Break Out (film) explained

Break Out
Director:Jang Hang-jun
Producer:Lee Jun-taek
Baek Nam-su
Lee Gwan-su
Starring:Kim Seung-woo
Cha Seung-won
Music:Yoon Jong-shin
Cinematography:Kim Sung-bok
Editing:Ko Im-pyo
Distributor:Cinema Service
Country:South Korea
Runtime:105 minutes
Language:Korean

Break Out (; lit. "Spark the Lighter") is a 2002 South Korean film.[1]

Plot

A loser, Bong-gu (Kim Seung-woo), attends a high school reunion, where he is ridiculed for his lack of accomplishments. The next day he goes to the country for army reserve training, where he encounters further humiliation and failure. With his last few won he purchases a cheap cigarette lighter. With no other way home, he shares a taxi to Seoul train station with a fellow reservist and malcontent named Bum-soo (Kang Sung-jin).

While at the station, Bong-gu leaves his lighter in a bathroom stall, where it is purloined by a gangster, Yang Chul-gon (Cha Seung-won). Enraged beyond endurance, Bong-gu demands the lighter back, provoking a beating from the gangster's underlings. Undeterred, he follows Chul-gon onto a train. There, Chul-gon has more important business to attend to, waylaying a senator (Park Yeong-gyu) whom he had helped into office but who has since refused to reciprocate with any political favors. When the senator stubbornly refuses to concede, Chul-gon takes the entire train hostage. Meanwhile, Bong-gu will stop at nothing to recover his lighter.

Cast

Notes and References

  1. Web site: <라이터를 켜라>의 장항준 감독이 쓴 '눈물나는'제작일지(2). Cine21. Korean. 30 March 2015. 19 July 2002.