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Break Out (film)

2002 South Korean film directed by Jang Hang-jun

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ4959295
Source-derived summary

Break Out (Korean: 라이터를 켜라; RR: raiteoreul kyeora; lit. 'Spark the Lighter') is a 2002 South Korean action comedy film directed by Jang Hang-jun, and starring Kim Seung-woo and Cha Seung-won. The film was released on July 17, 2002.

Plot

A loser, Bong-gu (Kim Seung-woo), attends a high school reunion, where he is ridiculed for his lack of accomplishments. The next day he goes to the country for army reserve training, where he encounters further humiliation and failure. With his last few won he purchases a cheap cigarette lighter. With no other way home, he shares a taxi to Seoul train station with a fellow reservist and malcontent named Bum-soo (Kang Sung-jin).

While at the station, Bong-gu leaves his lighter in a bathroom stall, where it is purloined by a gangster, Yang Chul-gon (Cha Seung-won). Enraged beyond endurance, Bong-gu demands the lighter back, provoking a beating from the gangster's underlings. Undeterred, he follows Chul-gon onto a train.

Editorial summary

“Break Out (film)” enters the record as 2002 South Korean film directed by Jang Hang-jun. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Break, film and South can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2002—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2002-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Break, film and South.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Break Out (film)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Break, film and South provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4959295. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Break Out (film)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Break Out (film) primary sources, Break Out (film) archive and Break research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Break Out (film)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Break Out (film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.