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 he plot of "Gas Station" is a simple one. Four robbers, whose name
escapes me, (and maybe that's because they're rarely mentioned in the movie)
have come to a gas station to rob it for the second time that day. The station's manager,
believing there is no way the robbers would come back after just having
robbed him, hides the day's take under his desk instead of sending it away to a
safe place. He's that kind of guy.
When the robbers return and demand the day's take, the
manager lies and tells them that his wife has it, and that she's on her way to put the
money away at a safe place now. (As you can see, he has no trouble putting his
wife at risk. What a swell fellow.) So the robbers order the manager
to call the wife and bring the money back, which he does, only to find that his wife is "out to get ice cream."
(Later on, the manager discovers that his wife is in fact somewhere else with a secret
lover, much to his chagrin -- but our delight.)
Forced to wait for the wife to return home and get her instructions, the robbers
must take the gas station and its employees hostage for the night. And so they
do, with hilarious results.
Yet, look through the veil of comedy and you see an underlying theme in the
movie. I saw it in another South Korean teen-oriented movie a few months back
called
"Beat". The theme
is one of mistrust of adults and the adult-run establishment.
In
"Beat" it was the schools and the criminal empire of which the two
main characters were at odds with; in "Gas Station" it is the
station's manager and the cops who come over for free gas every night. Both
movies shed light on what they perceive as false labeling: that the so-called "troublemakers" (the
robbers in "Gas Station" and gangbangers in "Beat") are
actually the trustworthy ones. They do what they say because their word is their
bond. The adults in both movies are
greedy, duplicitous, and prone to backstabbing.
So what's
the message? It's about honesty, not about who you are and what you do.
But if you're not in the mood for messages, "Gas Station" is a good
comedy with very real heart. It is engaging and endearing when we least
expect it to be, and the ending is quite inventive, if a little silly. The movie
is not to be taken seriously, and its many funny moments do come at the expense
of other characters. There is violence, the kind that is prevalent in South
Korean movies. Get ready for a large helping of physical abuse in the name of
comeuppance.
Then again, this is an update of an old review, so take it for what it's
worth.
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