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Everyone can relate to Action Boys. Action Boys is the story of a group of graduates of the grueling Seoul Action Stunt School, their reasons for attending, their reasons for dropping out of the business and their reasons for staying. It is an intimate look at the lives of three people and their peripheral friends and acquaintances, all of whom just happen to be some of the most talented stuntmen in the world who daily awe audiences with their skill and daring.

Director Jung Byung-Gil was once a dreamer and a film addict. After watching enough action movies to fill a lifetime he set out on his newest in a long line of life’s goals: to become the next great action actor/director just like Stephen Chow. He auditions for and is accepted to the Seoul Action Stunt School. There he becomes on of only 14 people to graduate from the 8th class. Unfortunately, he’s not a very good looking guy (his words, not mine) and he takes the advice of many, many of his friends and teachers and decides to direct – this documentary. What begins as a look at the fun but sometimes brutal stunt industry in Korea takes a turn in the middle focusing instead on the students Byung-Gil went to school with, their lives and their tribulations which include everything from broken bones to the inability to keep a girlfriend.

At first I was concerned that the film wandered a little too much, but I was willing to go with it. The personalities in the film are so specific and likable that you really want to learn more about them. You follow them through ups and downs, but in the end they choose their own paths.

In the Q&A director Byung-Gil was asked what prompted him to make this movie and he said that it was because in Korea the role and profession of the stuntman is not very well respected, because they bring harm to their own bodies deliberately. As a result he made this documentary in an attempt to change this mindset, which shed a lot of light on the film for me. If this was his intention, he’s succeeded admirably. The film starts out as a geeky homage to a hidden society of people, lovingly termed the League of Stuntmen, who throw themselves – literally – into harm’s way and a love letter to the art of stunts, turned very much into three human stories about life and, especially, how we measure success.

If you’re an action fan and live for the moments in movies when the cars do those huge jumps, high speed chases, backflips and the moment when someone gets thrown through a pane glass window (because that’s all they’re there for, right?) then this is your movie. It’s an excellent reminder that there are real people behind those beautiful moments in movies that make you lean forward in your seat and hoot at the screen. This is the movie that can begin to make them real for you.

This screening was presented in partnership with the Reel Asian Film Festival. They have sponsored a program at Hot Docs this year called Made in South Korea. Check out the full lineup here.