I had problems sleeping last night so I decided to watch a movie. Something light and easy that I could switch off in case I got sleepy again and go back to bed.
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| The Accidental Gangster & The Mistaken Courtesan - image attributed to http://www.moovidadb.com/movies/72774 |
At no point, while watching this movie, did I feel sleepy. I have not enjoyed a movie this much in a while. Not that I have been watching crap, mind you, but this movie was so feel-good, life-affirming, funny, and good-natured that watching it was a pleasure.
The plot is fairly simplistic but written in such a straight-forward, humorous way that is held up by a fantastic cast of actors and actresses, wonderful camera-work, art direction and direction. The script writing was not innovative but wonderfully clever in some parts with a huge lean towards the comic.
It starts with the opening credits and right off the bat you know this is no saeguk. No, no ... it's a saeguk fusion. And how do we know? Because Lee Jung Jae sports an almost padam hair-do and clothes distinctly modern in their I-am-the-hood cluelessness. And the music is Korean hip-hop at its most unapologetic gleefulness. In fact, the music kinda reminded me of Hong Gil Dong. The Hong sisters' version.
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| Image attributed to www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_The_Accidental_Gangster_and_the_Mistaken_Courtesan-picture_73090.html?sort=Most_Popular_Pictures |
Also right off the bat is the realisation that I am gonna like this movie. Because the director is so obviously a fan of Frank Miller. The opening credits were reminiscent of Sin City's comic-strip treatment.
But what catches you from the very beginning is Lee Jung Jae. How much did he enjoy making this movie? I suspect a whole lot because he plays his role with such glee and OTT affection that you get pulled right along with him, right till the very end. His goofy grin, the pained grimaces, the cocky bravado, the daft incomprehension, the good-natured sheepishness ... well, you laugh out loud at and with him. Truly I think this movie worked half as well due to him alone. The other half is shared with the other cast members and the crew.
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| Lee Jung Jae with padam hair & the actor next to him is a brilliant comedian who plays Chilgap in this movie |
So, our hero is a bungling wannabe gangster in the old Joseon period. When? I dunno and am not arsed to check, really. It matters not as the story works in any period. We see our man, Thunder (sic), in a fight which he initially seems to be winning. Till he catches sight of a beauteous gisaeng on horseback, passing by. And just like that, our man loses his mojo. And gets trampled just as he caught the almost admiring eye of the gisaeng. Who promptly looks away in disdain when he's thrown to the ground.
We find out that the gisaeng is sent to a run-down drinking house, known as Bright Moon, to be a serving girl and what's funny is the granny who runs the place. The couriers delivering the gisaeng get beaten to a pulp for late delivery (if only we can do the same to Fedex or DHL) and flee, leaving the gisaeng rather at a lost. But she's cool under pressure even when the place turns out to hell on earth and she's run off her feet.
And then we see Thunder return to the drinking house for it appears he's related to the granny. Maybe she really is his granny but I dunno since I speak next to no Korean and the subtitles are good but not that good! He promptly makes a fool of himself over the gisaeng who is still disdainful.
And then we have the ubiquitously moonlight seduction scene. Where he tries to seduce her and she takes off her stinky socks in his face. Ah, romance ...
He dubs her Dishy and the subtitles here are brilliant that there is nothing lost in translation! He's rather unsuccessful with his courtship but he tries so hard. And come a couple of days later (or so it appears) when he returns home to find the place trashed and granny all angry & upset that the couriers had delivered the wrong gisaeng to the wrong establishment. Apparently, there was also a Bright Moon in the Pil district where Dishy was supposed to go. So they'd returned to do the rightful swap and Dishy was now a pale-faced, shrill but loudly cheerful older chick called Hong Jae.
To say Thunder felt let down is an understatement. And so he spends a good few minutes of screen time moping.
Then one day, a few, well-dressed men come a-visiting. I got all excited-like when I noticed one of them is a favourite actor in Korean movies and drama. I do not know his name but he is excellent as both villain and good-guy roles. Fabulously funny and a good actor although he is too unattractive to ever play any lead roles. Which is a pity, because I think he would just kill it.
Anyway, the leader, makes some comments about the drinking-house's suitability as a grave and that finally bestirs the snoozing Thunder into ... well, thundering ...
The leader challenges him to a fight and it is then we realise he's one of the top, dreaded gangsters in the land. His name is Odd Ears, which leads the eye immediately to his ears, which seem fine to me but might have some other significance in Korea. *Big shrug here*
Odd Ears ups the ante by declaring that he would hand over Yangjoo if he loses the fight but that Thunder should risk everything he owned. Our man, Thunder, is too daft to realise the danger he is in and goes knee deep into the fight. It is right here we are reminded again of how much the director likes Frank Miller. The fight scene has a 300-ish feel to it but it's still OK.
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| Image attributed to http://asiancinefest.blogspot.com/2010/05/acf-570-korean-movie-night-accidental.html |
To everyone's eternal shock, Thunder wins the fight with a well-placed punch, sending Odd Ears into a "temporary 10-year coma" and making Thunder the official, new boss of the Mapo district. Oooh boy.
Thunder would have none of it and tries on numeral occasions to make a break for it, especially when he is informed by newly acquired right-hand man, Chilgap (played by the actor I like!), that he has to attend the national congress of gangster. Hilarious. That is until he finds out that the congress is instigated by one Mandeuk, who happened to have killed 187 men at a go, single-handedly. And who also decided to hold said congress in a place called Bright Moon. In the Pil district.
Dink!
Suddenly, our man Thunder is all ready to go. But he still puts up occasional signs of struggle when common sense rears its rare head. There's a brilliant scene of this that utilises CG in the most clever and inoffensive way. Much like Heroes.
So off we go to Bright Moon, where we meet the gangsta bosses for the first time. They are hilariously threatening and pissed off with the camera as if they are caught by the paparazzi. I loved this montage and was laughing out loud enough to wake the neighbours. Thunder and Chilgap enter late and we go through some predictable fish-out-of-water scenes from Thunder. And then we meet Mandeuk. Who looks like a shoujo character on crack. Wait ... nevermind. Anyway, we notice right off that he's got a bitch on a leash ...and it's Dishy, who's channeling Mi sil in Queen Seondeok.
Thunder is all awww, I'm so love-struck again, which does not go un-noticed. Thunder must not have been present the day subtlety was being rationed out. Anyway, Thunder, as expected, pisses off Mandeuk big-time when he forgets to call him by his preferred moniker of Big Gun and addresses him as Mandeuk. Fear ripples through the crowd but Mandeuk goes all I'm-scarier-when-I-pretend-to-be-forgiving and starts wrangling for the role of uber Boss, citing a transparent excuse of unity against the authorities who are out to get them.
Not everyone is convinced and Thunder hammers in the point by asking what's in for him and demanding Dishy as a bribe. This does not go well and we then have a totally unnecessary but still beautifully executed "artistic" scene of Dishy dancing and painting. I just have one question ... how come the ink only spreads to about an inch up her white, silken shoes and does not seep further?
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| Dishy's rendition of Memoirs of a Geisha. Image attributed to http://www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_The_Accidental_Gangster_and_the_Mistaken_Courtesan-picture_73085.html?sort=Most_Popular_Pictures |
A fight almost ensues due to the heightened passions that arise from such a titillating display (right, porn has nothing on scenes of women painting with their shoes .. or maybe it does ... *eyebrow raised*). Chilgap hastily drags Thunder away and asks if he's out for an all-out war.
Suffice to say the movie now carries on with the bid for world domination from Mandeuk, aided by a scurrilous corrupt minister while Thunder learns what gang loyalty really means, while following on his seduction bid of a recalcitrant Dishy.
There's a brilliantly funny sequence of him breaking into Bright Moon and incurring the wrath of all and sundry - except Dishy who fakes it and then softens when he hands her a comb he bought for her. The escape scene is my fave ... how cool and funny was his "cut-out" and subsequent "fall out"? Love the CG there.
Chipgap is understandably worried about his new boss. He likes the dude but the obsession with a gisaeng is downright dangerous. To bribe Thunder into trying to be a proper master criminal, he offers to help Thunder get to see Dishy. And what follows is a scene so funny I cracked up like a hyena through it all. Suffice to say, I will never look at maps the same way and expanding view has taken on a whole new side(s). *Cackle*
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| After schedule reading, comes map reading. There should be a best acting by a body award. LOL. |
We get to see Thunder in the only traditional attire in the movie when he impersonates a libertine to catch Dishy on a boat trip. And we realise (as does he) that Dishy might just fancy the oaf. We also get to see him displaying some honour and loyalty which gets his men to really fall in love him whereas before they just liked the dumb log.
There is also the huge battle of the gangstas scene where three of the gangster bosses most supportive of Mandeuk decide to call Thunder out. At first, Thunder is slightly disturbed to see their combined forces and his ... lack of forces. Till Chilgap coolly states that they are the Yangjoo gang ... and out comes their gang members. Whose numbers equal the combined forces of the three rival boss.
So they huddle and bleat out the terms of engagement. No weapons, no hitting of the head, no spitting, no cursing ... wait, one of them objects. No cursing is just too much and Chilgap digs in his heels till Thunder declares that it is pushing it. For some reason, that struck me as totally hilarious.
The fight is all out but fun and Thunder prevails, even after wounding himself with an ill-conceived punch to the noggins of the gangster boss called Big Head. A time-out is called and while everyone is recovering, one of Thunder's man comes crying that it's all been a decoy as men with swords have gone after Odd Ears. Thunder thunders off to the rescue after hurling words of angry disdain on the three bosses.
He arrives in time (although granny had a handle on things) and again, a fight breaks out which he wins. Suffice to say, Mandeuk and his evil court official are not pleased and that night Mandeuk goes all Charlie Sheen with the gisaengs and again threatens Dishy.
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| Flying Daggers anyone? Image attributed to http://www.nautiljon.com/asian_movies/the+accidental+gangster+-+the+mistaken+courtesan.html |
And here's another nod to a film classic. A run through a bamboo forest, firstly between two trysting lovers, and then from a horde of murderous assassins. I half expected to see flying daggers spear through the air. We never quite learn how Mandeuk found out about Dishy's secret missive to Thunder to meet in the bamboo forest so she can warn him that Mandeuk has gathered the top swordsmen in the land to do him in. Oh, maybe it is understood that she was followed? 'Cos the relaying of the secret missive wasn't so ...secretive, ya know? Broad daylight with no disguise in a busy market. Why didn't you just mark the spot with an X while you were at it?
Anyway, Thunder gets beaten to a pulp again by the assassins. Except they cheated by using swords! Gasp! Thunder did! And here is where we get told that in the gangster world it is OK to fight with fists but not with weapons. Essentially Thunder gets sliced and diced and Dishy tries to protect him but to no avail except to give us another nod to another movie gem. Gladiator. It's not as surreally beautiful but still evocative as we see Thunder roll off his protective stance over Dishy and her gobsmacked but lovely face gets a slow-mo close-up.
From here, the movie goes almost a meg-speed. Dishy begs for mercy, offering herself in exchange for Thunder's life. Thunder gets strung up literally. Mandeuk's gang starts killing off Thunder's gang and the other mob bosses. Chilgap tries to protect Odd Ears from Mandeuk's crocodile tears and gets pummelled. He is made to surrender all the Yangjoo gang's assets to Mandeuk and begs for Thunder's body for a proper burial.
Which does not happen as the hero cannot die, can he? So we get the revival scene where Thunder begs for forgiveness and promises to return everything as before, prompting the recently disbanded gang members to un-disband and throw back their severance pay in support.
We then get a wedding scene. Which is notable for one hilarious thing. The Andre costumes. I totally lost it when I saw the bride and groom's costumes. I had seen these in one his catwalks and though, now those would only work in a movie like Bram Stoker's Dracula or The Cell. And here they were. Meta funny.
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| Andre's bride & groom. Too funny. Images attributed to www.hancinema.net/korean_movie_The_Accidental_Gangster_and_the_Mistaken_Courtesan-picture_73090.html?sort=Most_Popular_Pictures |
Thunder's gang (including all the villagers) make their way to crash the wedding with Thunder looking all Rain-like with a hoodie and the Japanese flag on one thigh. The soundtrack is fab here and really lends to the mood. And we're at the wedding and a fight ensues.
Except now the mysterious stranger who had been plaguing Thunder by beating his ass and then appearing in odd moments to offer unwanted advice, turns out to the the prince. Who is on a secret mission to capture the corrupt minister for colluding with gangsters. A fact he is hard put to dispute since he is attending the big boss' wedding, was offered dips on the bride and there's the poster advertising the fight between Mandeuk and Thunder. Princey gets settled in next to the doomed minister and declares he's looking forward to the fight so Evil, Corrupt Court Carrion should pronounce that it is to be a fair fight mano-un-mano. As his fate hangs on the outcome. If Mandeuk wins, he gets off scot-free. If Thunder wins, he gets the gallows.
Odd but he was rather hasty in making the announcement that no one should aid either in the fight. To say Mandeuk is surprised is again, an understatement.
Now comes the one moment of overkill. I love 300 with every bit of my blood-thirsty, art-loving soul but the reference in the fight scene between Mandeul and Thunder was just too much. And too long. The director and CG crew went over-board with the 300 tribute and this scene was strung out too long, making it slightly gauche in execution.
Luckily, for the movie, Lee Jung Jae's charm and acting chops alleviated the slight awkwardness here and we are able to go to the happy ending ... well, happily. All's well when Thunder wins the day. And the girl. Who gives us a bit of a surprise right at the end. But not really as I could see that coming not even 1/3 into the movie.
And it all ends on a high and cute note with the end credits. Which are funny and worth staying back for if you are watching it in a cinema.
So all in all this was an excellent movie. Funny, charming, straight-forward, great acting, brilliant timing with very few detractions except for the excessive tribute and reliance on some movie greats. Still definitely worth a watch, and a few revisits on down days.
I give this movie no remote clicks to fast forward to end, mute or eject disc. Instead I give it 4 thumbs up for a thunderous good time.
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