다찌마와 리 -- Dachimawa Lee

It's about 11:30pm here in Korea on Aug 17. Anway i just saw 다찌마와 리 and wanted to talk aobut it before i went to sleep. This is Ryoo Seung-Wan's newest film. My Korean speaking abality is rahter low, so most of the jokes went over my head. This film is silly, and kinda confused me at the end, but that's my fault for not knowing Korean. Anyway the film takes place during the 40's, and is suppose to be an omage, to old 60's/70's spy films. The film is dubbed with the actual actor voice to give it that werid slight off sync look. As it goes: Dachimawa Lee is a spy, and his partner gets killed on a solo mission. He then given the assingment to finish the job. While he retrieve his orders he is given a new partner who falls in love with him. When he starts to feel the same way about his new partner he falls head first into his assingment, he actually does. When he get the stolen treasure his partner his partner is killed and he loses all his memories. A woman finds him and takes him in, where he runs into a trobule (someone he met earlier). He then becomes a "one arm swordsmen", only because his arm is in a sling. He regains his memories and finishes his job only to find out that there is a tratior in the organization. That's where things get complicated for me, i don't want to give the film away. I want you to see it for your self. It seems his partner knew about the traitor and had to fake their death.
But it's very funny with Im Won-Hee looking perfect for the part. To me his face looks perfect for a film from the 60's/70's and leading ladies Kong Hyo-Jin and Park Si-Yoen

Olympic Games

In honor of the Olympic Games i thought i should talk about the Olympic Games and what better way for that then for me to go to the Korean Olympic Stadium.
Korean love sports as it is apparent in their clothing. Almost everyone (young people) have on MLB baseball caps, which i have a suspision are fake unless they're only licenced here in Korea.

Their favorite athelete is Park Tae Whan (박태환). I think it's funny how they have other Atheletes winning gold medals like the Archery teams both men and women. Even when Choi Min Ho won Korea's first gold medal in this Olympic games they didn't make as big a deal about it as Park's. The other funny thing is they kept talking about how hard he's training to beat Michael Phelps. The funny thing also is when they swam against eachother in the prelims Park came in first but didn't break Phelps' record. Also when he won the 200 meter freestyle he didn't break Phelpls' record either. When i made a comment to a friend how i think Michael Phelps is faster becasue he still holds the world record she said she didn't care because Park won. Anyway i think they're making way too much of a big deal for him.

Choi Min Ho (최민호), congratulations dude.

Jeong Doo Hong is the MAN

I mentioned a few days ago that I met Jeong Doo Hong. Well he made a phone call and arranged a meeting with me and Hong Kyong Pyo. I looked him up online before i met him and didn't find much, now that i already met him to told me to look under his "english" name and i did. Now I know why Jeong Doo Hong called Hong Kong Pyo. I mentioned to him that I liked one of his lines in the Korean film the Champion (챔피언) where he's drinking and they talk about why the lead character was called "dog" when he was younger, it's halirous. He mentioned a few times to me how lucky i am because he doesn't meet with people for interviews. He told me he usually goes by word of mouth form his crew.But since Jeong Doo Hong called him he would hire me. When we started talking about all the Korean films i know he asked me if I was Korean American, i told him no that i was Mexican American and he asked if i was sure. I had lunch with his crew where i found out i was over dressed. Because I met another cinematographer in American named Man Sung Sun i was expecting a older bussiness man type. So i wore a button up shirt and Kakis, but saw everyone in cargo shorts and baseball caps. He asked if I had a resume or a demo reel. I had to tell him no, this was my first time in Korea and I was mainly doing sightseeing. I never actually expected to have meetings with people in the Korean film industry, except for the meeting Man Sung said he was going to arrange which hasn't happend yet. After we had lunch he took me back to his office, his crew were doing film test with the new Kodak vision III film. Which i thought was kinda funny because we had a small demo and disscussion in my photo theory class.
When we returned to his office, he had his crew assemble a camera to finish doing film tests. We talked a little more and he said he would hire me. That we would start shooting in September. But i told him i had plan to go back to chicago and finish school, she said to me that he never finished film school. I told him that it was important to my parents that i finish college. so he gave me his bussiness card along with his personal info to contact him when I done with school. He told me that there are so few directos/film makers in Korea. that they were all like one big family and that if i worked with him that I would meet everyone. When I return I hope to be albe to speak more Korean.
Now that i looked under his english name i see what films he's done and know a few of them. Here are a few pics from my collection that he filmed.
M - 엠
Taegukgi - 태극기 휘날리며
The Champion - 챔피언

Ellegarden

Even though i'm in Korea i heard some sad info. One of my favorite Bands is breaking up! Although they're staying together to finish all the concerts that they have planned till September. As i look at my itunes i see that I have "Mouse Molding" as my most played Ellegarden. I'm really going to miss them, no pun intended (they have a song called missing). Here are a few video from them

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Jeong Doo-hong (정두홍)

It wasn't easy but today i met my hero!!! it took me about five hours to find him. I was pretty bored, so i was going to try to go to Suwon today. When i said "Heck NO" I want to See Seoul Action School. Soo i looked at the address my friend Jini had given me. that took me all the way to Monk-Dong 목동 which is pretty far from where i'm staying. when I got there i just knew that i was in the wrong place or was i? when i looked at the subway map i saw a broadcasting studio and school on the map. But somehow deep inside i knew I was in the wrong place. I looked around and I was, but luckily on the map there was a location for a Language school. I went there hoping to find someone who could speak english and help me.
There were and they did, i had to get back on the subway and switch over to the green line, line #5 and get off a Hap Jung and then get on the 200 bus. It was another two hours away, then the bus driver told me the wrong gate to get off at. So I walked around the place, I later found Out that Director Park Chan Wook lived there. I met his parents while i was talking to Jeong Doo Hong. It would have been awesome if he was out walking with them at the time.

Park Chan Wook's House? I don't know!

Anway I kept walking around and couldn't find the place, so I asked these two guys I saw. but only after I found a pair of sunglasses on the road and asked if they were theirs since they were closet to it. they weren't so I kept them and then asked them for help. They showed me how to read the map, because (i only know how to read but not understand) it wasn't listed as Seould Action School. it was under martial arts center.

Anyway I found the school, i met him and we talked. He even had some of his stuntmen take me home, they did after we had dinner at Mr.Pizza


these next two clips are for george so he know who i'm talking about,
George you're soooo lame for not knowing who this guy is

KBO

One thing that i've been doing which really makes me a touris is buying anything that I can that says Korea. I've already been to Dongdaemun, Myundeong, Apeondong. Which are really famous shopping locations in Seoul but i haven't been able to find anything from KBO: Korean Baseball Organization. Which totally surprises me, almost everywhere you go you see peolple wearing MLB team hats espically San Francisco Giants which i recently got before i left from chicago. They have a department called MLB where they sell these hats (which i think are fake) but no KBO. When i ask for KBO they look at me like i'm crazy and say with a thick Korean accent "M-L-B". "ANI" i have to say back, then L G Twins, Busan Giants and they understand. While most of the sales men try to help me locate a place to find KBO products, they ask their managers. Which always seem so unimportant to them. They don't even look at the sales guy and just shake their heads no.

With the help of another friend (Hidy) i found out yesterday that baseball season was over and that today would be the all star game. She even told me which station i had to get off, any i decided to go to the stadium to look around. She had told me that the game started at 6:30pm. I got there at 3:30 and there were a lot of people already there. From my apartment i could see the stadium but never knew what it was. I thought it was a circus becasue it looks like a circus tent. Anyway i went and i was able to find the hat i was looking for. thinking it would be similar to a sox's or a cubs game i walked around because i wanted to see if i found someone selling jerseys. I didn't find any. so I got my hat instead which costed 49,000 won ($49 U.S.) because it was a limited edt. for the all star game.


I was glad to see people supporting their own country's sports teams. with it being sunday i couln't change any money because the banks were closed which really sucked because 100 feet away was a bank. with most of my money spent on the hat I only had 20,000 won left, I didn't feel like buying a ticket because i really wanted a jersey instead but I could only get one if i walked into the stadium but couldn't because I didn't have a ticket. I left with only my Incheon Wyverns hat and a free towel from new era.

I first heard of KBO because I saw pics of Bae Doo Na throwing the first pitch at a game.
http://trick1983.egloos.com/1447054