Review: Korean cinema hits a new low when bathroom humor, slapstick idiocy, and a dance club invade the late Choson era as conceived by Yun Je-gyun in Romantic Killers. This appalling excuse for entertainment sells itself as a screwball comedy, historical drama, and fantasy swordplay film all-in-one. But the resulting unevenness, cheap martial arts action and tasteless jokes make the effort a waste.

The film constantly teeters between seriousness and nonsense. This added to visual gags like a bloody nose contracted by a man after witnessing several lovely ladies bathing betrays a strong anime influence. At first, four swordsmen hired to bring back a runaway concubine appear to be competent mercenaries, but soon display their true colors as buffoons. Yae-rang (Choi Sung-guk), the leader only has one fighting stance, to drop his sword, make faces at his enemy and pinch his own nimples. Yo-i (Kim Min-jong), is just as idiotic, but is given a touch of humanity as he works as a mercenary only to earn money for his kid sister. The four take the concubine and her lover into custody, but also inadvertently manage to ruin the chance for the ghosts of five murdered courtesans to ascend to heaven. The warriors agree to kill the man responsible which will set the ghosts free, but they must be taught a few tricks by the ghosts as their existing martial arts skills are nearly useless.

It's really hard to understand who the intended audience is for this film. Extremely adolescent humor is the dominant element and involves French kissing between males, cat fights and obscenities among female ghosts, nose pickings, and even a foul scene involving excrement not worthy of further explanation. The historical tone is turned into a parody where characters use modern slang and scantily-clad dancers gyrate in a 1630s discotheque complete with flashing lights and thumping music. Perhaps having an understanding of the Korean language or all of the film's references would have helped, but I didn't find any of these scenes particularly amusing apart from the odd gag here or there.

Then there is the dramatic angle involving Yo-i's tragic relationship with his little sister. It only slows the story down and doesn't fit in with the rest of the absurdity at all. There is a sense that Yun Je-gyun is trying to replicate the formula Stephen Chow has excelled at by mixing drama with comedy, but he treats both aspects as too extreme to ever find common ground.

Lastly, there are the fantasy and martial arts elements which are obviously derived from Hong Kong's '90s wire fu boom. Choreographer Won Jin, a great martial arts performer himself who appeared prominently in Lau Kar-leung's Operation Scorpio is unable to salvage much from the limited action sequences and wirework. Many of the "fight scenes" are only played for laughs with no real action. When the fights are taken "seriously," heavy editing wirework, and excessive slow motion turns them into minor self-parodies. The female ghosts are treated as kung fu experts who possess the bodies of the four swordsman so they can fight. Of course, the baddies have a Taoist priest to counter this and we get to experience the fun of watching our heroes repeatedly go from idiots to sword masters and back again. There are a few decent action shots, but anyone looking for solid swordplay action here will be sorely disappointed.

So the question remains, who is the audience for Romantic Killers supposed to be? It's a crude comedy that makes Dumb and Dumberer look smart and a martial arts film without competent action. With unnecessary drama thrown in the middle, there is little reason for anyone to be pleased with the outcome. My advice is to skip this mess and reserve your time and money for just about any other martial arts comedy.