Young Gun in the Time

With sold-out showings and being out of the city for a key part of it, I couldn't fit in many films from this year's Terracotta Far East Film Festival, their fifth to date. With the spotlight on Indonesia still to come, I've only managed one film from the offering: 'Young Gun in the Time'.

The title makes little sense, but is to be expected coming from Korean director Oh Young-Doo, whose previous two efforts are 'The Neighbour Zombie' and 'Invasion of Alien Bikini'. With names such as these, both are films that are clearly working on low budgets and, as such, are not films I have resulted in seeing. Being the UK Premiere, this is perhaps an introductory point for Oh in the British Isles.

So, plot: Detective Young-gun (played appropriately by Hong Young-Geun) is a debt-ridden private detective being forced to market his detective agency by his creditor, Sa-Jang.  Bumbling about, he stumbles upon Song-Hyeon, an academic seeking justice over the murder of her colleague and mentor. This opens up a world of violence, mysterious characters, time travel and murder with sex toys; a far cry from his usual role of hunting missing beetles. Wondering the streets of the city in his inconspicuous outfit of hat, Hawaiian shirt and Gary Neville 'tache.

Billed as a science-fiction action comedy, despite a step up in budget from previous efforts, the money is still not enough to stretch to much science, with computer hacking of unexplained proportions. The other elements clearly deliver, with enough fighting and bouncing about to warrant the 'action' tag and consistent enough laughs for the 'comedy' tag.

Perhaps the best element on 'Young Gun...' is the editing. '24' style split screens feature throughout in the use of montage sequences, coupled with Hong's goofy character to create some, at times, slick moments, though always with an element of silliness. 

In 'Young Gun...' silliness reigns, stopped only for moments of violence, but there's nothing wrong with that, when it's done in earnest, Adam Sandler.