I am so astounded at how underrated this film is when it honestly deserves to rack up big time on awards and is an absolute must watch. I’m not usually a big movie enjoyer and I am disappointed by most films I watch, but this film is a masterpiece and I think on par with big-name films like Parasite. I find it unfortunate that it seems to only be EXO-Ls who have watched it to support Kyungsoo with few outlying viewers. I think this film would get more accolades it deserves if there were simply more eyes seeing it than there are.

One of my biggest issues with war movies is they’re constantly used as propaganda to fulfill an agenda of favoring one side over another. Depending on the nationality of the writer, there’s often going to be a massive slant to paint one side as the hero and one side as totally evil. There’s also often little humanization for the innocent civilians and casualties. In doing so, these films desensitize the horror of war and we forget there’s a name and life and passion behind every human being who is lost to the war. This film does justice to everything that war movies so constantly mess up. It humanizes the civilians and it showcases how love and passion can transcend borders, nationality, language, political ideology, gender, and race and bring people together despite our differences. Simultaneously, it showcases how war is often fueled by ignorant leaders and racism that takes the lives of those aforementioned humans who have a name, life, and passion.

This film utilizes its contrasting tones and genres masterfully as a weapon for an ulterior motive, which is something movie critics who faulted these opposing storytelling elements seemed to not understand. I will admit the ending of this film is extremely heavy, and I really had to sit with it and think to reach acceptance. When engaging with fiction, we often jump to conclusions that upsetting events in a finale are bad writing, but that’s not always the case; not all fiction exists for escapism. This story is so heartbreaking in order to get its point across. Sometimes art makes us uncomfortable on purpose. In this case, Swing Kids’ grim ending and contrasting tragedy and comedy was meant to bring attention to a cruel reality. It does not matter how well we know someone, how happy they seem, how passionate they are about something (in this case, tap dance), how much growth they’ve made, how much we love them. War takes and it takes and it takes, and no amount of love we have for a person makes them exempt from being casualties. This film did a disquieting job of humanizing all of our main protagonists from different nationalities and walks of life and showing their love and shared passion for tap dancing, but with the chilling reminder that these jolly people who made us laugh and who we rooted for ARE the casualties we lose to war and racism in reality.

I would also like to take a moment to appreciate Kyungsoo and Jared Grimes’ incredible work in this film. From what I understand, Kyungsoo learned to tap dance for this role, and Jared Grimes learned to act for this role. You would not know that the two of them were treading such unfamiliar territory from their impeccable performances. Stellar film overall.