Dachimawa Lee

The movie Dachimawa Lee is an action-comedy movie about a very silly spy, Dachimawa, who goes into an adventure in search for a golden Buddha. The setting is very diverse, including Manchuria, which has a cowboy theme that is similar to the movie The Good, the Bad, the Weird. Howver. The comedy genre used by director Ryoo seems to me very old-fashioned, with lots of exaggerated reactions and clichés.

There were many elements that I found very strange in how director Ryoo made the movie. First, the extensive use of Chinese and Japanese in the movie kept throwing my attention away. I remember in other movies, like in Blue Swallow, the extensive use of Japanese left an impact in the audience. The proficiency of the Japanese language by native Koreans demonstrated a blur in the identity between the two nationalities in Blue Swallow. However, in Dochimawa Lee, the extensive use of foreign languages did not get a clear message through.

Furthermore, the rather old-fashioned comedy style that matched the time setting of the film was in my opinion brilliant, but unentertaining for today’s audience. A comedy style that is very reminiscing of the 70s that made the movie setting more realistic was an interesting approach, yet it would have been better if the comedy style was recreated into a more modern and realistic style.

            Nevertheless, I found the movie pretty light compared to other movies that were assigned this semester, and that a bit more tension and seriousness could have made the movie even more captivating.