Knowing Korean Movies Makes `Fun Movie` More Fun

The title of Korea’s first serious parody movie, `Fun Movie`, is quite brave.

With little boredom, `Fun Movie` can easily be parodied into `Boring Movie`. The title could not have been given, if there was no confidence in the movie. Then, is `Fun Movie` really fun?

The basic frame of the movie’s story is `Shiri`. South-North special agents, acted out by Han Suk-Kyu and Kim Yun-Jin, are parodied into Korean special police and Japanese right-wing extremist, Hwang-Bo (Yim Won-Hee) and Sang-Mi (Kim Jung-Eun).

Murakami (Kim Su-Ro) and Kap-Du (Seo Tae-Hwa) are imitations of `Shiri`’s Choi Min-Sik and Song Kang-Ho.

Before co-hosting the Korea-Japan World Cup, right-wing agent Murakami and his team infiltrates into Korea. The plot is that they prepare a terror attack at the performance hall, where President Kim, North’s leader Kim, and Japan’s Emperor have gathered, and Hwang-Bo fights against them. But other movies come in the middle of the story, and the whole movie becomes `mixed up`.

For example, Hwang-Bo comes to know Murakami while working at `Joint Sea Area JSEA` as a marine (Joint Security Area JSA), or meets a drunken woman in subway after his discharge (Yupgi Girl). Also, Murakami, chased by Hwang-Bo, flees on railway track, and as a train draws near, he cries out, “I’m… going… crazy” (Peppermint Candy).

Additionally, there are parodies that resemble `movie in movie`. The title of the movie that Hwang-Bo and Sang-Mi watch together is `Bichunmun` (Bichunmu).

Parody’s precondition is that `more you know, harder you will laugh`. Therefore, more popular movies make the audience laugh more.

The movie begins with `Ditto`, runs through box-office hits like `Friend`, `Shiri`, `Yupgi Girl`, `Nowhere To Hide`, `Joint Security Area JSA`, `Two Cops`, `Lies`, and `Seopyunje`, and finally ends with a scene from `A Promise`. The total number of Korean movies that appear in the movie is 28. Of course, the amount of parodied scenes follows the order of success.

Among last year’s box-office hits that attracted more than 3 million viewers, the only ones that were not parodied were `My Wife Is A Gangster`, `Hi, Dharma`, and `My Boss, My Hero`.

Even if you did not see many Korean movies, `Friend`, `Shiri`, and `Yupgi Girl` are enough to make you laugh at major scenes during the movie.

Although it is a parody movie, 4.5 billion won of cost was poured into the production, which makes the pictures quite proper. From time to time, there are some crude laughs and long parts, but overall, it is an amusement movie with light entertainment.

The core of parody movies is, after all, scenario. Most of parodies only `mend` major scenes one after another, but `Fun Movie`’s story is quite organized.

However, to the audience, who expects the same creativity and solid story line like in `Shrek` that totally overthrew other traditional fairy tales, the movie may be disappointing. Release Date : 12th. Above 15.

Sue-Jean Kang sjkang@donga.com