Another fun flick about Korean gangster's fictitious actions. "Jopok" is a Korean neologism, literally meaning "Organized gangster group". It used to be "Gondal" or "Hyupgaek" for self-esteem, sometimes, however, called "Ggangpae" for despisal. Jopok is now identical to Yakuza of Japan and Triad of China. They do as all other gangsters do- brawl for territory, manage some adult business, and administer all kinds of under-table money. However, other than these two different asian organized gangster group, Jopok is more loosely based on blood-tie and has more naive code of honor, at least in movies.
This movie has added one special thing to this everyday life of Jopoks - a mandatory requirement of an educational certificate. One promising head of Jopok family has succeeded in acquiring a nugget of profitable territory, but his crew members cast a jealousy on his achievement with a good excuse of his uneducatedness. His senior boss orders him to enlist in a secondary school and all hilariousness begins here.
Director did try to reveal some serious problems in education system of Korea- corrupt principal, extracting and torturing among students, sexual harassment, employment of minors in adult business, even abuse of teachers by students and their parents. Our hero just tried to stay calm to get a certificate, but he finally uses his own skills to solve these rooted problems.
The totally untolerable in this movie is that the method of solving problem is another upgraded version of the same problem. Jopok's way of life is not taught in school, but an acquired modus vivendi, extremely far from the moral code of traditional education. Taking a metaphor that Jopok boss equals teacher equals father is totally nonsense!! However, the main point of this movie is not a matter of sensibility but that of non-sense, and it is why this movie is regarded as one of most successful comedies of current trendy genre of Korean gangster.
