go, the film is genuinely very funny as Go’s team (made up of Korean actors, Lee Hanee, Lee Dong-hwi, Jin Seon-kyu, Gong Myung) attempt to arrest a low-level criminal, only to cause a traffic pile up. To describe the joke to you is a little counterproductive. Instead, you should just seek out the film and watch it for yourself. If the film’s first 5 minutes don’t generate at least one laughing fit, then perhaps this isn’t the film for you.
The film’s director, Lee Byeong-heon has had previous success with his film Twenty, a coming-of-age film starring Kim Woo-bin, Lee Junho and Kang Ha-neural. Twenty topped the box office in its opening weekend, grossing approx. ₩8.74 billion (US$7.93 million). Lee Byeong-heon can expertly master both the comedy and action. And the action nor the comedic sequences never feel forced in any way. The film has a glossy look to it, but it is still set in a believable world, which you find yourself becoming fully immersed in.
Unfortunately, Hollywood is set to remake Extreme Job with Kevin Hart in the lead. Remakes are inevitable in this day and age, but this is one that is completely unnecessary. The South Korean Extreme Job is funnier and more exciting than any Hollywood mainstream comedy I have come across this year.
Of course, the film being remade by Hollywood proposes the same old question: Are Western audiences afraid of watching films with subtitles? Personally speaking, I don’t believe they are, and that distributors need to have more faith in viewers. One has to wonder whether some of the jokes and comedy can translate across the sea to Hollywood.
“The atmosphere in the cinema afterwards was buzzing with viewers excitedly whispering to each other what their favourite part was.
What makes Extreme Job work is the fact that it isn’t just your average run-of-the-mill American comedy. Which seems to rely on swearing and slapstick humour to get a laugh from the audience. Considering that the last mainstream studio-produced comedy I have seen in the cinema this year was the appalling Holmes and Watson, I feel that American comedy is really suffering at the moment.
Back to Extreme Job, and there’s not much more I can add without giving away the plot. I would implore you to seek this film out as soon as you can. Extreme Job is a film which is best enjoyed with a large audience. The atmosphere in the cinema afterwards was buzzing with viewers excitedly whispering to each other what their favourite part was, and saying how hard they laughed. If you have been repeatedly disappointed by lacklustre, cliched Hollywood comedies, then Extreme Job will be a breath of fresh air. Don’t be a chicken, go check it out. (Okay, I’ll stop now with the chicken puns, honestly!).
