When I saw South Korean independent comedy film “Debt” early in this morning, two audiences sitting behind me, who were incidentally the only other audiences in the screening besides me, frequently chuckled from the beginning to the end. I wish I could join in their frequent amusement, because I do not think the movie is as funny as they felt during that time. Sure, I am not a totally humorless dude at all, but, in my humble opinion, the movie is more or less than an extended one-joke comedy which keeps spinning its wheels without much development for bigger laughs.

First, we are introduced to a lad named Hong-min (Mun Yong-il) and several members of an odd survivalist group he recently joined. The opening scene shows them making bows and arrows together for hunting some wildlife animals, but, to our little amusement, they turn out to be quite ineffectual from the very beginning, and their clumsy animal trap only catches Hong’s father Dae-bok (Go Sung-wan), who happens to drop by for bringing some food for his son.

While he worries a lot about whatever will happen in his son’s life, Dae-bok has a much bigger matter to deal with. His little store, which located in some rural town, has been riddled with a serious finance problem, and he needs some cash right now for paying his rent as well as giving a monthly alimony to his divorced wife. Although his older daughter visits later, she is not particularly willing to help her father because she is busy with earning living for herself, and, just like two old busybody ladies in the neighborhood, she also does not have anything good to say to her father or her younger brother.

Actually, Dae-bok has someone who must pay him a lot as soon as possible. He is a local thug named Won-chang (Seung Hyung-bae), and it turns out that he has the cigarette debt of at least 3 million won to be paid to Dae-bok. When Won-chang’s underling drops by Dae-bok’s store for getting another carton of cigarette, Dae-bok eventually decides that enough is enough, so he refuses to hand out any cigarette to Won-chang.

Won-chang is naturally pissed off about this, but, what do you know, he turns out to be much softer and gentler than his beefy body suggests. When Won-chang’s underling complains about his impossible situation between Dae-bok and Won-chang, Won-chang immediately throws some harsh words at his underling, but he soon regrets because, well, he has the only one underling working for him at present. He comes to mull on how to apologize to his underling, and that is presented shown in black and white film just for emphasizing that imaginary aspect of this moment (This happens more than once during the rest of the film, by the way).

However, Won-chang eventually comes to clash with Dae-bok as they adamantly stick to their respective positions, and that leads to the most amusing moment in the film. As they have a big argument between them, the camera simply observes their growing conflict, and you may get a little more amused as those two old ladies phlegmatically regard Won-chang and Dae-bok’s argument from the distance.

When he comes to learn that his father was threatened by Won-chang, Hong-min naturally becomes quite furious, so he later takes an immediate action on Won-chang. However, not so surprisingly, he only comes to make a fool of himself in front of Won-chang, and that leads to another clash between his father and Won-chang.

Now this feels like a solid comic setting for more laughs to come, but the screenplay by director/writer Ko Bong-soo, who previously made several small independent films including “Humidity Alert” (2021), somehow never flies off from that. Instead, it simply goes on and on with its one-joke story premise without much development in terms of narrative momentum or characterization, and you may feel rather impatient with its thin comic plot, which is not enough even for its relatively short running time (76 minutes).

Around its last act, the movie eventually tries a bit of gravitas, but it does not work as well as intended mainly because it does not bring much depth to its main characters. While we come to like Dae-bok and Won-chang a bit more than expected, we still never get to know them that much even in the end, and that is why the sudden sentimental finale feels rather superficial to us.

At least, Ko knows one or two things about how to direct his performers, who manage to fill their respective spots fairly well on the whole. Go Sung-wan shows considerable comic potential as your average grumpy old South Korean guy, and he and Seung Hyung-bae, who is also effective in his supporting role, click well with each other during several key scenes in the film. To be frank with you, I wish the movie utilized more of these good actors’ comic talent, and the same thing can be said about Mun Yong-il, who is mostly demanded to look dim and clumsy throughout the film.

Overall, “Debt” is not totally without enjoyable elements, but it could be improved via adding more substance and personality to the story and characters. It is occasionally funny and amusing to some degree, but I still think the reactions from those two audiences behind me is more amusing, and that is all I can say for now.