Review of Man on High Heels (2014) by David J — 21 Sep 2016

In "Man on High Heels," a homicide detective who's unrealistically skilled in hand-to-hand combat wants to quit the force to complete sex reassignment surgery and live his life as a woman. Changing his life, however, becomes much more difficult when he goes toe-to-toe with the mafia in his final assignment. You might be thinking to yourself, "How can you possibly mix transgender themes with South Korea's blood-soaked brand of neo-noir?" That's the very question that piqued my interest. I thought that writer-director Jang Jin might have written the protagonist to be transgender only as a gimmick, but I was pleasantly surprised. Jang took a sympathetic and nuanced approach to his transsexual protagonist, allowing us insight to his dysphoria. Jang also touches on several other LGBT issues - suicide, bullying, homosexuality, denial, cross-dressing, discrimination, gender roles, religion, and how coming out affects those around you.

The problem with "Man on High Heels" lies in how unbalanced it is, which was only to be expected of a revenge flick that's heavy on violence served at the hands of a brutal cop and cold-blooded gangsters and also heavy on very serious, relevant themes that pack an emotional punch. More disappointingly, Jang does very little here to subvert genre tropes. If not for it's LGBT themes, "Man on High Heels" would be indistinguishable from the increasingly long list of Asian gangster flicks. I can, however, forgive Jang for taking a bold step in the right direction. With more positive transgender representation in the media, hopefully we will also see a positive change in the world.