Late 90s films like Sang-Jin Kim’s Attack the Gas Station! (1999) are proof positive that the U.S.
There is a moment early in this film when the action pauses and an unseen narrator ponders why four young men are perpetually compelled to reek havoc on a full-service gas station in metropolitan Seoul. The action quickly resumes after boredom is cited as the lone reason for these attacks, but the film spends much of its remaining runtime refuting its own claim. As the events of one particularly peculiar evening unfold, omniscient flashbacks reveal distinct motivations for each member of the gang’s disaffected behavior. Attack the Gas Station!’s opening credit sequence is high energy, but the filling station at which it concludes is notably tame. The camera, a la Pulp Fiction (1994), seems to comment on the non-action by searching for interest amongst the tedium, eventually contorting awkwardly to find the gang across the street, poised for another attack. They charge, smashing signs, harassing attendants, and breaking windows. When the leader of the group finds the cash register nearly empty, he forces the station’s owner to call his wife to bring back the day’s take. She isn’t home. Though the risks would seem to far outweigh the reward, the gang thinks nothing of holding the workers hostage until she can be contacted. They’ll just have to learn to pump gas to make everything seem kosher to the paying customers.
As a particularly inept member of the crew is selected to watch the others, one attendant is commissioned to teach the gang members how to work the pumps. Through minor mishaps the nightly happenings of the neighborhood continue. A scofflaw speeds up and down the streets. Disgruntled cops complain about the commotion as they stop for coffee. When the occasional customer catches wind of what’s up, or simply rubs the faux attendants the wrong way, they are thrown in the trunk of their car and it is parked in back. When the owner’s wife still can’t be contacted, hunger sets in and Chinese food is ordered, much to the chagrin of the delivery boy who’d hope he’d completed his final run.
Through circumstances both humorous and seemingly benign, superfluous criminal elements from throughout Seoul
As all parties prepare for a rumble royale the original gang’s members stand awestruck. Throughout the film, each has displayed behavior that alludes to the source of their dissatisfaction with society. Now, at a key moment, their leader must make a stand. Amidst the violence he questions the motivations of all, threatening an entirely plausible and complete destruction of the assembled masses.
So what does all of this mean? I suppose Attack the Gas Station! could be enjoyed for pure entertainment, and on that level it is a success. However, thinking back on it I can’t help but be reminded of another 1999 film that choose to question the logical conclusions of adopting violence as a lifestyle. David Fincher’s Fight Club has been over-bashed by too many critics and over-praised by far too many fanboys, but as a study of the appeal of violence in modern culture it remains a legitimate document.
Much of the same gen-x appeal to disenfranchised youth, particularly males, is evident here. While I don’t think that Attack the Gas Station! is as good a film as Fight Club, or Pulp Fiction for that matter, I do believe that the three films combined display some of the deeper and darker places that the mind can indulge. What Attack the Gas Station! displays is that these temptations of violent indulgence were universal in the 1990s, perhaps alluding further to claims of a “lost generation,” or at least one too busy watching MTV to notice that they were getting lost. Attack the Gas Station! is smart enough to at least ponder this sense of being lost, if only momentarily.
Language: Korean
Runtime: 113 Minutes
Available @Youtube.com
Grade: 3 Hats Off
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