Secret Zoo is a film that delivers a premise so ridiculous that the only way to salvage it is to treat it as such. The problem not only does the film play it’s subject matter straight but makes the premise less believable in the process.

In the film, Kang Tae-soo (Ahn Jae-hong) is a probationary employee of a law firm. One day, President Hwang appoints Kang as the new Director of Dongsan Park Zoo, as well as promising to make him a permanent employee if he is successful. Kang, however, faced a problem when he realised there were no animals at the zoo outside of a lonely Polar bear.

So Kang came up with the idea of putting the zoo workers in animal suits in order to fool the public that the animals they can’t afford are Soon, the zoo requested a production company to produce realistic creature suits of a polar bear, giraffe, gorilla, lion and sloth. With bad knees, bad suits, and an extremely flawed business model, Kang tries to bring a failing Zoo from the brink of death, hijinks be damned.

The problem with Secret Zoo is that the film is not anywhere near as silly as it needs to be for it to work. The running gag is people have to dress up as various animals and hope to remain undetected in the environment. However, unlike films such as Extreme Job, Secret Zoo is mostly monotone and straight forward as a comedy. This is a film that desperately needs to be full of schlock and it is not. What you get is a poorly written comedy concept with very few laughs to justify its existence. 

The special effects are not much better as a CGI polar bear looks just as cheap as the suits. A cheap lesson in corporate greed falls on deaf ears in a film like Secret Zoo that lacks a laugh and a bite. 

1/5

Don’t forget to Subscribe for Updates. Also, Follow Us at Society-Reviews, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Odysee, Twitch, & Letterboxd