Armed with one of the longest titles I’ve ever seen, “Once Upon A Time In High School” is an engaging coming-of-age Korean drama. This is a rather brutal film that apparently does a really good job of showing what schools were like in 70s South Korea. At times, it reminded me more of prison films such as “Island Of Fire”.

In this film, Hyeon-su (Kwon Sang-woo “Hitman: Agent Jun”) is an avid fan of Bruce Lee (“Fist Of Fury”) when he gets transferred to a different school in Seoul. The staff routinely hit the students with batons and some of the more aggressive students like to extort and bully others. Hyeon-su meets a nice girl from a nearby school. However, she seems to be more interested in someone else.

Kwon Sang-woo is really believable as Hyeon-su. He’s awkward but in a realistic way unlike most awkward people in films. He’s very shy around girls and likes to try and keep his head down. However, the violence he faces at school eventually leads to him being inspired by Bruce Lee to train his body to meet the threat. The other characters are also quite believable. The love triangle that involves Hyeon-su, a girl and Hyeon-su’s friend is somewhat intriguing too.

This is not a martial arts film, it’s a coming-of-age drama but it does feature a fight scene near the end that might just be the most realistic fight I’ve ever seen in a film. It’s sloppy, the fighters get tired and everybody is injured by the end. The whole movie feels very realistic. It’s never goofy like “The Karate Kid” or anything like that. I must stress though that this is not a martial arts movie. Some of the marketing material and the subtitle of “The Spirit Of Jeet Kune Do” may make you think it is but this is a drama movie. I recommend having a look for this movie.