So this past weekend I discovered two awesome, new (to me) forms of Korean entertainment. The first is an awesome band called Propeller21. I had heard them compilation I owned awhile back, but this weekend I picked up an EP of their jams. Man! I’m all about that record…it’s kind of punk, kind of pop, kind of emo, but totally awesome.
The second discovery I made was a movie. It was on TV last night (or this morning depending on how you want to look at it). This movie was called 수취인불명 (the English title is allegedly “Address Unknown”). The movie takes place in Korean town near a US army base sometime in the late 80s or early 90s (I’m guessing by context clues, though I missed the begining of the flick). Anyhow the movie is extremely bizarre and slightly depressing. The thing left the most indelible impression on me was the portrayal of the American military. These characters spoke in English, and when they did, every other word was “Fuck” or “Shit” or “Bitch” or “Asshole.” This was odd, because when soliders talked to their superior officers it was like, “You fuckin’ asshole I was just taking a leak…” I’m not a soldier, but I don’t think it really works that way. When these GIs weren’t cursing, they were uttering such cheesey 1950’s BS dialogue. It was like when they weren’t in dock worker mode they became Wally from Leave it to Beaver. “Golly, you’re swell…would you like to be my sweetheart?”
Anyhow there was one scene that really spoke to me. One GI started dating a Korean highschool girl (in addition to feeding her acid…which is kind of beside the point). In one scene, the girl said, in English, she was 18. The Korean subtitles also said that she was 18 years old, yet in the Korean way of counting age she would be either 16 or 17 years old. Anyhow, this girl and the GI get it on in her family homestead. This is what impressed me most. I mean, the characters in this movie were all small town people, much like the family of my girlfriend. This GI could not speak Korean, was rude, and did acid on a regular basis, but when he is fucking their underaged daughter in their house, the parents / adult brother do nothing other then kick his boots, try to steal money out of his wallet, and call him “새끼.” On the other hand, if my 25 year old girlfriend’s parents call while we are together I have to be quiet and pretend I’m not there. Perhaps I need to go with my girlfriend to her hometown and have loud sex with her in her parent’s house. After that her parents will use profanity when speaking of me (which they already do, but then at least I don’t have to pretend to not exist when they call). Another thing I liked about the movie was the fact that they used a purely Korean guy to play a half Korean half African American character. Yeah they dude’s skin was kind of dark, but aside from that he had all the facial features of a Korean…and none of an African American. Wtf? Anyhow I really digress. If you are looking for a really odd, and depressing flick check out 수취인불명 (Address Unknown). I’m not one to ruin a flick, but if you’ve seen any Korean movies or music videos, this one has the same ending as all of those, only way more extreme.
So to recap, check out the band Propeller21 and the movie 수취인불명.
As a quick aside, the middle school students I tutor taught me an interesting Korean phrase this past weekend. That being 빨간 비디오 (red video). This is apparently the term used to refer to porn tapes, since at one point (and possibly still) they were (are) manufactured using red video cassettes, so there’s another random Korean term for those of you who are interested in such things.
