In my trivial opinion, there are not many things as intense, spectacular, and compelling to watch as a human mind under challenge, and little South Korean independent film “Iron Mask” is a terrific example of that. On the surface, it is basically your average sports drama, but it powerfully drives its story and characters via sheer intensity and focus, and the result is another highlight of South Korean cinema of this year.

The movie quickly and succinctly establishes its young male hero and story premise within its first few minutes. Jae-woo (Joo Jong-hyuk, who is completely different from his hilariously odious supporting turn in popular South Korean TV drama series “Extraordinary Lawyer Woo”) is a promising kendo player who will soon go through the strict and arduous process of the national team selection process to be held at some remote rural place, and the movie holds our attention further as the camera is calmly and steadily watching over him going to that place.

If you are not familiar with kendo, let me quote a bit from Wikipeida: “Kendo (剣道, Kendō, lit. ‘sword way’, ‘sword path’ or ‘way of the sword’) is a modern Japanese martial art, descended from kenjutsu (one of the old Japanese martial arts, swordsmanship), that uses bamboo swords (shinai) as well as protective armor (bōgu).” It has been taught and practiced not only in Japan but also a number of other countries including South Korea, and, as far as I can see as a non-experienced outsider, this is surely far less dangerous than practicing with swords.

Anyway, each of many other candidate players besides Jae-woo is eager to be selected as one of the top five players to be sent to the upcoming international tournament to be held in South Korea, but we gradually come to gather that there is a hidden personal motive behind Jae-woo’s quietly intense appearance. He wants to confront and then beat a certain lad who has incidentally been regarded as the unbeatable top-ranked player, and he surely impresses others around him when he later plays against this figure in question on the very first day of their selection process.

Via a series of flashback scenes, the movie slowly reveals Jae-woo’s dark past associated with his main opponent. Several years ago, there was a devastating family tragedy caused by his main opponent due to some accident, and Jae-woo’s mind is still shaking and seething with the pain and anger from that unfortunate incident. In contrast, Jae-woo’s main opponent looks quite calm, serene, and confident without having any idea on who Jae-woo actually is, and that certainly makes Jae-woo all the more furious inside his increasingly trembling state of mind.

Not so surprisingly, Jae-woo’s emotional vulnerability becomes quite evident to those supervising coaches. One of the coaches, who is incidentally one of a few substantial female characters in the story, shrewdly points that out during her personal session with him where she thoroughly analyzes his movements, and that frustrates him more because 1) he knows she is indeed right and 2) he still does not know how to deal with this personal issue of his.

While taking an expected narrative route step by step along with its very conflicted hero, the movie captivates us with several tense scenes palpitating with a lot of tension and suspense as well as some realistic details to observe. We often see how strenuously Jae-woo and other players prepare for another day of their demanding selection process. We see how much they try to push themselves harder for eventually being included in the final selection. Director/writer/co-editor Kim Seong-hwan, who made a feature film debut here after making a few short films, and his crew members including cinematographer Lee Gwang-min did a tremendous job of immersing us into the utterly competitive mood among the kendo players in the film, and you may brace yourself a lot during some of the most intense moments in the movie.

Meanwhile, the screenplay adds a surprising amount of human complexity to its seemingly simple drama. While Jae-woo’s opponent, who is played well by Moon Jin-seung, turns out to be a lot more than a mere opponent to beat, Jae-woo’s personal motive is revealed to be much more complex than it seems on the surface, and the movie also shows some care and attention to several supporting characters in the story. In case of one certain older player, he probably should have quit from the beginning considering his age, but he tries as much as possible at least before his time to leave comes later in the story.

When it eventually arrives at the expected climactic part along with its hero, the movie is surely as intense and focused as its hero becomes after going through a number of ups and downs along his bumpy emotional journey. I will not go into details here, but I can tell you instead that the climactic part of the film reminded me of what my late mentor/friend Roger Ebert wrote in his review on Ang Lee’s great martial arts film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000): “The best martial arts movies have nothing to do with fighting and everything to do with personal excellence. Their heroes transcend space, gravity, the limitations of the body and the fears of the mind.”

In conclusion, “Iron Mask” is a seemingly modest but undeniably impressive genre piece to be admired for its effective handling of story, mood, and character. To be frank with you, I felt quite electrified and stupefied when I came out of the screening room at last night, and that is surely not something which happens to me that often. In short, this is one hell of experience to remember, and you should check it out if you ever come across it.