KOCO
Essays Pairing South Korean Films with Stand-Up Comedians
By SolarMagnet
I have read several novels written by comedians. Often I find they
are some pretty dark people. It is difficult when you live and breathe
comedy to find laughs in common life. It is an honest profession for the
most part, one of the few. These people are beyond human to me. The
best of them have a magic amount of charisma.
One day I found them on the Comedy Channel, as it was called. It
became Comedy Central. It was unorganized and fun like MTV used to be
(believe it or not the M stands for music). They just played stand-up
comedy really. They had a few funny people doing some strange shows.
It was hard to change the channel.
Growing up I had some friends, but had a lot of trouble connecting. I
kept finding my ideas spoken by this select group. I felt less alone, even
though I still was.
Yeah, okay, wah wah. What about the Korean films? You a
commie?
I doubt this will be a very commercial product. It won’t have
sparkling vampires in love or wizards solving very simple mysteries. In
fact, it won’t be below your reading level if I can find my seraphic
thesaurus.
I am going to compare one South Korean film with one comedian.
This will (hopefully) make sense as you go.
I find it sad. You might enjoy two very different things that will
never meet. Like: White Chocolate and Break Dancing or Pinball and Snow
Ball Fights.
What I’m trying to do is to start the snow ball with a pinball in the
middle and throw it right in your face. You’re going to pick up your left
eye and thank me, possibly in Korean.
Korean films have a better chance of being something you know little
about. Comedy is big here (North America). Movies with words at the
bottom are small here (also North America). Some of the movies I will talk
about have not even made it to our commercial market.
Korean films are beautifully shot, especially the ones made after 2000.
The plots can be quite original, though I do admit that some share a specific
pattern. Often the films I’ll be speaking about defy even South Korea’s
rules.
(Beep) Turn the page.
You may notice I’m typing in bold. There is a reason besides the fact
that I’m very bold. I like reading reviews of films I have already seen.
Some people have to place a bunch of asterisks and such and say SPOILER
ALERT. I am not going to do that. If it is not bold, it is probably a spoiler.
Avoid if you want. Maybe you’ll never watch a Korean film, but you enjoy
reading the book. Maybe you don’t like surprises. Maybe I should just
begin.
If you ever get overwhelmed by my amazing writing, feel free to put
the book down (with a proper bookmark) and take in a coral sunset.
When it is dark and you have been bitten by insects, walk back in your love
shack and continue with an open mind and a Rilkean heart.
LENNY BRUCE & MY SASSY GIRL
Both are essential and influential. Consider that George Carlin went to see Lenny
Bruce and both were arrested together. Carlin refused to show his identification though
he was already 25. Lenny Bruce changed George Carlin’s comedy. He tackled more
current events. Sassy Girl is probably a strange pairing with Lenny Bruce in the beginning.
It’s not going to open anyone’s eyes any wider to the problems of the world. It instead
bred copycats all over South Korea, like some kind of romantic Pulp Fiction.
When is it influence and when is it unoriginality? When is it a tribute and when is
it saying, “I do that, and I can do it better”? Kwak Jae-yong’s Sassy Girl (or Bizarre Girl)
became the most successful comedy in Korean history in 2001. After that, films tried
desperately to ride on the same Sassy subway to money land. There was even a North
American remake, rare as that may seem.
Lenny Bruce was just desperate for money. It seems his “whatever works”
attitude gave him the circle he needed. Shocking comedy caused controversy and
controversy filled the seats. And if you watched him now, you would never say, vulgar.
Well maybe the word Cocksucker. But that’s the way it goes. Season One South Park is
pretty slow and tame now. Whatever you thought about him, at least Marilyn Manson
was pretty intellectual. A large portion of successful comedy is shock value, the other
portion, originality.
The gender roles perfectly reversed, Sassy Girl was an alarm call. A strong female
strengthened the South Korean film industry. It was an international success that was as
titanic as … Titanic. Jeon Ji-hyun became an instant star, with an attempt to typecast.
They called her the “Sassy Girl” in her future movie reviews. She’s recently even
branched out of South Korea, calling herself Gianna.
Cha Tae-Hyun didn’t think it was enough to just sit back and let Sassy Girl be the
peak of his career. He broke his own record with another comedy called Speedy Scandal.
Both actors have never let themselves be typecast. As weak and effeminate as he was in
Sassy Girl, a perfect comedic victim, he’s a playboy in Speedy Scandal. Though the film
broke Sassy Girl’s record though, it did it more with a sense of family more than shock.
Lenny Bruce died when he was 40. He died of a morphine overdose in his own
home. Previous to this he was arrested numerous times for obscenity charges that North
America would find insane in our present time. He even served prison time. He didn’t
have an act that a 1960’s family would have found proper, but he had critics and a huge
audience on his side. It was a time of protest that we barely know today.
At this time in South Korea, the country was beginning to develop from one of the
poorest of Asia’s nations to one of the wealthiest. 40 years before this Korea was making
films. And 40 years afterwards, Shiri, JSA, Friend and Sassy Girl were made. These films
would turn heads internationally and domestically would crush the international films that
usually lead the South Korean box office.
North America would buy the remake rights, but wouldn’t really understand, yet.
Something new, something different …
Once we stop seeing dollar signs all over everything, once we stop wondering how
to market what we don’t understand. Once we begin to read first instead of banning and
burning. Maybe then will the negativity against our country will decline.
Of course we may want to take our troops out of countries who don’t want us.
Stop hogging all the resources. Share, the way we tell our children. Be honest, the way
we tell our children. And well, I guess that’s just a little bit of modern Lenny Bruce.
Maybe not always funny, but probably still important.
MARGARET SMITH & MY WIFE IS A GANGSTER
How I attempt to make yet another essay
about how a stand-up comedian and a
South Korean film seem like they relate.
Emotionless and seriously funny. You can scream and yell and jump up and down
and often you will find someone who is much funnier than you. That person is standing
there, still and calm, with eyes like an animal, talking about a mammogram.
South Korean gangsters don’t use guns. This might be eerie for you in the
beginning. You’re used to guns firing all over the place. Blam! Blam! Pow! Holes in
people. Holes in the walls. Oh, give me a martial arts film any day.
You get violence in Korea. Oh believe me. You get slapped and kicked over and
over until you wish someone would shoot you. The schools. The police. The gangsters
with their hidden knives. Guns are illegal. You go to jail for a long time just for having a
gun. Some of the police only have gas guns. There will be no remake of Bowling For
Columbine in South Korea.
Imagine instead of a crazy man with a gun, a very calm woman named Mantis with
two knives that connect like scissors. All the men who work for her are scared to death.
There isn’t anything feminine about her. Her real name Eun-jin Cha (her really real name
Shin Eun-kyung). She’s pretty, she’s a woman, but anything else gets in the way of being
a gangster. Her dying sister has one wish. She just wants her sister to get married. She
treats getting marriage like buying a tampon.
After failing to find a spouse with a blind date, Eun-jin finds one by chance. The
girl that no one needs to protect, finds her in a fight with two men who insult her. She’s
beating the hell out of them in high heels when she’s misunderstood for a defenseless
woman by Kang Su-il (Park Sang-Myeon). She hits him in the head with a cinder block.
I love Margaret Smith’s comedy, but was sad to find there is really only one
release, As It Should Be in 2000, one year before My Wife is a Gangster. Writing jobs,
therapy and trying to adopt a child while also attempting to be artificially inseminated,
took her off the road. Some comedians like Brian Regan and Kathleen Madigan stay and
earn respect for perfecting the craft over decades. Margaret’s decision was worth it, she
has won six Emmys for her writing to go along side her American Comedy Award.
Finding a husband is secondary to being the top gangster, but Eun-jin still needs to
get married and then have a honeymoon. It’s all inconvenient, like paying taxes. She
looks angry, all in white, walking up the aisle. Su-il has no idea what he’s in for. No idea
who she is. He just feels lucky, even when his life is threatened attempting to see her
breasts on their honeymoon.
Margaret didn’t want a honeymoon or a husband, much like Paula Poundstone she
found her way into adopting children. In 2008 she wrote her family-finding adventure
down in a book called What Was I Thinking? How Being A Stand Up Did Nothing to
Prepare Me to Become a Single Mother. Each chapter has a sub-title as well. Each
Korean film has subtitle just in case you became confused. The Crossroad company that
released the book seems to have a Catholic/spiritual lean (there’s even an advertisement in
the back for a book about prayer) and her book fits. The letter that won a young mother
over contains the phrase “I live a God-conscience life”. There is also an uplifting note to
the tragedies and dysfunctions in Margaret’s past concerning her family. One person’s
end can be another’s beginning.
When Eun-jin’s sister comes to stay with the new couple she feels their love is going
to help her get better, but later Su-il finally admits that he doesn’t believe his marriage is
normal. The dramatic irony is finally visualizing for him. He just wants small things like
organization, politeness and possible intercourse. Eun-jin soon finds her sister wants her
to have a child as well and attempts to rape her new husband.
EDDIE MURPHY & SWIRI
When Eddie Murphy walked on stage in two shades of bright red no one noticed
the clash. They were waiting for one of the funniest people on Saturday Night (Live) to
maybe do some Buckwheat and Gumby impressions. They might have seen him on the
big screen, once or twice but what they received that night was shockingly different.
Eddie Murphey loved Richard Pryor and he was going to give everyone a night to
remember. He brought up relatable subjects from childhood. He did dead-on
impressions and he even told a children’s joke … which of course ended with an obscenity.
He was only 22, but he was a star of television, the big screen and the stage.
16 years later South Korea would make their first big budget blockbuster, with a
subject that was very familiar to the domestic audience. A North Korean spy was on the
loose and assassinating people. Imagine if we were still having a civil war. The country
was still split. Imagine our country was two countries, North and South … America … and
we were building … a special border wall to …
I guess it’s not too hard to imagine.
Though his singing career would produce the 7th worst song of all time (personally I
doubt Party All The TIme would make my worst 1000 if country music was on the chopping
block) and his acting career would dip into major lows from critics later, Eddie Murphey is
considered the 10th greatest stand-up comedian ever. Consider he stopped doing stand-up
in 1987 with the release of Raw. It was only his second filmed performance and his fourth
release of original comedy, starting in 1982.
Swiri is an homage to action films the 80’s. It had a budget of 5-8.5 million (sources
estimate, but it’s still small either way), the largest ever in South Korea. 2.2 million more
Koreans saw Swiri than saw Titanic. Impossible to remake given its domestic politics,
movie companies would soon try to invest in releasing a few Korean films. Swiri was
released by Sony as Shiri, with sub-titles and a dub, of course. Why would you ever want
to listen to the original voices of some of the greatest actors from another country?
The most success Eddie Murphey has had in recent years is with voicing a rather
funny Donkey who follows an ogre around. Though he started with a very adult career,
he has maintained a new path of family pictures. I sometimes wonder if it had to do with
his hero, Richard Pryor stating he found some of Eddie’s routine offensive, especially
dealing with AIDS. Eddie would later give to many charities, including ones for cancer and
AIDS.
It’s been at least 10 years and many films about Korea uniting. The title itself
refers to a fish who swims in both waters of the North and South. It’s been over 20 years
since Eddie Murphey has made a stand-up movie. Maybe that’s all Korea wants!
RICHARD PRYOR & MEMORIES OF MURDER
Essential and true, to the very end I am completely captured. Song Kang-ho’s eyes
stare right through you looking for the real criminal. It may be the most important ending
scene I’ve ever experienced in a film based on a true events that took place from 1986 to
1991.
Over thirty years before this, in 1963, Richard Pryor started in clubs around New
York. It would take him four years to become the comedian that he is known as today.
He’s considered by many to be the greatest comedian of all time. All he had to do was
tell the truth, no matter how obscene and private. He had a way of describing situations
of the past and present that brought everyone together. It did not matter if they were
strictly of black culture, drugs, crime or fear of the police.
Two officers come together in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province. There is a rape and
murder case. It soon becomes two. In real life there would be ten serial rapes and
murders and 300,000 officers would eventually assist. We mostly follow a local and a
detective from Seoul. Investigations and questionings could become very violent. Song
Kang-ho’s character Park Doo-man is especially aggressive, making one man dig his own
grave and another accidentally run in front of a train.
With classics like Silver Streak, Brewster’s Millions and several live comedy concert
films, Richard Pryor’s film career went on for 30 years, starting in 1967. With his success
there was many problems, including six divorces, drugs, setting himself on fire, multiple
sclerosis and domestic violence against his wives and many children.
The director, Bong Joon-ho has become better known domestically. His movie
Mother is making it into independent theatres and his movie The Host had a release in
North America, with an awful cover that gives away what should be earned by watching
the film.
Memories of Murder, his second film (or as high school graduates call it, a
Sophomore effort), won the Grand Bell Award for best film in South Korea. There, it was
the most watched film in 2003. This attention would continue in Bong Joon-ho’s career and
Song Kang-ho’s, who would star in his next film, the Host.
The roast of Richard Pryor would fall on the tail of the cancellation of his 1977
television show. Many of the roasters were stars of the show, but found the flames much
hotter when turned on them. There is a softness to Pryor too, an animal lover who was
named after an award that PETA gives out. A man who found humor even as his body
turned against him. I can understand anyone hating him just as I can understand anyone
loving him.
Song Kang-ho’s detective Park Doo-man is older at the end of Memories of Murder.
The case, just like in real life, was never solved due to possibly faulty tests and the lack of
evidence. There was also violence that they used to find out what they wanted, beating
people until they would say anything to get it to stop. They were out of their league,
small town police that needed professional help. Doo-man often speaks of his eyes and
how they know the guilty. In the end he has no one to beat, no one to question. He’s
looking out to the audience breaking the fourth wall in the most beautiful way I’ve ever
seen. His eyes are perfect. He’s saying, we’re still looking for you.
Richard Pryor died in 2005 with a smile. Maybe he knew, no matter his faults,
we’re still listening to him.
JERRY SEINFELD & GOING BY THE BOOK
Solid, unstoppable juggernauts of professionalism. What do you do when comedy
has lead you a number one show that made you millions and millions of dollars? Well,
you go back to comedy.
No one does that. Who would do that? “What have I been doing?” You can
hear the voice. Often imitated, but completely revered. He just wants you to laugh,
nothing deep and nothing vulgar.
Do-man played by Jeong Jae-yeong just wants to be the best cop he can be. He’s
been busted down for looking into a rich man’s accounts and now is a traffic cop. He
gives a traffic ticket to his new Police Chief. He can’t not do his job. Even when the Chief
explains who he is, Do-man salutes, but still gives him the ticket.
Gilbert Gottfried does an amazing impression of Seinfeld (after the show, it‘s hard
to type Jerry). The voice you know, but Gilbert actually opens his eyes. It’s startling.
What a tribute. Of course on the other had there’s an Andrew Dice Clay impression too.
Once an impression is done, the impressions of the impressions start. All that seems to
have changed in Jerry Seinfeld from the early days is a calmness. He has little to prove to
people after his sitcom went for on nine seasons and made him one of the wealthiest
comics in the world.
Banks are getting robbed over and over in Do-man’s jurisdiction. The new chief,
played by Son Byung-ho, has a strange plan. To raise confidence in his police force, he’s
going to stage a fake robbery with his officers. Do-man will be his thief. He’ll make the
worst thief ever. Do-man begs him to reconsider.
Consider the Bee. That’s what Jerry wanted us to do. Consider the life of the
insect for which we are all linked and indebted to. Consider how many bee puns there
are. His film career is small and interesting, mostly small parts or films that were
important to him. Comedian was a documentary made about himself and a younger
comedian named Orny Adams, who shared his agent. It gets into the process and work
that being a comedian is rather than the humorous end result. Many professionals share
their thoughts as Jerry attempts to go back to his roots. It’s like a mid-life crisis, except
the man keeps his dignity and respect.
Though he’ll soon have a nervous breakdown, Do-man gets right work. His role is
a secret. As a cop he can study the bank and how it works. His research is extensive.
He does everything perfectly, whether he’s a cop or thief. The roles were supposed to be
secret and random. As he’s about to be apprehended by an undercover officer when he
finally starts his robbery, he turns and shoot the cop in the head. But he actually does
nothing. All he has to do is tell people they’re dead. It’s a role-playing game. He soon
takes the whole bank.
How do you make a show out of nothing? How can you love awful people? I
wouldn’t say Seinfeld was specifically about nothing. If you catch the end of any episode
you’ll know how much you’re missing. Four nihilistic friends share their distaste for tiny
aspects of life. If that was in the T.V. guide you would probably watch something else. I
guess that’s why I don’t write for T.V. guide. I write about Do-man’s problems.
A teller isn’t playing along. At one point Do-man slaps her (or his own hand)
knocking her out, when she still won’t be quiet he does some push-ups. Soon she’s sitting
silently with a sign that says RAPED. Do-man hates what he’s doing. He was a detective.
He throws a chair breaking a window in the bank for real. Cameras are everywhere
outside. The police chief is embarrassed. The death toll is the highest for any robbery
(though fake). He’s just wants to do what he’s supposed to.
Porsches and seventeen year-olds aside, Jerry Seinfeld has an easy life now
playing himself or being part of small projects. He conquered comedy more than once.
He conquered television and jumps back in once in a while. He’s written a best-selling
book and he made some entertaining personal films. Is this the end?
Do-man is caught with one hostage. He has also found evidence in the bank that
can prove his case and make him a detective again. He’s got nowhere to go. The chief of
police has proved finally he can catch even the most vicious robber.
Given no options Do-man kills his hostage and then himself. Of course the two
only lay on the cement at night, acting dead. With his new found evidence, Do-man is
soon a detective again. If you work hard and do the best you can, you can do some
amazing thing, especially if you stay yourself.
JIM GAFFIGAN & LE GRAND CHEF
Food is the center. Food is family. Food is love. Food is brutal. Food is betrayal.
Jim Gaffigan’s comedy isn’t going to change the world. He has some interesting
observations, but mostly it’s just plain funny. He isn’t an alternative or experimental
comic. He’s as solid as charcoal.
At one point I found myself entranced as Le Grand Chef becomes a twenty side-step
into a search for the best charcoal. Usually that wouldn’t be very exciting, but it tangents
into a story of a broken family and makes the charcoal symbolic of pride and
accomplishment. You will cry along with a child over the last meal his mother left for him.
You could just talk about food all day and it wouldn’t be funny. It would just be
realistic. We all need it, so we all know it. Jim seems to find the perfect things to say
about each edible item. He knows his audience, caressing the thoughts of the majority,
but it’s still fresh as the vegetables he won’t eat.
Kim Kang-woo plays Sung-chan our main character. He searches with a friend for
the perfect cow. His competition, the perfect ham, Lim Won-hie as Bong-joo, has a
monstrous bovine and will soon be butchering it. Sung-chan’s friend is tired of the search.
They’ve seen everything and the young chef says “No” over and over.
He already has the perfect cow. He’s raised it from birth. The closest thing he has
to a sibling (including the sister he has in Le Grand Chef 2: Kimchi War) is this animal. The
importance of the contest is considered and we are subject to the saddest scene involving a
cow I have ever witnessed.
Jim won’t let you even think about not laughing. He’s created the greatest
anti-heckle ever. He heckles himself in another voice. It’s like there’s some small female
in the front row. He shares the laughs with her generously as she (he) picks him(self)
apart.
Sung-chan shares his knowledge about produce openly. He takes it seriously.
He’s not very open about his past though, until it’s standing in front of him. He was
trained as a chef along side Bong-joo and showed great potential until he poisoned a few
people with a golden blowfish. It didn’t seem possible and it seems more plausible he
was sabotaged. There is a extreme funny scene where Sung-chan serves the same
blowfish to the same judges. They really don’t want to go through that again.
When King Baby came out, I wondered, come on, how much can a man talk about
a Pop-Tart, but Jim had added a lot of non-food topics to his 20 minutes on bacon, like
bowling, escalators and camping. All the topics can easily tangent into food, but hey,
some of us need to tangent into other stuff.
I don’t know what Koreans think of the end of Le Grand Chef. I know if it was
about my country I’d think it was pure cheese (not literally). As an outsider, I loved it.
There’s a special knife, a prize for who can make the best beef soup. It’s more than a
knife though. They’re trying to prove who is the real heir to the Royal Chef of the Joseon
Dynasty. Only that chef will know how to make the soup. This is the soup will contain
the ingredients that symbolize the strengths of Korea in the face of Japan’s attempted
conquest. The soup that brought tears to royalty of Korea.
And Jim is still talking about bacon.
DOUG STANHOPE & HAPPINESS
How can something so sad make you happy and explain the emotion so well?
Doug Stanhope weakly yells at you as you applaud him at the end of his show. “You
don’t mean it. This isn’t real.” Why was he there? Sometimes there is something you
need to understand. And you’re not going to find it on your own.
Heo Jin-ho’s Happiness begins as a man named Young-su, who enjoys a heavy
night life. His girlfriend has broken up with him and he’s in debt to his few friends. He
finds out he has Cirrhosis of the liver before we even meet him. It is suggested that he go
to a country clinic called the House of Hopes. He slowly starts living a healthier life, no
instant food, no cigarettes. No alcohol.
Doug tells the audience the same things his friends have told him for years. You’re
just funnier drunk. I have to be drunk to get up here and do this. It’s like my friend who
could destroy everyone at video games, no matter the amount of marijuana. He would
do something on Tony Hawk that no one could do, just so they would finally turn it off and
play some Street Fighter.
It’s not shocking to find Doug and Bill Hicks linked on the internet. They’re
different people and different acts, but you think of the other when you hear their words
and how they say them. It’s comforting, even if the majority of the world may have an
opposite reaction.
Young-su soon meets Eun-hee (the frail Lim Su-Jeong) at a country store. He buys
alcohol and tries to share it. She walks away and he throws it out. As boring as it seems.
She’s his mirror, if he wants to live a longer life. Slowly he starts to have feelings for her,
understanding, a different dependency. Female embrace, and males destroy.
Stanhope’s Unbookable label helps comics like himself. These comics have acts
that are on the edge of taste, but are still hilarious. There is even a movie being made
about the their difficulties. The senses of humor of comics is often different, and though
some try to pander, others would rather enjoy what they’re doing than make everyone
laugh. If everyone was the same, we’d be in a much better world. Doug and his friends
shine a black light on the world, showing who we really are, who he is and all the lint on
our clothing.
After getting caught eating something he shouldn’t, Young-Su catches up with
Eun-hee, struggling with a small tree she’s carrying. It’s nothing to him, but it’s like a lead
weight to her. She’s been recovering at the House of Hopes for eight years. Her lungs
are barely functional, running would kill her.
After his 7th album, Stanhope found himself signing to Roadrunner, creating
Roadrunner Comedy. It seems that helping people, helped himself. Being true helps too.
As dark and sad as things get, Doug seems to turn it around and then turn it around again
and make it worse.
Young-Su is making connections and smiling more. After witnessing a suicide,
making him very vulnerable, he develops a relationship with Eun-hee. The people at the
House of Hopes are very positive, encouraging exercise, smiling and even laughing. Then
some get test results that say they’re going to die. What is happiness? Is it the small
things we do that slowly kill us? It is the connections we make with other people? Is it a
slow long life of sacrifice for the greater good?
I see Stanhope in the character of Young-su. I see him jaded at first. The country
is slow and soft compared to the city. I think he likes making people happy, even if others
are horrified. As Eun-hee shows how bad her situation is, instead of hiding it, Young-su
gives up. Life in the country is a boring, bland endless routine. When she comes to visit,
Yeong-su goes back to the girlfriend who left him. He goes back to the lifestyle he was
accustomed to. Not wanting to die with out running, Eun-hee runs. It makes her happy
for a moment. She dies alone.
Soon Young-su returns to the House of Hopes. It’s winter and after all the
drinking, smoking and sex, he knows what Happiness was. It was everything he already
had. So much of the film is about trying. At least they tried. Doug can definitely say that
with confidence.
DAVID CROSS & SAVE THE GREEN PLANET!
Can any one person save us? How active and aggressive does one have to get
when no one is listening? How soon before everyone think you’re just a lunatic and stops
listening? How soon before you agree and give up forever?
A bee-keeper and possible mannequin maker named Lee Byeong-gu (character
actor Shin Ha-kyun) kidnaps a wealth businessman. Lee knows the man is an alien. His
research is extensive. He’s assisted by his chubby circus performing girlfriend Su-ni
(Hwang Jeong-min). She’s like a child with dolls and a love for the song “Over the
Rainbow”. There are ways to get an alien to talk and they’re both about to go to work.
David Cross’s openings can be equally interesting. Sometimes he acts like a
redneck who hates acts like his own, especially “potty mouth”. Sometimes he sings a
Vegas show tune about his act that tangents into commentary about cosmonauts. Every
act I’ve ever heard has been different, but something remains the same. David is an
satirical agent for progressive change and has been for many years.
It isn’t long before the drugs he’s taking and the torture starts to get to his
girlfriend. She leaves sadly. The love loss is no distraction. The alien has plans to
destroy our planet. Before anything, the alien’s head is shaved. That’s how he can
communicate with the others.
David Cross pops up in movies like Sarah Silverman, usually a role where he ‘s
playing a horrible person of some kind, He’s well known for Mr. Show, a sketch program
that was like no other. Each sketch connected to the next and often the whole show was
a circle. Co-hosted by Bob Odenkirk (Abe Lincoln) and co-written by Bill Odenkirk, Jay
Johnston, Brian Posehn and others with long names, it was a cult hit. That means it was
cancelled too quickly after being put on HBO too late at night. There was even a really
funny film that had so many problems even David and Bob gave up on it before it made it
to DVD. It gave me a kick in the cunt.
Lee Byeong-gu’s life is violent and tragic. His mother is in a coma and the alien
Kang Man-shik (played by zen master with a similar name Baek Yun-shik) is partly
responsible. His first girlfriend was beaten to death in workers strike. His mother killed
his father. Lee Byeong-gu’s dog eats his past test subjects. Each one he finds is not an
alien. When a suspicious detective arrives and finds nothing, on the way out he sees a
human bone with the dog. Honey, gravity and bees dispatch yet another in the way of
saving the green planet.
David will be my hero for long stretches of his act, but then as the audience laughs
less and less, he switches gears into something low-brow or silly. I think this happens with
a lot of intelligent comics. Some comedians know their audience and fully pander. Some
know their audience and semi-pander. But I feel like David doesn’t what to. He almost
yells at them and himself at the same time. What the fuck is this political stuff? I came
here to laugh! His book seemed the perfect time to throw it all out there. It’s a different
audience. I was actually a bit disappointed. Some parts were really funny, I love the
Mafia game. I just think he’s more intelligent than some of the material. I’ve been
listening a long time.
The alien tells of a cure for Lee Byeong-gu’s mother. He uses the time to break
free and finds himself going through the journals of his disturbed host. It saddens him.
As he’s about to be freed Lee Byeong-gu returns. His mother is dead and he has nothing
left. The businessman tells the story of our creation as if he were an alien. It’s unknown
if he does this from the journals or because it’s true.
Sub Pop is a well known Seattle music label. It released Nirvana’s first album as
well as Soundgarden, being an important label for the grunge genre. Then suddenly,
David Cross and a few other comedians were released on it. I thought it was really cool.
There is a saying that comedians all want to be rock stars and rock stars want to destroy
Napster. Sorry still bitter. Often comedians find themselves self-releasing their comedy
or on very tiny labels. Sub Pop, even if it has changed its principles, was a well deserved
step for a talented artist. I just hope for less Chipmunks and more satire.
It’s all a satire, the aliens, the torture, the blowing up of Earth to the saddest ending
theme ever (Lee Dong-jun is phenomenally talented). It’s about working conditions,
gangsters beating striking workers to death. It’s about our never ending violence that
will ultimately destroy us. A television, the opiate of the masses, flies out into space when
the Earth blown up. It suddenly shows scenes of Lee Byeong-gu’s youth. There is good
here. We later learn to kill. We learn that money is everything, it’s the society we vote
for every few years.
David is at a David Crossroads. I just feel it. It’s easy for him to stop. Eddie
Murphey just has to clock in. The paycheck is guaranteed no matter the script. If you’re
at a show, and David Cross starts screaming at himself again, stand up and say this please:
“No, wait, please go on. We’re listening this time. Hell, some of us might even do
something.”
If you simply get thrown out, I apologize.
LOUIS C.K. & CITY OF VIOLENCE
The only Korean film to make it into Dragon Dynasty vs. the comedian who puts his
peers in total awe. Fight!
Awe striking visuals, City of Violence is a colorful explosion of action. Bikes,
baseballs, blood and fingers flying around, with Seung-wan Ryoo it’s always something
new. Crying Fist, Arahan, No Blood, No Tears …
… Shameless, Chewed Up, Hilarious, each hour is different. Louis C.K. never
repeats a joke any more. Something after his half-hour and album release. His act was
strange and fantastic, gay dreams and peaches. He decided to pour his new pains and
thoughts all over the audience differently. It worked.
Doo-hong Jung (Tae-su) never stops working. At 25 he was the youngest martial
arts director in Korea. An international Tae-Kwan-Do master, he acts and does stunts
while directing the action. Rather than the common “bad guy” roles he often finds himself
in, he takes a lead. A hero role with his friend () they both take down countless foes with
fists and swords.
Louis C.K. is all alone. In Chewed Up he even made sure the camera never panned
the audience. Louis C.K. is an accomplished director as well as a comedic actor and comic.
What is the purpose of seeing random humans who you can barely see, laughing?
Though the idea was a tribute to old Cosby and Pryor stand up films, he definitely has his
own style when he’s in the director’s chair. Pootie Tang was even amazing on as a
handheld camera demonstration. Louis’s independent films aren’t the black and white
student films you may hate. They’re professional and funny with lots of wonderful
comedian friends in the roles like Laura Kightlinger and Craig Anton.
Tae-su had three friends going up. One is a gangster now. One is a reformed
gangster. One is a math teacher and one has just been murdered. Tae-su and
Seok-hwan (Seung-wan Ryoo again) go out to find out what has happened. They run into
crazy amounts of gangs, like baseball players, hockey players and bikers and lay waste to
them all. In the end they get one to talk.
When angry he doesn’t blow his top like Lewis Black or Bill Hicks. He’s in control.
There is a tone to Louis’s voice that cradles his act. He just worries that everything is
amazing and no one is happy. He’s possibly the only comic that has ever talked about
airplanes in a positive light.
The reflection of a sword. The overhead swirling action. Their gangster friend
Pil-ho is behind everything. He just wants their City to be a tourist attraction. He
attempts to kill every last enemy of his plan, not caring who is killed in the crossfire. As
friends they never thought they’d be much of anything, but Pil-ho is going to make the City
something special. He’s special.
In the last show I saw, Louis C.K. bought up something that startled me. He has no
problem talking about all sorts of awfulness in regards to children. His first CD has him
flipping a kid off in public. Shameless described his daughter as an awful person. All of
sudden he asks his audience. Why are children the only people we can legally hit? Hit a
man, you go to jail. Hit a child, the people who need our protection, trust us and are the
most fragile, and it’s socially accepted. That’s a superhero. He just became Pootie Tang’s
sidekick. Tippy C K Tai Tanny.
In the end Tae-su looks around. Blood and death all over. He shakes his head.
What did it help? It was true. As adults they wouldn’t amount to much. He just says,
“Fuck.”
ZACH GALIFIANAKIS & JEON WOOCHI: THE TAOIST WIZARD
There is this point where you know you’re safe with some entertainment. Not to
say what you’re seeing is tame, maybe the opposite. Maybe it involves the Joker and a
pencil. This is going to be good.
Zach Galifianakis is strange. His last name would implode a spelling bee. He
often dresses as ridiculous as possible. Like Demetri Martin, or even Steve Martin, he uses
music to add a layer to his odd jokes. He’s odd. All that facial hair. Did a homeless man
walk on stage? A sea captain?
Woochi stars Dong-won Kang the lead of Duelist and Maundy Thursday and the
recent Secret Reunion. He’s about to turn 30 as I write this in early 2011. He’s tall and
instantly charismatic. A trickster. Woochi wants a bronze knife and a special mirror.
His mentor just wants Woochi to listen and learn. Yun-shik Baek almost always plays
some kind of zen master.
Zach plays the opposite, recently drinking coffee made from some relative’s ashes.
Then to calm himself he drinks it again. He’s not a King or Queen of comedy. He was a
comedian of comedy. I think of the name like a big blue 8-bit key. If you’re holding the
key and thinking, comedians of comedy, that’s a bit vague, best to hand the key to
someone else. Zach is joined by Maria Bamford (Ditto if she was a Pokemon), Oswald (a
rat if he was more animated) and Brian Posehn (a giant professional nerd).
Woochi has a group too. He’s got dog who is often in human form, who can turn
into a horse (got that?). Chorangyi is played by the unforgettably-faced Hae-jin Yu. He
was also in the director’s film Tazza: the High Rollers where he did not play a shape shifter.
The love interest across time is Seo In-Kyeong played by Lim Su-Jeong who has a duel role.
Woochi is sent forward in time 500 years, but still find Lim Su-Jeong as a modern servant.
Often the film suggests the time is a trivial thing, a dream.
Zach is like many comedians. He’s done comedy and now he’s doing other things.
He became so popular that companies started to advertise movies he had small roles in,
acting as if his role was larger. On television he’s sometimes a crazy bum and sometimes
just wants to snuggle. He’s burning an eternal flame.
Woochi is wonderfully arrogant and early in the film I hoped that he would have
no weaknesses, defying all movie plots in history. He’s nothing without his readymade
talismans though. In a scene that reminisces the Matrix Reloaded, he uses tons of his
talismans and clones himself for a fight. One of the clones is a bit dumb, but that just
made it funnier.
Smart people seem to be the best dumb people. They understand that being dumb
isn’t funny, it’s being shockingly and creatively idiotic. There was a movement of
alternative (I refuse to use quotes or italics) comics when the word was popular. When I
was younger I considered it, unfunny comedy. Now I’ve grown and remember all those
comics as something special. The Premium Blend if they were coffee (and on a show
hosted by Janeane Garofalo). Zach and the C of C continued that movement, even though
the music died. I’m still screamoing about it.
Before I go, I must warn you, Woochi has a few goblins. First off whatever goblin
imagery you’re mentally conjuring is probably incorrect. The goblins are like teenage
mutant ninja turtle bad guys and created on software that blu-ray is not kind to, especially
in the many night scenes. You’re watching a great movie from a talented director and
writer named Dong-hun Choi. Forgive him and be thankful that Korea makes the best
animation we have on Fox, which also features some of the best dumb people ever.
JUDY TENUTA & FOXY FESTIVAL
My fetish? Accordions.
Foxy Festival (or just Festival) is Lee Hae-yeong’s second film (not including 29
years). It’s bigger, and yet lighter. In Like A Virgin, there was violent oppression to the
main lead wanting to dress like a female. Here the only walls are small town values and
a cop with penis envy. The whole film is bright and funny. It pushes and caresses at the
same time. It feels kind of nice. Yeah, nice.
Are you into Judyism? All you have to do is worship Judy Tenuta, pig. Worship
the Aphrodite of the Accordion, the Love Goddess. It’s not hard. Just do what she says.
Judy started the ego comedy that has become popular with Stephen Colbert and Sarah
Silverman. She won best female comedian at the first American Comedy Awards and she
really needs someone more worship. The petite flower has been performing since the
eighties until now so kiss her feet.
Why is a schoolgirl running so much? To sweaty up her panties for selling. Who
would buy them? Why would she sell them? Her sweet mother is in love with a
leather-clad man who wants to be whipped. Her teacher dresses secretly in lingerie.
Maybe her small town is strange, or maybe we don’t know as much as we think we do.
As her mother says near the end. “There are pervert mothers too.”
Judy was into gays and feminism when it wasn’t fashionable. Younger people
now may not know how bad it was. The closet wasn’t half full, it was full. In the eighties
women had only had the right to vote since 1920. Reproductive rights are still being
discussed to his day. In California Judy became an ordained Minister just to marry gays
and lesbertarians in 2008. California changed it’s mind in about four months.
Would you leave your sex doll for a real girl? Our schoolgirl wants to change the
mind of a young fish cake seller. She sells her panties to a man in a van full of sex toys
for two tickets to a concert. She’s trying so hard. The cop’s wife is too. He’s become
violent after not getting promoted. His aggressive love making does nothing for her. He
becomes jealous of her vibrator, daydreaming of her on a giant rocking cock. He
becomes jealous of his young partner’s larger member when he glances at it in the
restroom. He becomes drunk and tries to arrest a cross-dresser a dominatrix and her
leather pet as they all converge one night. This night’s arrest will reveal their secrets to
their unknowing spouses and family and change their life’s for the better.
I asked Judy if she knew the difference between the North and the South. She
said, “There’s a cutoff age for sleeping with your parents.” I was talking about Korea, but
that’s okay.
Foxy Festival has an interesting ending. Seems like a nod to Air Doll. Though a
Japanese movie, Bae Doo-na had the starring role as the sex doll that came to life. Here
the sex doll winks. A wink and a nod to someone else’s very interesting fetish film.
This hilarious essay was bought to you by Judyism. It molests half the children
that scientology does and doesn’t require any reading, probably. Jews, if you sound it
out, you’re almost there. Muslims, seriously, calm down.
TIM ALLEN & MR. HANDY
Gruff animalistic sounds during the ultimate film about playing hard to get.
I saw Tim Allen first as a stand-up. He started comedy a year before I was born.
It was an interesting act, very male oriented, even as young as I was, it still seemed a bit
like pandering. It worked well. He was gender honest instead of chauvinist. Soon he
had his own sitcom that mirrored his tool-obsessed act perfectly. Home Improvement was
one of the most watched television programs of it’s time.
Kang Seok-beom’s Mr. Handy (or Mr. Hong which I do not prefer) is a great
example of how to do a RomCom and still be original. Hong Du-shik (Kim Ju-seok) is the
handyman of a small town. He’s extremely serious, polite and mysteriously everywhere.
Is he a catch? Yun Hye-jin (Uhm Jung-hwa) find her way into the small town where Mr.
Hong works and lives after giving her resignation to her boss. She’s a young dentist who
has just been reprimanded for a possibly bad decision. She believe the resignation will
cast her as the victim but turns out to be a worse decision. Her resignation is accepted.
Worse yet word spread about her, and no one in the city will hire her. They’re all males
too.
Men Are Pigs came out at the beginning of 1990. At this point Tim had been a
comedian for 15 years. The act was a huge spotlight. Tim Allen’s pig noises celebrated
males. He had a love for fixing things with duct tape or exaggerating a repair like a
washer with a car’s engine. On Tool Time, his fictional show on Home Improvement, he
did this every week. He also did the same things in his house to annoy his semi-patient
wife. She was realistic but typical.
Some critiqued that Mr. Hong wasn’t attractive enough for Ms. Yun. First off, this is
ridiculous. Second, that can only make things interesting. I admit movies and shows are
riddled with uneven relationships, geek wants cheerleader or fat man with hot thin wife
sitcom. They fun begins as Ms. Yun drinks a bit much and falls asleep a few times at the
house of Mr. Hong. Everyone knows him and they all seem to be doing a community
street sweep as she tries to sneak back home. Slowly Ms. Yun begins to be less of a snob
and finds success in Mr. Hong’s attitude, but the closer they come in personality and the
more her feeling grow, changes nothing in Mr. Hong.
Where Home Improvement had a good balance, Tim’s films are hit and miss with
me. I don’t really think of him as a leading man big enough for the cinema. He’s been
nominated for 4 Razzies so I doubt I‘m alone. He’s family friendly though and that’s
where his real success lies. His breakout came when he voiced a futuristic space toy called
Buzz Lightyear. He played the perfect opposite of Tom Hank’s nostalgic toy Woody.
The trilogy is one of the highest rated of all cinema. In fact, Tim Allen is considered a
Disney Legend.
Ms. Yun tries to be aggressive and Mr. Hong only seems to want to be her friend.
This continues to the very last minutes of the film. I would have been quite impressed if
she went back to Seoul crying, but there is something that finally happens between the
two. Ms. Yun gives an ultimatum, a gamble not unlike her resignation. She is leaving the
town. She has enough money and she doesn’t want Mr. Hong’s friendship if she can’t
have his love. Mr. Hong explains in the end that he is like his boat. He keeps it on a hill
instead of the water so it won’t float away like everyone in his life. He keeps a
professional distance to make the pain easier. Ms. Yun assures him, he can keep his boat
in the water now.
I find it difficult to speak about certain comedians who translated their acts
perfectly to a sitcom, without continuously mentioning the sitcom. The show was toned
down slightly for families so Grandma might be a bit shocked, but probably won’t have a
complete heart attack. If you don’t like cliches about males or the gender at all, you
probably won’t like it. He’s the hero though, to the husband who finds himself trying
hard and still failing to please.
WANDA SYKES & YOBI THE FIVE-TAILED FOX
You have to see them. One is easy to see, one is mythical and hard to find, but
they’re so cute.
Most comedians translate well to compact disc or mp3. Wanda Sykes does too, but
you really have to see her face, her actions, to get the full effect. There is often subtle
things you miss by not seeing the act.
Yobi is invisible to the human world. There is the tale of a fox with many tails who
must take the soul of a human so she can be human too. Not quite a Disney subject, but
they killed Bambi’s mom.
Wanda became very visible on the day she announced she was a lesbian. She
was an author, in movies, television and a very successful comedian, but sometimes a
cause (especially your own cause) needs more than silent hope. Later she even gave her
time to the “Knock It Off” campaign, which won the Ad Council’s Gold Bell. The ads
attempted to curb young people from using “that so gay” for meaning stupid or retarded.
That last part was just an ironic joke.
Yobi is young. She’s curious about humans. When she gets older she may be an
aggressive soul taker, but for now she wants to be more social. She decides to help some
aliens who crashed long ago in her forest. One has been taken into an classroom nearby,
so Yobi shape shifts multiple times from a mother to put into self into the school and back
into herself to be a student. It’s hilarious how she can’t be in the same place at once,
walking out and back in, out and back in.
I wonder how many people are still worried about being gay or lesbian hurting
their careers. Today it seems like it might even help. Wanda wasn’t a struggling
comedian and actress. She’s been nominated for, and won, multiple awards and was
even the featured entertainer for the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Her life is almost a circle considering her five years working for the NSA in the 80’s.
Yobi’s mother version attracts the teacher, but Yobi the girl falls in love with him.
There are fox hunters though. There is always danger. When she’s attacked, the teacher,
trying to help, falls into a lake that traps his soul. Yobi dives in to help him. He’s not
ready for her world. She’ll do anything to save him.
Like Ellen DeGeneres, Wanda never gave out a hint that she was a lesbian in her
films or her early act. Biggie Shorty only wanted Pootie Tang to sine her pitty on the
runny kine. In her early acts Wanda talked about “drink man” who won’t leave her
alone in the club. She’s married in the act. She’s relating to the straight ladies though,
talking about their boyfriends or husbands. It leads to a conclusion. Wanda was married
to a man for many years, it ended before the millennium. Playing a role to fit in was only
stalling the inevitable problems.
The young teacher is a blue bird in a cage. It is his soul. A blue soul that tells of
his love. She loves him so much that she trades her soul for his. He is innocent and must
be released. It may be a bit much for someone not into the Korean myth as the beautiful
animation takes a typical serious turn, but with a bit of sacrifice everything will be okay.
Sometimes you just have to believe that if you do the right thing, the world will too.
WOODY ALLEN & FRIEND
Woody Allen took nude pictures of his girlfriend’s step-daughter. He dated and
married her. He has kids with her. She’s South Korean so I’ll try and see the silver lining.
He should have called her Chinga. That’s a female friend in . Chingoo or Friend is
one of the top ten highest grossing films in South Korea. It is arguably the peak of
Kyung-Taek Kwak’s career as a writer director, though he’s never stopped.
Woody Allen (Woody would make me think of Toy Story, so I’ll just use the full
name) hasn’t stopped making films since 1966. Five years prior he was a stand up
comedian and I’m going to attempt to focus on that. Marc Maron’s similarities and love
(as well as film critics and actors) made me try and see things differently. Molestation
charges usually make me jump ship, but even Paula Poundstone had some aimed at her.
What really happened in the best way I can think is this. Woody Allen was with Mia
Farrow, he probably should have left earlier than the twelve years. Sometimes people
grow tired of the relationship, but also see no one else. He adopted children with her,
Soon-yi Previn wasn’t one of the mutual adoptions. They became interested in each other,
even with a 34 year age gap, and remain closer than any of Woody Allen’s relationships.
So, enough about his stand-up. Let’s talk about Friend.
Friend was the biggest film of 2001 for South Korea. It won international awards
and broke the box office record domestically. It’s just about some young kids growing up
to throw their friendships away for gang wars. Like City of Violence you find the
characters probably wondering how it all ended up so wrong. The beginnings touch on
how innocence gets shattered and interesting other curiosities involving the Olympics and
sea turtles.
So there’s this moose. The moose bit is a perfect way to start to understand why
Woody Allen is beloved. There is nothing really obscene. There is just a very common
premise that builds into a surreal scenario and then builds from there. He’s energetic.
His voice doesn’t contain the neurosis that it has now. He grabs his hair a bit, but he has
control. Each joke seems to explode in the same chaotic way. The irony of controlled
chaos, okay, I like it.
You know it’s all going to go wrong. It’s like a Korean City of God. I’ve read of
Korean viewers especially who have seen their childhoods portrayed enough to remember
their real friends. It’s the seventies.
Oh-seong Yu ...
Lee Jeong-suk (as Ohsung Yoo)
Dong-gun Jang
Dong-gun Jang
Lee Han Dong-su
Tae-hwa Seo Tae-hwa Seo ...
Sang-taek
Un-taek Jeong
Un-taek Jeong
Jeong-ho
...
...
(or try a Brand New Life)
ROSANNE BARR & MOTHER
thing.
Maybe you will think of your own. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad
What do you do when your mentally deficient son is accused of murder. I want
you to spin the gears a bit in your own Hollywood head. Think about how that movie
would play out. Mother doesn’t play.
Most people know Rosanne Barr as the star of Rosanne. She was a comedian
with an attitude that was perfect for a sitcom about struggling, poor families. Working
class, dysfunctional families. She wasn’t thin and she wasn’t quiet.
Hye-ja Kim’s Mother character is unnamed. She is to possibly represent all of
motherhood. Her son Yoon Do-joon (Won Bin) has been in trouble before. He’s old
enough to be on his own, but not mentally capable. His mother would never abandon
him, especially when picked up by the police for the murder of a girl. Do-joon’s Mother
starts an investigation of her own.
Rosanne’s comedy was kind of an anti-Tim Allen. She spoke of herself as a
domestic Goddess embracing all that is Wife and Mother. Though John Goodman was
.
DOUG BENSON & JSA
Surprisingly entertaining, my previous thoughts kept me from both. They
obliterated my expectations.
I laid down on the floor. Someone really wanted me to hear Doug Benson. All I
knew was there was weed involved (in his act). I knew he had made a documentary
called Super High Me, a parody, with a marijuana theme. This seemed like a trance song
that was going to make me leave the rave early.
Instead it was like Aphex Twin on stage. Doug has this hilarious way of being not
with it and completely there at the same time. I have seen him seemingly more sober, and
it actually hurts the act.
He stumbles into North Korean territory accidentally. Private Nam Sung-shik (Kim
Tae-woo) walks on a land mine. His fellow soldiers are all gone. Sung-shik is alone and
doomed. He’s saved by some North Koreans. It changes his life and the lives of the
North Koreans forever.
Joint Security Area starts at the end. There is an investigation of an incident that is
puzzling everyone. Why was there a shoot out at a North Korean guard post involving
the neighbor South Koreans and leaving two North Koreans dead. The DMZ is very
serious. A popular tourist attraction, but even joking could cause problems. The only
more serious place in the entire world is a North American airport.
I’m not sure if there are many domestic Korean comics in North or South Korea.
Last Comic Standing had an international search (English speaking though) and Doug
Benson came in fifth. It must be difficult when you have to change your act though. I’ve
heard Bill Hicks, and Richard Pryor contort their acts and it can be an interesting
experiment, but you feel the strain.
Imagine being a guard at the border. What if you had more in common with your
enemy than you think. How would you find out? Each soldier finds out by chance.
Bored South Korean soldiers Sergeant Lee Soo-hyeok (Lee Byung-hun) and Private Nam
Sung-shik, start getting braver and braver and begin going across the North Korean
border.
North Korean soldiers Private Jeong Woo-jin (Shim Ha-Kyun) and Sergeant Oh
Kyeong-pil (Song Kang-ho) warm up to them slowly.
What gets my attention more than being in films, is a comedian speaking about
films. When Doug Benson started talking about Kill Bill I was hooked. His 22 (didn’t
actually count, yet) mispronunciations of Chipotle and obsession with McGriddles obvious
throw him in the barrel with the other cult referencing comedians like Oswalt and Dane
Cook, but he has his own style to be sure.
He’s recently focused on film in an amazing pod cast called Doug Loves Movies.
It’s usually free, nearly an hour and contains some of the funniest comedians and actors
talking about movies and playing two movie-related games. The main one is the Leonard
Maltin game, where a year and a film category is selected. The guests are giving
Leonard’s personal rating and obscure (non-helpful) bits from his review, then they guess
the film after gambling for a number of cast list names. Leonard Maltin has seen
everything, though I’m not sure he’s seen JSA.
.
MARGARET CHO & GREEN CHAIR
Sexually explicit. Parental Guidance is advised.
JOE ROGAN & FOREVER THE MOMENT/RIZODAN
5 years old cop/karate domestic abuse/ news radio pilot, esteem, comic illustrator,
kick boxer, drug free, remixed man show, fear factor, the very definition of interesting
PHIL PALISOUL & PUBLIC ENEMY TRILOGY
One sounds like J. Johan Jameson just walked on stage to tell some non-Spiderman
jokes. The other features an ex-boxer cop who will hit you if you don’t bribe him. As
Phil Palisoul’s show ended I met him outside. I asked him if he accepted anything other
than cash for a CD. An employee at the Improv. told me that there was an ATM outside.
“So, the answer is no, I guess.”
I saw Another Public Enemy first. It’s the least liked of the three. I’m going to
make this more personal than the other essays. Bare with me. The movie is very solid, I
think that people just didn’t like the lack of connection with the second film. Maybe I was
the lucky one. You can watch Public Enemy and then the third one, Public Enemy Returns
and you’ll be just fine. Still watch them all.
Phil looks like David Cross’s father. He literally warms up to start his act. He tells
a joke and you’ll laugh no matter what because he begins stretching. It’s a rather brilliant
beginning. Phil’s there for you. You have to be there for him. Patient.
TOMMY JOHNAGIN & SPEEDY SCANDAL
He may not have broken the record for the highest grossing Korean comedy of all
time, but at least he has glasses! Think about that.
BILL COSBY & THE WAY HOME
Both deal with what it’s like to be a child, looking back. So little is obscene and so
much is entertaining. Bill Cosby was born in 1937 in Philadelphia. He’s been part of
comedy for almost fifty years, though his last comedy album was record in the early 90’s.
This year, 2011, he’ll be almost as old as Sang-woo’s Grandmother.
Sang-woo is a city kid. He’s seven. He gets dropped off with his mute
Grandmother in the country. It might as well be nowhere, to him. He’s has his electronic
games and snack foods. He’ll survive.
BRIAN POESHN & BREATHLESS
Brian Poeshn was born with a rapey face. Sang-hoon will punch you no matter
your age or gender.
Anti-hero films are usually quite interesting. You know the writer and director (all
Yang Ik-Joon who also plays Sang-hoon) aren’t aiming to please. The anti-hero is
supposed to be followed, not identified with. Slowly you do though. You see worse
people. You see the cycle of violence that consumes.
Brian is a huge nerd. He’s a giant man into D & D and sci-fi (sy-fy?), but he loves
heavy metal too. This isn’t some amazing thing. Most role-players I knew were into
heavy metal. The difference is, Rob Zombie didn’t put my friends into movies. Or kill
them.
Sang-hoon (Yang Ik-joon) collects debts. He’s been doing it a very long time.
Something has made him an angry bitter person though. He’s a golem made of
obscenities and violence. Walking down the street he spits on a schoolgirl who stands up
to him. He punches her anyway.
Poeshn is very visible. Besides being 6 foot 6.6 (the height of the beast) he’s in lots
of films and all of television. He’s voiced numerous piece of animation and makes his
way into lots of bit part. He’s only released two comedy albums, but has already
declared death to false comedy. The cover of his second CD has the mutilated corpses of
comedians such as Jeff Foxworthy, Carlos Mencia, Carrot Top and Larry the Cable Guy,
though he admitted it was just him being silly. There is no such thing as false comedy.
Sang-hoon laments his actions against Yeon-hue (Kim Kot-bi) when she works her
way into his life. He actually has a few things in common with her. Both have issues with
their fathers. Sang-hoon treats his like a punching bag where Yeon-hue might be her
adjective father’s punching bag.
There’s this funny line David Cross/Mattress
CHARLIE MURPHEY & MY BROTHER
Brian Poeshn was
BILL BURR & THE CHASER
Humorously hateful, the defender of pessimism.
STEVE MARTIN & THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT
As I child I loved Steve Martin. The man in white with an arrow through his head.
As I grew older I felt he followed the path of Eddie Murphey (they would even work
together in Bowfinger). He was this energetic, hilarious guy on television, movies and
records who as he aged became something else. He began making watered down family
entertainment. Maybe that’s what everyone does. I felt like I was audience though.
Shouldn’t he care what I want? I decided to give every comedian a real chance and read
Born Standing Up.
The Customer Is Always Right begins with an awkward scene of a chubby older
man named and a schoolgirl. The saying The Customer Is Always Right gets a lot of visual
ridicule throughout the film. I have always had a problem with it. I understand it. There
is no successful business without the customer, but a line may be crossed. Sung Ju-ru
plays Ahn Chang-jin, a barber. The schoolgirl he’s with is prostituting herself, but he’s
never going to get that far. She runs away with his money. It’s a strange beginning as
the barber believes his life is perfect. He’s a perfectionist at his trade and has a wonderful
wife, seemingly. A gangster played by Myung Gye-nam is about to change his life forever
and put the title philosophy to the test.
Steve Martin was a comedian before comedy clubs existed. He focused his lack of
commercial talents into an avant-garde act. Rick Moranis called it anti-comedy. Where I
was feeling a distance, an Steve Martin read his own exquisite words recalling his life I felt
pulled in. What am I doing? Steve took his studies of comedy an broke down what he
should and shouldn’t do. And he often did both. I started to realize that he was two
people, the man and the man on stage.
The Customer Is Always Right feels like a stage play. The shots aren’t boring,
they’re the creativity that comes from being in a box. Kang Yang-gil (Myung Gye-nam)
has come in for a shave and some money. He’s witnessed a hit and run. It was the
barber’s car. He’s not happy with just one visit either. He’s going to make many. He’s
going to take whatever he wants. Even the barber’s wife.
I’d like to take this moment to say Fuck You to Anne Heche. Okay, back to the
movie.
Ahn Chang-jin (Sung Ju-ru) owns a barbershop and sees himself as an artist in his business.
He has a beautiful wife, Yeon-ok (Seong Hyeon-a), who he seldomly gets to see, however,
as she is working as a professional "Life Planner". Actually, Yeon-ok isn't interested in her
life with her husband and cheats him on several occassions. Chang-jin hasn't any clue about
this, but he still is unhappy, even if he doesn't show it most of the time. He meets with a
prostitute, who just happens to rob him and vanishes.
Shortly thereafter gangster Kim Yang-gil (Myeong Gye-nam) appears in Ahn's shop and
says that he knows about Ahn's secret. If he doesn't want him to go to the police and tell
them that Ahn has run over a prostitute, committing a hit and run, he wants him to pay
hush money.
Seon-gyun Lee
...Lee Jang-gilGye-nam Myeong
Gye-nam Myeong
Yang-gilHyeon-a Seong
Hyeon-a Seong
...Jeon Yeon-okJi-ru Sung
Sung ...Ahn Chang-jin
...Kim
Ji-ru
(Robin William/Dana Gould/ Billy Crystal/ Lenny Clarke)
MARIA BAMFORD & FUN MOVIE
How do you get into Korean films? My knowledge of Korea itself was pretty low
when I ordered Fun Movie. I bought a multi-region DVD player and wanted to get the
most of it. I was into parody at the time. It was Korea’s first parody movie.
So basically I was laughing, but I didn’t know why. I hadn’t seen any of the films
they were sending up, but I knew those desires were forming.
A lot of times you see Maria alone, acting like lots of other people, or she’s
surrounded by guys. She’s a comedian of comedy, she’s onto her third album and she’s
got some major problems that she’ll sometimes sing about.
The first time she mentioned Unwanted Thought Syndrome, I thought it was a joke,
more of the act. I still do, even thought it isn’t. Hey Maria, lick the toilet seat. Vomit into
a cup and drink it.
It’s hard to forget the subway scene in Sassy Girl, but Fun Movie tops it. Kim
Jeong-eun is spraying her liquid vomit through her teeth into a cup while Lim Won-hie
covers his mouth about to lose it. All the success Korea had from Swiri is skewered like a
street vendor’s fish cake. The chaos is loosely based on Swiri, but Fun Movie parodies or
references ten to twenty films including the Foul King, Attack the Gas Station, Ditto,
Peppermint Candy, Friend and Nowhere To Hide. Like impressionists, parody is often not
respected. There is a line between referencing and parody you must cross. Some even
venture into satire, which makes it even harder for makers of parody.
It must be considered that Korea isn’t well known for freedom of speech, especially
in the North. The South has become more and more open though, and this movie is
symbolic of it with the North Korean dictator and South Korean President becoming friends
over a ham radio.
Maria feels like a friend during her act. She lets you into her adorable mind. She
magically becomes all that she knows and sees. Most impressionists go on to SNL or MAD
TV. I like that she only seems to appear on cult programming instead like Tim and Eric
Awesome Show or Catdog, not counting the recent Target ads. Bill Hicks is turning his
head.
I’ve heard often, while growing up, people (males) asking others to name one
funny female comedian. Just one. You’d say Garofalo back in the day. I’d say Laura
Kightlinger, Elvira Kurt, Ellen DeGeneres, Paua Poundstone, Margaret Cho, Phyllis Diller! I
won’t even use the term comedienne. If you’re funny you’re a comedian. Here is
Maria’s personal list: Amy Anderson, Rosanne Barr, Karen Bayley, Elizabeth Beckwith,
Sandra Bernhard, Bethany, Elayne Boosler, Mary Bourke, Alex Borstein, Jen Brister, Brett
Butler, Allison Castillo, Margaret Cho, Chocolate, Mo Collins, Jane Condon, Whitney
Cummings, Diane Ford, Ellen Cleghorne, Tanya Lee Davis, Ellen DeGeneres, Becky Donahue,
Susie Essman, Tina Fey, Hope Flood, Small Frie, Girl's Guitar Club, Janeane Garofolo, Adele
Givens, Judy Gold, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Griffin, Natalie Haynes, Sally Anne Heywood,
Melinda Hill, Claire Hooper, Mary Ellen Hooper, Hazel Humphreys, Victoria Jackson, Diana
Jordan, Jackie Kashian, Laura Kightlinger, Laurie Kilmartin, Tina Kim, Jen Kirkman, Elvira
Kurt, Lisa Lampanelli, Cathy Ladman, Heather Lawless, Carol Leifer, Kerri Lendo, Natasha
Leggero, Leighann Lord, Kathleen Madigan, Monique Marvez, Bonnie Mcfarlane, Mo'Nique,
Etta May, Jan McInnis, Felicia Michaels, Jodie Milks, Morgan Murphy, Rosie O'Donnell, Fiona
O’Laughlin, Becky Pedigo, Tammy Pescatelli, B-Phlat, Amy Poehler, Paula Poundstone,
Caroline Rhea, Joan Rivers, Rita Rudner, Amy Sedaris, Rhonda Shear, Sarah Silverman,
Traci Skene, Bridget Smith, Margaret Smith, Sommore, Pam Stone, Wanda Sykes, Judy
Tenuta, Jane Turner, Aisha Tyler, Thea Vidale. Betsy Wise, Casey Wilson, Jane Edith Wilson,
and Kristen Wiig
Like the secret plot of Swiri, a detective’s girlfriend is actually a North Korean spy.
This makes watching Fun Movie like a giant spoiler. It’s Like if you saw some kind of Epic
Movie or Date Movie called Ghost Movie and it had a scene where Bruce Willis was dead.
Maria uses voices of other people telling her to stop doing voices. That has to
somewhat ironic. She’s been doing voices since her age was in the single digits. As
ELVIRA KURT & WHEN I TURNED NINE
She’s femmagirly and I need to see the movie.
STEPHEN WRIGHT & I’M A CYBORG, BUT THAT’S OKAY
Sometimes I don’t connect with comedians. I like the act, but when a comedian
speaks of something as if all males do it, and I don’t, I feel outside. I guess that’s why
Stephen Wright is good for me. The bursts of surreal concepts make for a much more
enjoyable time for me. The impossibilities are more entertaining than the reminders of my
evil gender. I’m an idealist, reality comes second.
Park Chan-wook made a trilogy of vengeance movies and another violent film
about a split Korea. None were suitable for viewing for his daughter though. He wanted
to make a film for her and ended up creating something really beautiful, like Shel
Silverstein creating books for children instead of Playboy. All the creative insanity is still
there, like a box about to burst.
I’m trying desperately to speak of Stephen Wright without quoting (stealing) his
jokes. When I was young I envisioned him and Margaret as (my) parents. Always
sleepy. I wanted to know what a child from the two would be like. I guess I should have
been asking girls out instead. You probably think I’m crazy.
Cha Young-goon (Lim Su-jung) hears electronic devices. She think she’s a cyborg
(but that’s okay). She wears her Granny’s false teeth. Park Il-soon (a ninja who
assassinates ninjas) steals personality traits. Sometimes he brushes his teeth too much
and when his self-esteem lowers, he shrinks. He’s anti-social. She’s anorexic and nearly
kills herself plugging wire into her flesh to recharge.
I’d love to see a meeting in a mental hospital with Stephen Wright, Emo Philips and
Maria Bamford. Zach’s already in a film in a mental hospital and Stephen won an
academy award for killing his therapist.
Death to the white coats!
EMO PHILLIPS & MY SCARY GIRL
I’d like to talk more about I’m A Cyborg, but that’s okay, I won’t. It’s not that Emo
is crazy, it’s just it’s such a lovely film.
I decided to choose something unique with subtle violence. Something that made
me happy. My Scary Girl also fits that description.
Emo Philips, I probably first saw him in UHF. He cut off his own finger with a table
saw and sprayed blood all over Weird Al. He was just talking about how careful you
have to be. “I think it’s on the floor somewhere. Is my face red.” That’s Emo. Violence
and puns. If you have a problem with that, I’ll stuff you in a giant kimchi fridge.
My Scary
JANEANE GAROFALO & THE ROAD TAKEN
Janeane speaks with a huge vocabulary. She’s the most serious comedian you’ll
experience. She go from speaking about important social issues to apologizing for how
people may perceive her. I first saw her on Comedy Central. She was young. She was
taking about being on the phone with her parent and the parent wanting the noise in the
background to be turned down. It was R.E.M. She finds this strange an ironic, not
thinking of R.E.M. as a loud band. Later in her life she speaks of leaving another
alternative band’s show, Weezer, because it was too loud. She repeats, too loud, for
comic effect. Her life is a circular joke.
Kim Sun-myung’s life was more serious. He was a North Korean soldier,
imprisoned for 44 years.
Mr. Kim was arrested in 1951 on the front lines of the Korean War. Since he refused to
denounce his Communist beliefs, he was held until the 1990s, when he was sent back to
North Korea under a special pardon. Guest speaker Ms. Hyun-Ock Im will give a brief
introduction to the film and lead a discussion afterwards.
Hong Ki-seon 2004
BILL HICKS & A BITTERSWEET LIFE
There is no film by Kim Ji-woon that is representative of the director. They are all
beautiful and different. There is no one act that will tell you who Bill Hicks really was.
And that’s okay.
Some people just like to fight. Sun-woo, played by Lee Byung-hun, is supposed to
fight and keep order. Mostly he’s supposed to obey.
Bill Hicks fights everyone, rebels with animated conspiracy. He fights his audience.
It’s not going to be entertaining for everyone, but Bill is a cult icon. Being in a tool song
helps. Being dead helps even more. His act from the 90’s still translated into the year 2000.
Another Bush in office, another war with Iraq. It’s more amazing than Pink Floyd’s Dark
Side of the Moon and the Wizard of Oz played together.
Sun-woo comes back from the dead. He’s been buried alive just to find the
gangsters who smashed his hand and buried him are still there, waiting. In a Hollywood
movie you know everything is going to be okay. Our hero will win. This was something
else. A hands to face situation. There is an exhilarating effect when Sun-woo escapes.
Grinding one of his enemy’s faces against the wall, fighting fire sticks with fire sticks. It
was nearly impossible and yet, he drives away.
Reading Kevin Booth’s Agent of Evolution about his friend Bill Hicks is something I
recommend, but it’s going to rewrite your brain. Things you know from his act, you find
are just an illusion. It’s Bill as he wished to be. Bill was someone else on stage. He
could have a conversation and thirty minutes later it could be in his act. And he meant it.
Sun-woo and Hee-soo (Shin Min-ah) meet. This is before all of the violence. His
boss seems to prize Sun-woo over others. He wants Sun-woo to watch over Hee-soo, his
new, and very young girlfriend. It seems that something isn’t right. It doesn’t take long
for the hit man to find her in the arms of another man. He’s supposed to kill them both,
but has them both separate forever.
Though he was part of Outlaws of Comedy, Bill surpassed Sam Kennison by 666
light years. Why scream so empty? Bill wanted to fix the world while Kennison barely
understood it. Kennison screamed about starving third world people, GO TO WHERE THE
FOOD IS! Bill wanted all the money to be spent helping the people. He wanted wars to
end. He was John Lennon as a comic with major leans toward conspiracy (Waco, JFK, The
Bible).
Re-titled The Bittersweet Life, the original title is the Sweet Life, just like La Dolce
Vita. This is one of the few alternate titles that worked really well. The irony isn’t
important here. Nothing is fine. Did Sun-woo have it all? You watch him so bored,
alone in his small place. Sleeping on a couch. Playing with a light.
I’m actually at a loss. There are scene with Sun-woo where he watches Hee-soo
play the violin. He’s somewhere else. We’re not in your average movie about a hit man.
I find both Bill Hicks and A Bittersweet Life beautiful. I want to watch A Bittersweet Life
while I build a time machine and go back to see Bill Hicks. I just wasn’t old enough. I
only saw his censored televised act right before he died. Cancer put his thoughts towards
God at the end. I really can’t shake a fist considering his age (he didn‘t make it to his 33rd
birthday). I just want to go in my time machine and see him, right before he was to weak,
to watch some films. I’ll have a Blu-ray player under one arm and the Matrix trilogy in
the other. He said that no one was ever going to top Terminator 2. I’d bring Terminator 3
and 4, but he’d probably just say he was right and go to sleep.
The fighting could stop at any time. Sun-woo and his boss just won’t give up. It
doesn’t end well, revenge and hate. Some say it’s all just a dream in the movie. Bill said
it was just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no
work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes
of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes
of love, instead, see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now,
to a better ride. Take all that money that we spend on weapons and defenses each year
and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it
would many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space,
together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.
Tell me that kind of thought comes from an average comedian.
MARY MACK & TALE OF TWO SISTERS
Maria Bamford doesn’t really have a young sister does she? They seem like
sisters. Lim Su-jung and Moon Geun-young as well. There’s something I’m missing.
Seeing Tale of Two Sisters for the second time, maybe even the third, I would get
confused. There are twists. You can’t even tell people that. It fills minds with I HAVE TO
FIGURE THIS OUT. You’re going to miss the wallpaper. Oh the beauty of this film. The
two sisters together. Like Ghost World, you don’t need anything when two characters
click. I don’t want separation, development. This world is ambient. The location is
serene with it’s tree and dock by the lake, like a Midwest town.
Mary Mack is what most people would call a local comic. She’s very Northern,
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa (well, not Iowa). Her jokes are usually about her small life,
nothing worldly. Her parents. Her likes and dislikes. Her history as a band teacher.
We’re dropped right in the middle. Bae Soo-mi (Geun-young) and Bae Soo-yeon
(Su-jung) exit their Father’s car. It seems like a relaxing place, but there is something
sinister. There is nothing pleasant about their step-mother Eun-joo’s tone at her welcome.
She seems out of her mind.
My favourite thing is the illusion of bombing that Mary Mack’s first album seems to
portray. The laughs aren’t exactly explosive. She’s so confident and continues her
strangeness. Professional amateur comes to mind, but then, the songs begin.
Hey there gangster boy. She’s a little white girl with a high-pitched voice and
she’s making all gangster’s seem completely ridiculous (maybe I should have down this
about one of the 2000 South Korean gangster films). It’s the kind of misdirection Sarah
Silverman uses in her act, but her’s is appearance. Sarah was born with misdirection.
Is there a ghost in the house? Bae Soo-mi finds a bloody bag and no sister around.
She’s alone in the house. Why is the step-mother allowed to be near the children?
DANE COOK & VOLCANO HIGH
You don’t make a million friends on Myspace without making some haters and you
can’t join the toughest school in Korea without finding yourself in a fight or two.
You may have seen Volcano High on MTV (the T stands for terrible). Continuing
the wonderful traditions of North America, they edited the film and dubbed it … with
rappers. Thank you. Stand ovation. I’ve never seen it and I hope you never do, but at
least it got a double disc release. The second disc was the uncut and undubbed film.
Maybe just maybe you wanted to hear Jang Hyuk’s hilarious voice as he announces his
name and then stares at a once chaotic, but now silent, classroom of students. He plays a
new student named KIM KYUNG-SU!
Dane Cook is animated. He was the most energetic comedian I’d ever seen on a
stage. Usually the energy is neurotic pacing (Richard Lewis & Dragon Wars). Dane was
like a martial artist of comedy. In a half an hour he referenced teleportation, time travel,
alien acid and I don’t really remember I was laughing. We all wanted to know who he
was and he gladly let us be his e-friends. I even have the original compact disc before
Comedy Central re-released it with the before mentioned half hour of stand-up on a bonus
disc. I guess if I had that I would remember more.
No one knows what has happened to the Principal of Volcano High, but now some
new teachers are taking control. The students usually rule the school and at war with
each other between athletic teams. Everyone wants KIM KYUNG-SU on their team and
everyone wants the missing secret manuscript that will end the chaos. Every scene in the
film has a layer of special effects. Korean schools are violent and this is a perfect satire
when the teachers retaliate.
Retaliation was Dane Cook’s second release, a double album that went number 4
on the billboard charts. This hadn’t happened for comedy for almost 30 years. All of his
releases have made it to number 1 or 2 on the U.S. comedy charts. His movie career would
be hit-and-miss, but at least it gave the people who quickly started to light torches
something else to chase after.
Su-Fi for the friends and foes.
LAURA KIGHTLINGER & OLD MISS DIARY
A life of failure and a rejection collection. One started as a successful sitcom, one
the writer of many popular television shows, as well as an actor and comedian.
Old Miss Diary was a sitcom on KBS. It dealt with single women, older than 30 that
were still in the dating scene. Most of the situations were based on true life events and
gained a devoted audience. A film was made a year later that sold over 850,000 tickets.
There is no specific diary to be found in the film. I have a feeling the sitcom may be the
same. It was never subtitled. (old miss diary, called in radio interview).
One of my favorite books of all time is Quick Shot of False Hope. Sadly it’s Laura
Kightlinger’s only book (to date). It a collection of struggles, trying to get a foot into the
door of television and film. I bought it because I loved her morbid stand up. This is a
different beast, personal accounts that really amazed me. Still, to this day, she remains
the Queen of the Cutting Room Floor.
Choi Mi-ja (Won Ye-ji) stars as an imaginative dub artist. Her hallucinating mind is
bigger than her realities and it constantly gets her into trouble. The film remind me of
what Ally McBeal started out as. In the beginning Mi-ja is flying happily in an old
airplane. It crashes, but she survives. Then she’s struck by lightning and she survives that
too. All of these are rare occurrences that she explains are more likely than her escaping
her pitiful life. In the beginning she’s unemployed and of course middle aged, not to
mention living at home with her mother.
Pulp Comics was a visual extravaganza. Laura’s was exceptional, filmed by
Anthony Hardwick (Borat, Bruno, Religulous, Important Things with Demetri Martin) it
really stood out. A dream sequence featured some interesting sexual fetishes and then
Laura’s Grandmother shows up. It’s strange. This year (2011) is when the dream foresees
her own death at 44.
I should have had the chicken.
JIM GAFFIGAN & LE GRAND CHEF
Food is the center. Food is family. Food is love. Food is brutal. Food is betrayal.
Jim Gaffigan’s comedy isn’t going to change the world. He has some interesting
observations, but mostly it’s just plain funny. He isn’t an alternative or experimental
comic. He’s as solid as charcoal.
At one point I found myself entranced as Le Grand Chef becomes a twenty side-step
into a search for the best charcoal. Usually that wouldn’t be very exciting, but it tangents
into a story of a broken family and makes the charcoal symbolic of pride and
accomplishment. You will cry along with a child over the last meal his mother left for him.
You could just talk about food all day and it wouldn’t be funny. It would just be
realistic. We all need it, so we all know it. Jim seems to find the perfect things to say
about each edible item. He knows his audience, caressing the thoughts of the majority,
but it’s still fresh as the vegetables he won’t eat.
Kim Kang-woo plays Sung-chan our main character. He searches with a friend for
the perfect cow. His competition, the perfect ham, Lim Won-hie as Bong-joo, has a
monstrous bovine and will soon be butchering it. Sung-chan’s friend is tired of the search.
They’ve seen everything and the young chef says “No” over and over.
He already has the perfect cow. He’s raised it from birth. The closest thing he has
to a sibling (including the sister he has in Le Grand Chef 2: Kimchi War) is this animal. The
importance of the contest is considered and we are subject to the saddest scene involving a
cow I have ever witnessed.
Jim won’t let you even think about not laughing. He’s created the greatest
anti-heckle ever. He heckles himself in another voice. It’s like there’s some small female
in the front row. He shares the laughs with her generously as she (he) picks him(self)
apart.
Sung-chan shares his knowledge about produce openly. He takes it seriously.
He’s not very open about his past though, until it’s standing in front of him. He was
trained as a chef along side Bong-joo and showed great potential until he poisoned a few
people with a golden blowfish. It didn’t seem possible and it seems more plausible he
was sabotaged. There is a extreme funny scene where Sung-chan serves the same
blowfish to the same judges. They really don’t want to go through that again.
When King Baby came out, I wondered, come on, how much can a man talk about
a Pop-Tart, but Jim had added a lot of non-food topics to his 20 minutes on bacon, like
bowling, escalators and camping. All the topics can easily tangent into food, but hey,
some of us need to tangent into other stuff.
I don’t know what Koreans think of the end of Le Grand Chef. I know if it was
about my country I’d think it was pure cheese (not literally). As an outsider, I loved it.
There’s a special knife, a prize for who can make the best beef soup. It’s more than a
knife though. They’re trying to prove who is the real heir to the Royal Chef of the Joseon
Dynasty. Only that chef will know how to make the soup. This is the soup will contain
the ingredients that symbolize the strengths of Korea in the face of Japan’s attempted
conquest. The soup that brought tears to royalty of Korea.
And Jim is still talking about bacon.
MARC MARON & THE PRESIDENT’S LAST BANG
I have to thank Korean films for giving me a glimpse into Korean history. My
public school always went back and forth, North American history and then World history.
The Korean war may have been a paragraph. Whatever the case, we never made it
through the book. Why was it so thick?
I have to also thank Marc Maron. He’s really grabbed Paul Provenza’s torch
(Comic’s Only) and created a perfect podcast for those who want to go beyond the acts of
their favourite comedians. WTF had been essential to writing this book. I always loved
Marc’s self-analysis on stage. You learned a lot about him from his comedy. His interest
in others and his intimate interviewing style creates one of the greatest interview shows
ever. There’s never a time limit, just a lot of heart as each comedian describes their
beginnings.
In the beginning Kim Jae-kyu (played by Baek Yun-shik) has a stomach ache. It
won’t take long to see while. I don’t have to take the bold off, because the plot of the film
happened in 1979. President Park Chung-hee had taken control for 18 years when his
central intelligence officer decided to assassinate him on October the 26th. The film pulls all
punches and shows how bland the affair really was. Ironically, the blandness is
fascinating.
Marc is an interesting guy. He obsessed with himself and self-loathing at the same
time. He seems open and closed to religion. He seems scared and totally confident.
When you’re a yin and a yang, life gets pretty gray. After many years of drugs and
alcohol he’s been sober for around a decade. After two divorces he’s getting his career
on track as well doing many dates and finding a loyal fan base with his podcast.
Usually you trust your higher officers. The whole point of having people around
you is information and protection. Worldly people like the director of the KCIA (Korean
CIA) must have seen things differently. Kim Jae-kyu (Baek Yoon-sik) sees President Park
Chung-hee as a major wall blocking out democracy. He decides to assassinate the
President with a chief officer and a colonel. Again though, it’s the slow reality that makes
the film so unique.
Marc sits on his stool, too tired to stand. Listening to his net shows I sometimes
forget how powerful he is on stage. He’s one of the few comedians who can pull off
sitting.
How do you deal with censorship of your film? Im Sang-soo wanted to make a
major statement about the almost 4 minutes that the Seoul Central Court had ordered him
to remove. He showed a blank screen. Nothing could make a audience wonder more
what they were missing. The next year, in 2006, the censorship was overturned. Even
though the theatrical run was over, the DVD release would be uncensored.
There are two assassinations directed at the former President in the film. The
second is character. The President is portrayed as coward, in bed with the Japanese and
without morals. Though the courts ruled for free expression concerning the film, the
production company that financed it paid 100 million won to the President’s family.
PAULA POUNDSTONE & TAKE CARE OF MY CAT
A suicidal cat lady and a milestone feminist film.
There wasn’t much about Sunday mornings that I enjoyed during childhood. I was
forced to attend a Methodist Sunday School and then sit through church after that. If I was
lucky they had donuts afterwards (and maybe Communion grape juice Jesus blood during
the service). This was before XM radio. One of our radio stations played stand up
comedy. It couldn’t be obscene, but there were still quite a few comedians like that.
Paula Poundstone fit the bill.
I didn’t know where Paula went until I caught Wait … Wait … Don’t Tell Me. It’s a
game show.
LEGAL BRIEF Paula Poundstone avoided trial in her child abuse case with a plea agreement
that cleared her of lewd conduct charges. She pleaded no contest in Los Angeles Superior
Court to a felony charge of child endangerment and a misdemeanor charge of inflicting
injury on a child. ''The lewd conduct charges against me were dropped because they
weren't true,'' Poundstone said in an issued statement. ''I pled no-contest to the child
endangerment-injury charges because they were. My drinking helped to create a
dangerous situation for the children. For this, I am very sorry.'' The 41-year-old comedian
was sentenced to five years supervised probation and 180 days in a secure drug and
alcohol rehabilitation center in lieu of jail. Poundstone was already in rehab when she was
arrested in June. She lost custody of her three adopted children upon her arrest, but she
could get them back. However, she will not regain custody of her two foster children and
will not be eligible to take in additional foster children.
DAVID CHAPPELLE & TAKE CARE OF DEES NUTS
Maron
RON WHITE & SPRING, SUMMER, FALL, WINTER & SPRING
Interesting stories. Lots of interesting stories.
We’re with Kim Ki-duk again. Even in the title, a loop is foreshadowed. I
considered quickly what was happening, but it’s
SARAH SILVERMAN & NO MERCY FOR THE RUDE
Need to see it.
DAVE ATTELL & THE FOUL KING
Captain Miserable vs. The Foul King!
Dave Attell’s has PUNCH lines. There are more combos than Killer Instinct. He has
no taboos. He uses yours against you like South Park. He opens with a classic slam on
himself to shut up any would-be hecklers and panders to the drinkers. I can’t imagine
how the opposite would work out. God damn I’m beautiful. Only losers drink.
Im Dae-ho is a loser. He arrives late to work, sneaking in. He gets humiliated,
strangled by his boss. He feels trapped and helpless. He wonders if he can be trained at
a gym, only to get out of the headlock his boss loves to put him in. Two years after the
Quiet Family, his debut film, Kim Ji-woon makes his second film, starring Song Kang-ho
again. The Foul King (2000) is similar to Arahan (input year) except that Im Dae-ho isn’t
“the one”. He’s determined though.
The same can be said for Attell. He’s a comedian that other comedians like to
watch. He’s extremely humble as well. Sometimes he says too much though, and Pootie
Tang has to hit him in the mouth with his belt.
Slowly Im Dae-ho is becoming more and more athletic. It never seems to help him
though. He’s forming another life instead of fixing his own. He’s forming a new identity.
The Foul King is a classic prankster wrestler. A hero with his dirty tricks. He’s got
blinding powder and a fork. He’ll prance about and hit you or even the referee. Im
Dae-ho is happy here.
Dave Attell is miserable, Captain Miserable. It was good to see him return with all
new material, but I miss Insomniac. Dave would leave his comedy gig and find
adventures in every town. In my hometown he went to the casinos first. I though, “Bad
Choice.” Everything closes so early, it’s not a big city. But it wasn’t long before Dave
was traveling along with a bounty hunter. I still wish the Gong Show had succeeded.
He’s a great host with lots of energy and interest. He never seems jaded.
Kim Su-ro
CHRIS ROCK & ARAHAN
Sometimes you have to work pretty hard to be the one. Sometimes you just are
the one, but you still might have to work pretty hard. In a film it’s easier on the audience
to show the action rather than the training. We’re only going to be around for a couple
hours. Many cultures have made this film though. The Matrix, Kung Fu Panda, Kung Fu
Hustle, The Golden Child, most of the ideas borrow from Asian films, if they aren’t Asian
already. In Arahan, a cop just wants to learn a special move. He wants to not be
muscled by gangsters, to stand up for himself.
Chris Rock was bullied in because of his race. He was sent to schools that were
mostly white. I remember even in the early nineties there being racial struggles in the
Midwest so the eighties on the East Coast must have been awful. He finally dropped out.
It’s doubtful that any of those kids grew up to be as successful as him, but it’s still unfair.
A lot of Chris Rock’s act is about race and gender, but mostly taboos. He’s evangelical
and powerful. He repeats his important points, drilling them in. Chris knows lots of
people are listening.
The six master of Tao can help Sang-Hwan, the cop. It’s
DEMETRI MARTIN & 3-IRON
Talking is unnecessary and so are bells, but I appreciate the bells.
Kim Ki-duk has a pattern. He romanticizes crime. He loves circular plots and he’s
extremely unique in his own country as well as abroad. He’s spiritual to be sure and
often ends with the idea that life is a dream. His main characters rarely speak.
Demetri Martin rarely smiles. He’s extremely serious, lie a medium speed Stephen
Wright with half of Steve Martin’s name. I think I made that joke earlier (rings a bell).
3-Iron (or Empty House) begins as Tae-suk (Hee Jae) is placing take out menus on
people’s front doors. If you don’t remove them, he knows you’re not home. He breaks
in and takes pictures of himself inside your home. He does what he wants, but pays rent
with odd jobs he carefully does inside.
Stand-up comedy is an odd job. Demetri refuses to just stand-up and tell any kind
of normal joke. Sometimes his act is very visual with charts. Alternative comedy at it’s
best, if that’s not insulting. I refuse to let it be. Alternative music had a purpose. It
wasn’t hollow and it wasn’t the same. Real poets and sound artists found themselves in
the limelight. I need to relax.
After a bath, reading an art book, Tae-suk dries the wet pages with a hair dryer
and then gets caught masturbating by the very model he’s masturbating too. Sun-Hwa
(Lee Seung-yeon) has been watching him with silent curiosity and seems no threat to him.
Seung-yeon Lee
Sun-hwa
Hyun-kyoon Lee
Tae-suk (as Hee Jae)
...
Hyun-kyoon Lee
...
DREW CAREY & THE FIRST AMENDMENT OF KOREA
A power struggle between the ruling party and the opposing party!!! Opposing party
senator gets killed in a conspiracy whereby the senate gets divided in half with the two
parties occupying 136 seats each. The senate is divided in half, and the nation’s focus turns
to the city of Surak, where the by-election will take place. The two parties go out of their
way to win the race in Surak, trying to become the senate’s majority party.
What was expected to be a close race between the ruling and opposing parties the turns
into an unpredictable race as one of Surak’s prostitutes joins the race. The two parties
begin to feel threatened as the unexpected prostitute candidate slowly begins to eat up
popularity and support of Surak’s people. The ruling and opposing parties goes all out to
build conspiracies and strategies to win the race.
Will she be able to win a senate badge through all these troubles?
Carey’s political material is mostly anger.
AMY SCHUMER & YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE
AIDS is romantic. Sluts are funny too.
Slut, it’s just not fair. Hey if you want to be called one, what you want is totally
fair. It’s a gender specific word though. Slutty guys get the high-five. In Park Jin-pyo’s
You Are My Sunshine (You Are My Destiny) unconditional love is truly tested out. And
then they play the song. Oliver Hood’s symbolic love song has a perfect simplicity, but
Jimmie Davis’s version will probably always be the perfect performance. You’ll NEVER
know how much I love you. I wonder what the world would be like with more
unconditional love, than judgment. The film could be a painful experience, but it isn’t,
because our main character, Seok-Joong (Hwang Jung-min), Is only in pain when he’s not
with Eun-ha (Jeon Do-yeon). He doesn’t care about her past or
Amy Jewmer (sorry Jewm … sorry … Schumer) reminds me a bit of Wendy
Liebman. I like left hook comedians. Wendy trampled over her hooks, sweeped them a
bit under the rug with ums and uhs. Amy has the foxy boxing gloves on, filled with
pedophilia and prejudice.
PATTON OSWALT & KING AND THE CLOWN
I’ve changed the movie so many times for Patton. Once, when I was deliriously
sleepy, I considered the perfection of comparing him to the Princess Bride. Not quite
Korean. I bought (stole) many stand-up routines that I didn’t already have. I bought
books on tape and I bought and borrowed new and used books during this strange
journey. When Spaceship Zombie Wasteland came out I had to get it. I can’t just read in
Borders or Barnes and Noble like so many people. I like my little library of comedian
books. I don’t fit into one category, though the concept is as brilliant as sky cake.
Fictional writers either leave the world (Spaceship), simplify the world (Zombie) or destroy
the world (Republicans).
Gong-gil (Lee Jun-ki) and Jang-sang (Kam Wu-seong) just want to entertain the
world. They’re puppeteers, actors, tightrope walkers and jesters, but there is a problem.
Gong-gil appears more feminine and beautiful than some women and powerful men want
to steal him away. Considering the subject the King and the Clown was a real triumph
breaking the record in Korea for the highest grossing film. The director Lee Jun-ik (Once
Upon A Time In A Battlefield, A Happy Life, Radio Star) shouldn’t be confused with his star.
Patton starred in Pixar’s film Ratatouille in 2007 joining Pixar’s voice talent with
fellow comedians like Ellen DeGeneres, Albert Brooks, Tim Allen, Billy Crystal and Daniel
Whitney. He’s been everywhere and done everything though. He’s been a bridge troll,
been to KFC and even released some albums that are incredibly hard for me to find. I
connect with him a lot being an R.E.M. fan. Fable of the Reconstruction of the Fables of the
Reconstructions of the Fables of the (stop me) was an amazing album. I got into R.E.M. a
bit late and I lean toward Lifes Rich Pageant/Dead Letter Office. I like that as I wrote
KOCO (see cover) and read SZW he was connecting the Michael Stipe lyrics to his life.
Jang-sang has committed a murder to protect Gong-gil from being prostituted.
We’re never quite sure if his feelings go further than that. The movie (also called the
King’s Man) itself walks a tightrope. The subject matter is not blatant nor is it hinted. It
was enough for China to ban it with Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain though. Personally I
think banning things is gay. They should knock it off.
The two clowns end up in Seoul (16th century) getting into trouble satirizing the King.
Soon to be executed they beg for the King to see their show. No royal laughs and they’ll
accept their fate.
Though Patton has been on primetime shows, his comedy is more aimed at younger
crowds. His jokes flip back and forth from pop culture to higher brow to geek. He
wowed me with a piece about Anne Frank where he goes into the historic house not
knowing he has to pay. He hides and starts a diary. I mentioned sky cake before
because it’s perfect. Patton does various pieces about religion, but here he explains the
purpose and need of religion and why he likes it, even as a “stone-cold atheist”. The
violent ruled the world, but with some kind of moral code and eternity dessert, humans
could create civilization. I was a little angry because I’ve explained the same concept to
friends in the past, but sky cake. The title is deserved of a band. I just joined the
Benevolent Church of Sky Cake. I think I’ve gone too far.
It isn’t long before the King becomes enamored with Gong-gil. He has the clown
perform for him privately and has the other performers make satire of treasonous acts,
resulting in fear and murder. As more and more truth is revealed no one is safe.
Is it better to live a blissful life? Is it better to mask depression with drugs? Is it
best to fall in line? Some comedians simply entertain. Some comedians hold up mirrors
to themselves, some to society. Patton has a beautiful moment where he expresses no
mourning for the end of the worst President we’ve ever had, as if a good leader would
destroy any comic. Now where will I get material? I’m reminded of the towers falling.
Will anything be funny again? I wondered where I should move when people acted like
that.
Jang-sang is imprisoned twice and mutilated for his feelings toward Gong-gil.
Gong-gil attempts suicide. In the end they both find themselves on a tightrope with a
speech amidst the chaos that brings smiles to the audience. They want to be clowns even
in the next life.
I’ve mentioned the tightrope that some comedians walk with low and high-brow
humor. Meaningful and silly. Referencing and satire. Shock and subtly. Patton puts
the others in awe with confidence and depression. With charisma and geek. I hope to
watch the Princess Bride with him someday. I have the Buttercup version too. I think my
first book is Zombie (simplifying), with elements of Spaceship (the role-playing adventures)
and then Wasteland (killing the characters off one by one). What are you?
ELLEN DeGENERES & SOUTH KOREAN OMNIBUSES
South Korean cinema has released many omnibuses and is very kind to short films.
Ellen DeGeneres will tangent off in a million directions, but never leaves her adorable
sense of humor behind.
Is that wrong to say? Adorable? I think I called Wanda Sykes cute! Am I sexist?
What will people think? What if the press asks me questions. Cameras and lights my
face. Sweat dripping off my brow, mouth dry, what will I say?
No Comment features some of most famous actors in Korea (Jeong Jae-Yeong, Lim
Won-hee, Ryu Seung-Beom, Shin Ha-kyun and many others) in three very different short
films. One is modern, in a hotel, and make you think of Four Rooms. The comparison
makes a lot of sense, and made me wonder if they were going to stay in the hotel the
whole time. Soon the characters are in the past, back in to 1980. A schoolboy is obsessed
with having Nikes like another kid in his class. The last is a slow romantic conversational
film about a soldier on leave and a girlfriend (a girl who is a friend) from his past.
Ellen DeGeneres comedy career began in the early 80’s. She was quickly respected
for her routine. There’s a glowing smile throughout the act, no fear. She can tell the most
convoluted story and it all comes right back, maybe, probably, doesn’t matter.
What matters is human rights and fighting discrimination, at least to the creators of
If You Were Me. Some of the finest directors in South Korea have created short films for
the series that’s had 4 sequels.
CHARLES FLESCHIER & SOMEONE SPECIAL
Seemingly a comedian has just walked on stage. Seemingly another Korean romcom has started. The difference is in the writing, the thoughts, the strangeness.
Most of you will know Charles Fleschier from his voice, rather than his face. Even
then his voice is pretty odd and different from what you know. He voiced Roger Rabbit, a
groundbreaking hybrid of real life meets animation and Warner Brothers meets Disney.
This has never been done before and hasn’t been done since (though there may be a
sequel).
Someone Special (A Girl I Know) is written and directed by Jin Jang. Never one to
cuddle with cliches (except the film being a remake of a Bob Hope film from the 30’s), this a
hybrid of a traditional romantic comedy and a satire of it. He brings along Jeong
Jae-Yeong, who is in most of his projects, and the model Lee Na-Yeong, who loves to make
herself appear normal or worse. They are two perfect character actors that really should
have done more work together. Lee Na-Yeong seems to make one film per leading man.
What is Charles Fleschier? Is he a scientist? Maybe a mad scientist, throwing out
moleeds at you. Is this what you paid for? Charles makes you think in all sorts of ways,
possibly trying to connect, hoping your brain will do a third of the work his is doing all the
time. He’s in his sixties and still as hyper as an animated rabbit.
After some fantastic screaming, the catalyst being his girlfriend leaving him, Dong
Chi-seong (Jae-Yeong)’s nose starts bleeding. The doctor tells him he’s going to die pretty
soon. He’s a baseball player, but not the professional he used to be. He has nothing to
do, but drink in Han Yi-yeon’s (Na-yeong) bar. He wakes in her home after she carries
him there in a box.
Charles Fleschier is that post office employee that is about to go postal in Demon
Knight. He’s a possible (and creepy) suspect in Zodiac. And he’s over eighty more
characters, but his most interesting is himself. He’s one of the few comedians I’ve ever
seen play a harmonica and keep me interested. He’s making connections and scaring
people away at the same time. I think he’s just fun.
Jae-yeong Jeong ...
Dong Chi-seong
Na-yeong Lee
Na-yeong Lee
Han Yi-yeon
...
ANDY BENINGO & SLAVE LOVE aka 100 DAYS WITH MR. ARROGANT
Mugging is an comedic art and Andy Beningo’s smile crushes the need for an
opening act. From the beginning, Andy Beningo isn’t arrogant, far from it. At least he
isn’t at the moment. This is the beginning. He’s a fresh-faced (like a young Artie Lange
before the Jack and Coke) comic with a solid act. Like a lot of new comics he talks about
things within in generation like bagel bites and blowing on a Nintendo cartridge. He
could have extended the Nintendo portion for a lot longer, but no, he moves on.
Shin Dong-yonp’s Slave Love follows the traditional, half comedy then half serious
format. On the hundredth day of Kang Ha-yeong’s (Ha Ji-won) relationship with her
boyfriend, she finds she has no boyfriend. And kicking a can in anger helps her wreck a
rich kid’s car. The damage is costly and all she can do is sign herself over to him.
Beningo is quick like most comedians to make fun of himself before anyone else
attempts to. His name sounds like an Australian dog and he looks like Flounder from
Animal House.
BILL MAHER & THE HOST
The best sociopolitical monster movie ever and the best sociopolitical comedian
ever. It takes 15 minutes on the dot before the Host is really going to grab you. In
America they put the monster right on the front cover. Gotta sell that product. Bong
Joon-ho has more than monsters. He’s setting up characters. The child who almost steals
from the snack bar. The child who Park Gang-du (Song Kang-ho) mistakes as his
daughter. His sister on television, a struggling archer on the National team. A patient
father. You might be cynical that a monster movie could actually be important.
Bill Maher wants you to be cynical. Far too many people are stupid, being cynical
is good and healthy. Don’t believe anything because anyone says it. He’s a guide to the
facts and opens a good case for problems in North America and abroad. He’s been doing
the same thing for many years too. As people reacted to the most important and deeper
social pieces, he refined his act to consist mostly of them.
The Han River is a broad but short river. It’s one of the fourth largest in South
Korea. And there’s a creature inside. It’s massive and hungry and charges out and starts
to feast. The last victim is Park Gang-du’s daughter, who reaches out as the monster’s tail
wraps around her. She’s taken.
The funeral service is one of the oddest events I’ve ever witnessed. It sets the dark
comedic tone the movie will have. As the family cries, it becomes exaggerated, hilarious.
As the audience is worried that their laughing at such a critical time, scientists clumsily walk
in with bio-suits and ask if anyone touched the monster. Gang-du found himself trying to
distract the monster before his daughter was taken and wound up with blood splattered
on him. He’s forcefully taken to the hospital. His family follows.
It’s difficult to gauge. Is the audience listening and taking in the commentary or do
they consider it an entertaining distraction? What is the job of a comedian? Is it an art?
Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect began on Comedy Central in 1993. He wanted a
comedic round table, with him as the Host. Arguing with no humor is a difficult listen. The
show was an instant success. When ABC picked it up, there was more money but it wasn’t
going to be the same. Somehow it lasted five years. In 2002 it was cancelled. Something
bigger was on the horizon anyway.
The Park family are now prisoners in the hospital. Convinced he’s the host of
some new virus, Park Gang-du can not be allowed to leave. A call on his cell phone
inspires an escape though. It’s his daughter. He knows she’s alive. What comes next is
the most heartfelt and tragic rescue attempt I’ve ever seen in cinema.
New rule. If they take away your show, make another one that’s even better.
Real Time will Bill Maher launched on HBO a year after Politically Incorrect was cancelled.
As he did with the last show, he also committed himself to many stand-up comedy films,
each with a whole new slate of material that the government is always happy to provide.
There’s hints of the Daily Show/SNL’s weekly update and Politically Incorrect in Real Time
with Bill Maher. It’s just meant to address real problems, unlike the news, and again to
see both points of view.
FILM SLAMS/PRAISES & PACKAGING HIGHLIGHTS
TROUBLESHOOTER - Planis/ Next Entertainment World - 2011
DIRECTOR: Kwon Hyeok-jae
ACTORS: Sol Kyung-gu, Lee Jung-jin, Oh Dal-Su, Song Sae-Byeok, Lee Seong-Min,
Joo Jin-Mo, Moon Jung-Hee, Choi Ji-Ho and Lee Young-Hoon
You can complain. I know you can. Car chases with tons of crashes, beating
people because a child was endangered, a cop allowing two people to fight because one is
a bad guy, I WAS SET UP! The bottom line is, it’s fun to watch Sol Kyung-gu beat up bad
guys (Public Enemy, Another Public Enemy, Public Enemy Returns). It just is. And he
doesn’t always do it. He’s in amazing films. Beautiful movies. Oasis was Korean
submission for the academy awards. I bet Hero nudged it out. China, always messing
with their neighbors.
Ryoo Seung-Wan even shares the writing credit. He’s created some of the best
action films in Korea. The story is fairly complex. There are two Troubleshooters. I
would have liked to see Sol Kyung-gu solving more problems than his own, but he mostly
seems to be taking pictures of people having sex in motels. How fun would that be?
One of the more emotional scenes is when he’s helpless and tied to a chair waiting to be
blow up as the gas is turned on and a lighter is in the microwave. Why didn’t they just kill
him? They never do.
If they killed him. The star is gone from the movie and the bad guys get away.
What if the police simply arrest the criminals. It’s anti-climatic. There’s a fight in the
middle with Lee Young-Hoon as a psycho and Sol Kyung-gu. There seems to be no one at
the mental ward. Maybe it was closed down, the power is still on. Am I condemning or
defending? I had fun.
Planis releases often have a generous glossy slip case. Troubleshooter is a slip
cased digipak with two discs and a film cut. There is even a little hole to keep the cut in.
MANDATE - FANTOM - 2008
DIRECTOR: Park Hee-joon
ACTORS: Jae Hee, Yoo Da-In, Shim Won-Cheol, Lee Soo-Ho
Let’s talk packaging first because I had no idea what I was in for with this flick.
Just a clear case. That’s a first press? There’s no other release of this film so calling it a
first press is pretty generous. Fantom had a good thing going, always a matte cardboard
slip case. Hard boxes for Once In A Summer and Almost Love. Okay, so I start with
disappointment.
But I have Jae Hee. He was in Art of Fighting and one of my favourites 3 Iron.
He’s holding a sword. Things are going to be great. Well, except for a rapping cop, I
was incorrect.
The alternate title is Mission From God. Really? Are religious people this silly?
Hey, there’s that weirdo with a strange hair cut and a sword that always pops up at our
crime scenes. Best to tell him to move along. Shouldn’t you arrest him? The script shows
no knowledge of police procedure at all. The special effects aren’t very special. I usually
let that go, but don’t try and use so many if it’s all going to look so awful. At least it’s one
of the shortest Korean films ever. I usually don’t find that a plus.
I actually defended the film after I watched it against some more who was actually
making a lot of sense. Sometimes I’m clouded by rebelliousness. I’ve tried to sell it once.
It didn’t work, so it stays in a permanent home next to the superior E.S.P. Couple.
GIRL SCOUT - KD Media/ MK Pictures - 2008
DIRECTOR: Kim Sang-man
ACTORS: Kim Seon-Ah, Nah Moon-Hee, Lee Kyeong-Sil, Ko Joon-Hee, Lim Ji-Eun,
Park Won-Sang, Yoo Jae-Joon, Kim Hyang-Ki, Jeon Ji-Ae
I guess I misunderstood. I saw this rad cover of this angry screaming females, all
yellow. I swear I read that it was about some money being taken. I got it in my head
that some Girl Scouts got their cookie money stolen and the Girl Scouts mothers go on a
kicking teeth mission. This was not the case. Honestly I still think someone should make
that movie.
Our toughest woman doesn’t even fight at the end. A guy takes over the fight. It
made me angry. Good thing about disappointment though. I always think I missed
something and want to watch the movie again.
The characters, especially the females, are well written and very different and some
twists make you wonder how long they’ll be friends. They don’t get along even when
getting along. What would be the fun of a road trip movie if everyone just sang the
whole time? Amateurs on a sting mission. Amateurs on a spy mission. It’s light. The
Chaser came out the same year. Maybe you needed something light.
KD Media’s first pressings are often sleeved with alternate art. This release is no
different. I love the cover. It makes you wish it was as judged. Damn you proverbs.
DEATH BELL - Planis/ Yedang - 2008
DIRECTOR: Yoon Hong-seung (Chang)
ACTORS: Choi In-sook, Da-Geon, Sung Jin, Kang Yi-seul, Kim Bum, Kim So-hie, Kong
Jeong-hwan, Kwon Hyeon-sang, Lee Beom-su
Imdb lists a huge cast, Lee Beom-su (or soo) is in the middle even though, really,
he’s the star. I’ll just stop as 90% of you won’t know any of the names. Death Bell was
one of those lucky pictures that came out when there was no competition. It benefited
greatly even though, it makes no sense. I absolutely love the ending. The problem in the
rest of the film.
It has a lot in common with scary hair horror films and Saw 2. Did I lose you
already? There is no real scary hair ghost. That’s good right. I’m going to spoil the
twist even more later. Competition is fierce in Korea. They post your grades. They post
your position. Kids know who they have to beat. Tutors are a must. This leads to the all
too common poor kid falling behind or sadly prostituting herself for the money she needs.
I don’t know how common it is in reality. I only watch the movies.
The kids are all stuck in school with non-working hand phones (Korean cell phone).
Why are they stuck? I really don’t know. Personally I think they could leave at any time.
Why don’t the hand phones work? I swear I worked that out in my head once. I guess
you could jam the signal or something. They just don’t work. This is a black hole of a
plot hole for some. I finally let go.
Students are being sacrificed unless the others can solve impossible puzzles.
You’re not going to figure them out so it’s best to let that go too. It’s almost an exercise in
patience. It’s gory too. Horror almost seemed a genre where you have to relax. The
really intelligent ones rise to the top, but you’re never going to earn much respect anyway.
Okay the end. In the end you find out that the people behind the murders are the
parents of a girl who was killed. They wanted to find out who did it. The mother dressed
like a ghost. The father in a maintenance man at the school doing the rest. I love that. It
was so simple that it actually made me smile. The complex horror really faded and a
simple vengeance story revealed like a sunset. I’m not sure if we needed the sequel but I
haven’t seen it yet.
The packaging is Planis’s common glossy slip case over a clear case. The alternate
cover art is disturbing empty desks. The rest of the art are the many doomed students.
HAUNTERS - UP/KD Media - 2011
DIRECTOR: Kim Min-suk
ACTORS: Kang Dong-won as Cho-in, Go Soo, Jeong Eun-Chae, Yoon Da-Kyeong,
Choi Deok-moon, Abu Dod, Enes Kaya, Yang Kyeong-mo
Woochi is back, with really bad posture and X-men eyes. Coming in I thought the
film was about ghosts. Kang Dong-won instead controls people that he can see. That’s
pretty cool. Gets his abusive dad to kill himself when he’s a kid, almost kills his mom
when she isn’t so pleased about the dad thing. Then we leave all that behind.
We follow another guy. This guy is as basic as a guy gets, but slowly he does
seem to develop a trait of rapid healing. So it’s a teenage Professor X versus Wolverine
with no claws. Instead he has an African-Korean friend and another friend from Turkey.
It’s the first time I’ve seen a white guy and a black guy in a Korean movie with out them
being racist douches or military douches (Dragon Wars doesn’t count). Despite a slightly
strange ending, the film is semi-unpredictable (Why leave people hanging? Haven’t you
seen Sin City?) and a lot of fun. Kang Dong-won can do no wrong.
STAY TUNED FOR MY NEXT BOOK WHEN I COMPARE
FIGHTER GAMES TO AMBIENT MUSICIANS
George Carlin & Oldboy
I think it might be easier to talk about the few thing George Carlin didn’t talk about in his act, rather than
all the subjects he made light of.
Robin Harris/Jamie Foxx/ Flip Wilson/ Jay Mohr/ Katt Williams/ Redd Foxx/
Adam Sandler & 200 Pound Beauty
Dennis Miller & Dachimawa Lee
Dane Cook & Volcano High
Bill Hicks & Bittersweet Life
Maria Bamford & Fun Movie
Laura Kightlinger & Old Miss Diary
Doug Benson & JSA (took forever to experience, surprised)
Denny Mock & Crescent Moon
Margaret Smith & My Wife is a Gangster
Ellen DeGeneres & No Comment/Omnibus
Jerry Seinfeld & Going By The Book
Patton Oswalt & Arahan
Dave Attell & Foul King
Boxing films are a symbol of hope for hopeless people …
Eddie Murphey & Shiri
Dave Chappelle &
Dave Carvey &
Wanda Sykes &
Yobi The Five Tailed Fox
Oasis &
Tale of Two Sisters
Brian Posehn &
Breathless
Margaret Cho & Please Teach Me English
Mitch Hedberg &
Demetri Martin & 3 Iron - oh
Ron White &
Spring Summer Fall Winter and Spring
Doug Stanhope & Happiness
Emo Phillips & Hmm
Nick Swardson & Steal It If YOu Can
Sarah Silverman & Windstruck
Henry Rollins & Blood & Ninja Assassin & GiJoe