‘Swing Kids’ should be commended for its ambition, even if it doesn’t always manage to juggle all its balls as well as wants to. Is it the best film to come out of Korea this year? No, that title belongs to festival darling ‘Parasite’. But is it one of the most affecting experiences I’ve had with a film this year? Absolutely.
- Ashley Teresa
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https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-swing-kids-a-war-film-in-its-own-league
**Summary: 9/10:** A joyous, heartbreaking musical drama. Director Kang Hyeong-cheol and his extraordinary cast prove that music and dance transcend every imaginary border humans create.
Swing Kids is a 2018 South Korean musical drama directed by Kang Hyeong-cheol that does something remarkable: it makes you forget you're watching a film about one of the most brutal periods in modern history. Set during the Korean War at the Geoje POW camp in South Korea, the film follows prisoners, both North Korean and Chinese, as they form a tap dancing troupe led by Jackson, an African American U.S. soldier who performed on Broadway before enlisting.
This is an absolutely fun film, even more so if you love dance. It's not quite a full musical since there isn't much singing, just dancing, but the music and dance permeate this film in the best possible way. The choreography is phenomenal, the energy infectious, and watching these performers, particularly Do Kyung-soo as the rebellious North Korean soldier Roh Gi-Soo, learn tap dancing is genuinely thrilling.
But beneath the exuberance, Swing Kids is about the absolute meaninglessness and waste of ideology, nationalism, and racism. The film accurately depicts the racism that prevailed in the U.S. military during the Korean War, particularly against Black soldiers like Jackson, and perhaps still exists today, expanding even to gender racism. It shows the ideological split between North and South Korea that persists seventy years later, how arbitrary lines drawn on maps become borders people die defending, how politics turns neighbors into enemies.
The genius of Kang Hyeong-cheol's direction is that he never lets the message overwhelm the narrative. The dance sequences aren't just entertainment; they're moments when ideology collapses, when a North Korean communist, a South Korean translator, a Chinese dancer, and an American soldier become simply people moving together in rhythm. The film features a diverse cast including Do Kyung-soo, Jared Grimes, Park Hye-Soo, Oh Jungse, and Kim Min-Ho, and the chemistry between them transcends the artificial divisions of the war.
At the true heart of Swing Kids is this: music and dance have no ideology, no imaginary border lines, and no wars. When these men tap, they aren't communists or capitalists, North or South, black, white or yellow. They're human beings doing what humans do best, creating beauty together, finding joy in shared rhythm, building community through art when everything else conspires to tear them apart.
The film balances humor and heartbreak with remarkable dexterity. It's funny and touching and entertaining, but it never forgets the historical reality of the time and place. The Korean War killed millions, divided a peninsula that remains split today, and created wounds that haven't healed. Swing Kids suggests that art offers what politics cannot: a glimpse of what we could be if we stopped drawing lines and started moving together.
