Our take
How far are you willing to go to make an action film? Instead of the usual stunt choreography, the protagonists of action crime drama Rough Cut would rather film real on-set fist fights instead. It’s a pretty extreme request in real life, but it proves to be a chilling premise, as the production steadily blurs the lines between the film they hope to make, and the real life harm inflicted onto themselves and the rest of the set. Rough Cut isn’t an easy watch, especially as the film’s leading duo mirror each other and push each other into more horrific places, but it’s a surprising meditation over cinema’s desire to capture something real.
The story
Gang-pae is #2 gangster in his organization who longs to become an actor. Su-ta is a superstar actor who takes on the role of a gangster in an action movie called Rough Cut. When another actor leaves the set due to Su-tas violent ways, the production is on the verge of shutting down. Su-ta asks Gang-pae, whom he met by chance, to play alongside him in the movie in order to save the production.
Due to getting way into his role as a gangster, actor Jang Soo-ta ends up putting one of his stuntmen to the hospital. Meanwhile, real gangster Lee Gang-pae dreams of becoming an actor. Meeting by chance, Soo-ta enlists Gang-pae to join the production to save it, and he agrees, only if the fights are real.
In real life, the fictional production would have probably been shut down, but the side characters like the fictional director and fellow actresses are written as their most illogical selves in order to emphasize how self-destructive the leads’ desires can get.
To be honest, it’s crazy to work in these conditions. If I were any of the characters on set, I would have quit if only to avoid getting a heart attack.
The details
Who picked it
Isabella Endrinal is a curator at A Good Movie to Watch. She's now free from the corporate night shift. Previous articles have been published in outlets such as NANG Magazine. She's currently catching up on some classic films… if she isn't coping with the fact that the Haikyu anime will end soon.
