Reel Tastes & Travels – a light dose of entertainment to wake you up

‘The Wannabe Gangsters‘

If the previous episode dealt with a more intimate topic of extreme bullying, this one pivoted to a more macro issue of gang violence (broader in the sense of how it disrupts the entire school ecosystem vs. bullying where the majority of students can fly relatively under the radar at the cost of the misery of the chosen few who are targeted). 

Here we travel to Duun high, first seen through the eyes of a new transfer Bong Geun-dae. It looks less like a high school and more like a battle zone with teachers bullied into submission, classes barely allowed to happen, and regular scrimmages between rival departments. The leaders of the warring factions are more concerned with getting recruited by the local gangs than passing their classes. 

One thing I like so far is how the show looks at the issue at hand through the lens of the most affected, thereby highlighting the very real human impact of these problems. Without that, the viewer could be tempted to ask why anyone should bother if students are determined to not learn and go down a bad path. But through Geun-dae, we meet Hyeong-ju, a student who passionately wants to learn but who is denied that by the kids playacting at gang wars in the school. 

Cue Hwa-jin, who cuts a Jason Bourne-esque figure (minus the amnesia). He’s even ex-Korean Special Forces and single-handedly beats up the gangs and wrestles them back into some form of actual students. But in case you thought he’s all brawn, the episode also highlights his cunning and his inherent understanding of his opponent’s mentality. Knowing that the root cause of all the strife is another student who has already been inducted into the local gang, he purposely allows the department leaders to escape in order to lure the actual gang to the school. Once events play out as planned, he thrashes the gang, making a loud and clear statement both to the students of Duun and naysayers of the ERPB. And it is rollicking fun watching him take on the bad guys without even breaking a sweat. 

Enough of doom and gloom and gritty realism – the problems tackled thus far are bleak enough on their own. It is a joy to sit back and watch someone come in and fix these with (practically) a wave of their hand. If only things worked out so easily in real life!

Stray musings

• While I enjoyed seeing Hwa-jin triumph, I did question how permanent any changes would be after he left Duun. And as though it read my mind, the episode immediately cut away to the Minister of Education giving a press conference about initiatives to deal with gang violence in schools. Still a bit of a question mark for me on the plausibility of such measures getting passed so easily but it is a TV show after all, so I give it a pass in favor of the warm feeling a nicely wrapped up ending gives
• Now we know why Hwa-jin is so invested in this work – looks like the murdered teacher that led to the ERPB initiative was his wife 
• When Geun-dae first showed up, he looked a bit old for high school. I brushed it aside thinking it the usual case of much older actors playing high-schoolers. But plot twist.. he is actually part of Hwa-jin’s team and had only pretended to transfer to Duun to get video evidence of the happenings there!