Kwak Jin-seok (곽진석)

They're the silent heroes of the film industry, defying death with leaps off bridges and high-speed car chases. But as substitutes in action flicks, stuntmen are always behind the scenes.

No longer. In the recently released independent documentary film "Action Boys", stuntmen are the heroes.

"Many people think that stuntmen lead gloomy, miserable lives", said director Jeong Byeong-gil, "so I wanted to tell the world that their lives are cheerful and bright".

Jeong himself was an action substitute before he became a director in 2005.

"Action Boys" is based on "Standing on the Edge of a Knife" (2005), a 38-minute documentary Jeong made about his fellow stuntman, Tae-yong, at the Seoul Action School in Paju, Gyeonggi. The school trains action substitutes in martial arts.

Action Boys further explores the same theme. The 110-minute documentary follows the lives of five students at the Seoul Action School - Kwon Kwi-deok, 28; ...More

By Lee Hyo-won
Staff Reporter

Action movies show the human body twisting in unimaginable ways and engage the audience in the art of primal combat. Here come two films, one about the making of an unconventional action movie, and the other which documents the stuntmen who help make such films possible.

"Rough Cut": Stranger than Fiction

Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris's famous fight scene has made the 1979 film "Way of the Dragon" an action classic. Onscreen duels between top actors sell well, as demonstrated in this year's box office hits like "Public Enemy Returns" starring maverick actors Seol Kyeong-gu and Jung Jae-young. Another visible trend here is the "toughening up" of melodrama heroes. It seems to have become a rite of passage set by Jang Dong-gun, who proved he's more than just a pretty face by adopting a thug persona in "Friend". Joo Jin-mo ("A Love") and Song Seung-heon ("Fate") followed.

"Rough Cut" combines these two marking points, and features two handsome stars kicking and punching each other. So Ji-sub makes a comeback as Gang Pae (w...More

They are the stunt actors. Nobody can realize that they are action stars until they prove themselves and say it. Yet, they are bold and confident in their work. "Action Boys" is a new movie is about the stuntment who never get the spotlight and are always unnoticed.

This new film makes the effect that you can not stand up right away to leave when the ending credits are rolling.

...More