The Film:
Directed by Sang-Jim Kim (Money In My Account, Gangster Lessons), Attack The Gas Station is somewhat of a cult film. It is about four anarchistic youths, No Mark (Sung-Jae Lee - Art Museum By The Zoo, Barking Dogs Never Bite), Mu Dae-Po (Oh-Seong Yu - I Wish For What Is Forbidden To Me, Friend), Ddan Dda Ra (Seong-Jin Kang - Silmido, Field Among The Mountains) and Paint (Ji-Tae Yu - Yasu, Sympathy For Lady Vengeance) who attack the local gas station. It's no normal attack though. Because they had previously attacked the gas station a month before, the boss tells them that he no longer keeps the money on the premises for more than a few hours, and has given it to his wife to take to the bank. Due to this, the gang have a brainwave, to take the boss and his workers hostage upstairs in offices and fill peoples cars up themselves, pocketing the cash that they use to pay. Things take a slight turn though when another gang of four youths show up to steal one of the employees money because it is payday. Instead, the four anarchists decide to beat them up and take them hostage aswell, but one gets away. Soon enough, the lad who ran away gets the rest of his 'boys' to come and fight them. The four main characters kick the crap out of this gang aswell and also take them hostage. As the film progresses, we learn a bit of background about each of the four main characters (one was a talented artist, one a baseball player and so on) and as more varied customers come to fill the cars up, they get more and more hostages and get in more and more fights. Then begins the grand finale: a standoff between a Yakuza gang, a group of young punks and a load of motorcycling pizza delivery boys. Suddenly the police arrive leading to a dramatic, and funny ending. This film is an absolute must see. Sure the acting isn't exactly going to win any academy awards, but then again, neither is the plot. The point is, it is a fun film. A film you can watch over and over again. It wasn't made with the intention of having a massive drawn out plot so just enjoy the movie for what it is.
The DVD:
Video:
Media Blasters / Tokyo Shock have given us a non-anamorphic transfer of 1.85:1 for this film, which is unfortunate, as the film is definately worthy of being anamorphic. There is slight grain in some parts of the film, yet for a non-anamorphic picture, it is surprisingly good, which is especially surprising as the whole film takes place at night and there are very few scenes which are in daylight. The subtitles provided are great and have no mistakes.
Audio:
Although the back of the case just says in a rather simple manner Stereo, we are actually also given Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in English and Korean. Obviously, being a hater of dubs, I went for the Korean track which flowed with great ambience, good use of the surrounds, and occasional use of the sub (which could've probably been used a tad more). I don't understand why they haven't advertised the 5.1 tracks on their case though. Do they not want to make money or something?
Extras:
Making Of featurette - Running for ten minutes, this featurette is too short. It goes into sight detail about the filming process and has a few very short interviews with cast and crew members, but all in all, it could've been much more in-depth than it is.
Character Biographies - We are given biographies for the four main characters in the film. They are interesting and give us a bit more background information on them, but I would've much preferred biographies on the people who play them.
Film Festival Promo - I was hoping for some behind the scenes footage of showing the film at a film festival. Unfortunately, it is just a trailer.
Trailer - Just the original theatrical trailer.
