ADV is Houston based company that is main known for putting out quality anime.  Recently they've branched out and have started to release live action films from the East.  The latest such DVD is a teen comedy from Korea, Conduct Zero.

Joong-Pil is the head bully in his high school.  He comes in late, pushes the other kids around, steals their lunch money, cusses, and fails all of his classes.  His fights are the stuff of legend.  He's supposedly fought an entire Tae Kwon Do school. By himself.  While he was drunk.

But things start changing for Joong-Pil when a pretty girl, Min-Hee, catches his eye.  She's a good student who studies hard and plays classical guitar.  Joong-Pil starts to reform.  He starts taking guitar lessons and stops fighting.

But just when the bad boy is turning respectable, a new kid shows up at school.  Sang-Mahn is a tough customer who wants to rule the school in Joong-Pil's place.  But he hasn't been living off of his reputation for years, and most people think Joong-Pil's days as king are numbered.  But has Min-Hee really made him the king go soft?

I enjoyed watching this movie, and the only real problem I have with it was that the film had a hard time deciding if it wanted to be a drama or a comedy.    There were actually more dramatic moments than comedy.  While there weren't a lot of jokes, the ones that they did put in worked well and made the film amusing.(Thankfully there isn't a laugh track.)  I would have warmed up to the film a little more if they had chosen one genre or the other and stuck with it.

The movie has a great beginning, with Joon-Pil's friend telling some students about one of his fights, but the middle of the film starts to drag a little.  I also had a hard time relating to Joong-Pil and when the big battle for his title occurs at the end, I didn't really didn't care who won.  That isn't a large critique though since the movie isn't that deep to begin with.  I did think the ending worked quite well.

Audio:

I viewed this movie with the stereo Korean soundtrack and spot checked the 5.1 English audio track.  Though the English track was a little more full, and the fight scenes had more impact, I preferred the original language track.  Both tracks were clean without any distortion or hiss.

Video:

Though the case lists the video as being 4:3, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the movie is presented in widescreen and anamorphically enhanced.  The image quality was about what you would expect from a recent film.  The detail was fine and the picture clear.  A nice looking movie.

Extras:

There are a good number of extras included on this DVD.  They  include a music video, the original Korean trailer, a three minute reel of production photos, and 2 ½ minute reel of outtakes.  There is also Joong-pil's student files, which are text based files with a voice over by Joong-pil (in English) threatening the viewer for looking at his private records.  It was pretty amusing.  There is also a rather odd 21-minute reel of highlights from the movie.  If you are going to sit through 21 minutes, why not watch the whole thing?

Final Thoughts:

This is a film that has some good moments in it, but just doesn't seem to come together as a whole.  The comedy was mostly funny, and the dramatic sections were interesting, but the movie just doesn't seem to work well as either genre.  Still, it was enjoyable to watch and well worth tracking a copy down.  This would be a good rental.