Korean Job Discussion Forums

[King Baeksu]

I've been collecting and researching Western (Hollywood mostly) movies in which Korea is somehow related or portrayed.

I'm curious to know what some of your favorite movies and scenes are in this category.

I personally like the scene in "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" when Korean-American Harold Lee goes to Princeton to attend an East Asian Culture club meeting, and some dork offers him some of his mom's delicious kimchi jjigae, but fortunately Harold's friend Kumar drags him off to smoke herb and chase hot white chicks instead. Now, if Cho Seung-hui had had good friends like that, I'm sure the whole VT massacre would have never happened. I mean, if that dude was getting laid and stoned on a regular basis, do you really think he would have ever considered picking up a gun?

I also like the scene in "Team America" where Kim Jong-il sings the classic, "I'm So Ronery":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUALTv8Kw_w

Love the floating skeleton in his shark tank and torture victims chained to the wall as he croons his plaintive ditty. Does anyone seriously wonder why this movie was never released in theaters in Korea?

Anyone else have some personal favorites?

[The_Eyeball_Kid]

It's unfortunate that almost every Hollywood portrayal of Koreans is negative. There's the people-trafficking, money-grubbing couple in race-relations-for-simpletons moronfest Crash, and then the nasty, money-grubbing shopkeeper in Falling Down, and then the nasty convenience store owner in Beavis and Butthead, and then... well, that's all I can think of.

[exit86]

I think you are onto something here.
I too have undertaken a very similar investigation
in terms of Hollywood depictions of Koreans.
I found that, while post 1978 Hollywood tends to
depict Japan and the Japanese in a very favorable light
(Shogun, Karate Kid I, II, III, The Last Samurai, Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles, etc.), the depictions of Koreans and
Korean Americans has a tendancy to be less-than-flattering.
Oftentimes, we are shown Koreans who are U.S. citizens,
yet:
1. Can speak absolutely no English
2. Fail to make any efforts to positively assimilate
themselves into the dominant U.S. culture and
the neighborhoods in which they live and/or do business
(Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing")
3. Lacking the ability to effectively express themselves in English,
they resort to anger, shouting, and the flailing of arms.

As an example, the Korean storeowner--Mr. Yi/Lee-- in "Falling Down"
with Michael Douglas, we see a Korean man (the actor is actually
Chinese) who speaks virtually no English besides being able to quote
the prices of the grossly overpriced goods in his store in a low-income,
predominantly African-American section of Los Angeles.
Similarly, in "Training Day" with Denzel Washington, he and his rookie partner pursue a suspect through Koreatown, and are forced to
cut through a Korean woman's store, who, unable to explain her
dislike of such an intrusion, screams and yells and flails her arms
in order communicate her anger, upon which our hero Denzel
goes native with the cure-all "Kwaenchanayo (괜찮아요)"
"Lost" is a bit more positive in its depiction, though it tends to
graft the American viewers knowledge of Japanese culture onto
the two Koreans (note that the flashback scenes have nothing
Korean about the settings, being Chinese or Japanese houses,
gardens, or interiors). Here, neither of the charcters are U.S. citizens,
nor do they reside there; therefore they are shown as genuine specimens from Korea and therefore subject to the idiosyncracies of their native culture (marriage customs, caste-like socio-economic stratification,
patriarchy, etc.) Still, the man has no English ability (and no
ability to learn English as quickly as possible)--which is very ironic in that Daniel Dae Kim is a Korean-American man whose English ability
far surpasses his Korean language ability--though Kim Yun Jin's character does speak English, but she chooses to hide this fact from her husband and the other castaways for the initial episodes of season one.

I too am interested in hearing of more examples of Koreans depicted
in Hollywood films/t.v. shows.

[King Baeksu]

Hi Exit86, I agree that Hollywood depictions of Japan and Japanese have been more positive on the whole for the past few decades, but that may primarily be a reflection of the longer historical relationship between the two.

I slightly disagree about the Falling Down grocery store owner. I think his primary purpose was to serve as a foil to show how racist and out-of-control the Michael Douglas character is. So the scene is actually showing the white guy in a bad light, not the Korean(-American) character. Also, Do the Right Thing ends with the main Korean-American character expressing solidarity with the black characters as he realizes, "Hey, I'm just like you!" This kind of shows his willingness to integrate into the multicultural American society he finds himself a part of. Ditto for Harold Lee in Harold and Kumar, who starts out as a stereotypical Asian geek but eventually overcomes that and becomes a true individual, willingly assimilating into American society (represented by "White" Castle in the story). Of course, willingness to assimilate into "white" American society and renounce one's primary ethnic Korean identity may actually be seen as a bad thing for many Koreans.

As for Lost, I recall that many scenes were in fact shot in a Korean context, such as scenes with the Daniel Dae Kim character interacting with his father in the Korean countryside and his asshole Korean boss. Am I misremembering the storyline here?

Finally, Koreatowns do appear in many recent Hollywood movies and I believe Koreatown has become the new Chinatown for Hollywood, with all that it represents (mystery, danger, the unknown, etc.).

[partialtone]

[King Baeksu]

[partialtone]

[Troll_Bait]

[King Baeksu]

[partialtone]

Yeah, great symbolism. It's just a happy coincidence that White Castle happens to be the best stoner food on the east coast

[Newbie]

[King Baeksu]

[blurgalurgalurga]

[exit86]

Baeksu,
Good points.
As a little extra:

--The flashback scenes you referred to in the Lost episodes dealing with Jin's father and boss--as all the other flashbacks--are supposedly [for the story] set in Korea, but watch them again and pay close attention to the background: the "Korean fishing village," his father's clothes and hat,
the interior of his boss's office. You'll see what I mean. As with many Western depictions of North-East Asian countries, the culture is all blended into one Chinese, Japanese, Korean amalgam.

--Mr. Yi in "Falling Down" Yes, though he is a foil to show the anger and
frustration and desperation of Douglas' character, would you
go so far as to say that he is a fitting representation for 55 million Koreans, and that these Koreans would be happy with this character
as their spokesperson?

--"Do the Right Thing" Though a momentary type of peace seems to be established with the Koreans and their neighbors, would you say that
a majority of the comments and interactions in that movie regarding
the Korean store owners and their neighbors were positive?
Up until that final moment in the film, the other characters
in the movie had very few negative things to say about their ethnically Korean neighbors?

--Koreatown as the new Chinatown: Yes, this is a really good point you make. I'd be interested in hearing more about possible causes for this recent development.


Thanks again.

[Billy Pilgrim]

Koreans appear regularly in The Shield, portrayed no differently than the other ethnic groups in the show.