Dachimawa Lee by Yuri Choi

‘Dachimawa Lee’ is an old-style comic movie about a legendary spy who works for Korean independence from Japanese imperialism. He goes on a secret mission to recover a list of names of the Korean Resistance. In the end, he achieves his goals and triumphs, but perhaps a bit too predictably. After the unavoidable void of emotion following the finale, I was reminded of a Korean term “권선징악.” It means good triumphs over evil. The best reason why I mention this term in the most fanciful way is because I couldn’t find other significant messages. Perhaps those other “significant messages” were existent, but behind the shroud of poor orchestration characterized by the unexplained everything.

           I want to discuss about one of the unexplained. The protagonist’s name is Dachimawa Lee. Dachimawa is a clearly Japanese name and clearly one that doesn’t befit an independence worker’s name. Why the film insists on a Japanese name for someone who works against Japan is unexplained. It is especially ironic that even his comrades call him Dachimawa. As a Korean, I do not see this as realistic and doesn’t even fit Korean cultural context of humour. It is most likely that the director was trying send a major message with the Japanese name. However, I believe that the message is too difficult to figure amidst the stochastic unexplained nature of the movie. If the message behind was just for laughs, it would be most painfully disappointing.

           The actors Wanhee Kim,Hyojin Gong, Siyeon Park, and the seungbum Ryoo, who is the younger brother of seunghwan Ryoo, the director of this movie, were acting great, and it was funny. If director tried to lead the spectators to the point he was trying to make, it would a higher-quality movie. After all, a good movie must help and lead its spectators to empathize, not just leave them hanging for the sake of comedy. “Dachimawa Lee” was an okay film to kill, or waste time.