Movie review - The Villagers

The Villagers **1/2 (out of 5) I’ve enjoyed a slew of Ma Dong-seok’s contributions to Korean action flicks. The rotund, open-faced actor usually plays sidekicks and minor players – often adding some comic relief. Most of his 14 awards and nominations, to date, have been for supporting actor gigs. This time he’s the action star. His character, Yeok Gi-cheol, is a former MMA champion who had aged into coaching. His integrity gets him banished when he confronts the sport’s honchos about their corruption. Fortunately – or so it first seems – an admirer gets him a job in the village of the title, teaching phys ed and serving as assistant dean at a high school.

The latter title merely sticks him with the thankless task of collecting overdue tuition from the students and their families. Because he looks like an overweight, middle-aged simpleton, he gets less respect than Rodney Dangerfield. The main drama comes from the ignored efforts of a student, Yoo-jin (Kim Sae-ron) to get the school and cops to investigate the disappearance of her best friend. Despite being only 15, the missing girl had been working at a night club that catered to very adult tastes, raising many possible explanations about her fate. She was not the sort of unhappy teen who runs away that the authorities want to presume.

Since all her efforts have been rebuffed by every adult in the picture, Yoo-jin is skeptical about Gi-cheol’s attempts to help her. It becomes apparent to us long before them that there’s something big going on, with cops, politicos and school honchos in on whatever it is. His default setting is that of being baffled by how little anyone in any position of responsibility cares what happened to her – especially the cops’ reluctance to even open an investigation.

This sort of little guy(s) vs. systemic corruption are common themes in films around the world. Bollywood cranks out tons of these with high-octane, one-man army vigor. Usually, the action quotient is higher than in this one, which plays out more like a slowly unfolding procedural. Gi-cheol could and should be delivering more beat-downs than he does, spreading his frustrations to the viewers.

The conspiracy is a spider web that takes a long time to pierce. But the two stars keep it interesting, even as daylight starts peeking through the fog of criminal enterprise and cover-up later than one might like. Even so, the climax makes the journey worthwhile.

There’s a sad note in all of this. Kim Sae-ron was a charming, talented actress with a dozen awards and nominations on her resume, including one of my favorite Korean imports – The Man from Nowhere. But she committed suicide a few years after this film’s release when she was only 24. A real loss for all.

(The Villagers, in Korean with subtitles, debuts on Digital from Well Go USA on 10/7/25)