Flowing of the B-movies

dEarly Sommer is just ahead. In Korea, we tend to see horror movies and tell one another horror stories to avoid the heat. I don't know exactly why it is so, but it just happens to be the case. So, for this Sommer, I will recommend you some funny horror movies. As you know, these days movies are made not only in one distinctive genre. The genres are rather combined, and we can see more than one genre in a Movie. So, I will give you some information about horror movies which have a tint of comedy.

d"Dog Soldiers", "Dawn of the Dead" and "Slither" are very typical, and also good comedy-horror movies. At the same time, these movies are called B-movies, because you will know at the end that the movies are made to look shabby, intentionally, that is. You will also fall in nihilism when you arrive to the end. Nevertheless, these movies show the general fear of the human being, showing terrible aliens who attack a town, or werewolves who attack people in the night in a dense forest, or zombies, who attack the entire world. These movies can make you really feel the threat, but they also make you laugh. Everytime after a horrible scene, you will see funny situations, which will make you laugh, though the situation is very serious for the protagonist. This is the point, why it's funny. It shows some earnest scenes for the protagonists, which will hold sway over the destinies of the protagonist, yet paradoxically you also have to giggle, because of the senseless handling.

dNot to reveal any spoilers, I will give you no information about the plot. It is better to see these movies alone in the night, so that you can enjoy the extreme tension. Surely, there must exist a lot of such comedy-horror movies, which I do not know. So, please share information with me when you find a good one.

School of Rock

The movie School of Rock is a comedy film that is good enough for a whole family to watch together. This movie is starring Jack Black who is a genius comedian and also a musician.

When I first saw the poster I didn’t expect that much because I thought it was for kids only. However this movie was pretty successful both in USA and Korea, and it was more popular among the adults.

This movie is about a rocker(Jack Black) who was kicked out of his band by his friends. His roommate asked him to move out because he didn’t pay the rent, and Jack Black pretends to be his friend and works in a school as a substitute teacher. He makes a band with students, and they participate in a competition.

Music and Lyrics

Alex, one of the most famous pop-stars in 1980's, is out of season nowdays. However, he gets a chance that Cora Corman, who is the most famous idol star, suggests him to write a song and sing in a duet to rise again. But it has been a long time since he had written songs, further more, he has never written lyrics, Alex has a hard time as the dead line coming closer.

However, the savior is close to him. Sophie, who waters Alex's plants, is not only a good poet but also witty. So Alex suggests to Sophie that she should write lyrics. As she accepts his proposal, he becomes lighthearted with thinking about making a good song, however, he finds the reality quite different from what he works with a girl of recklessness.

'Music and Lyrics' is the romantic comedy movie that Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore are appeared as a couple. It is of course that Drew Barrymore is pretty lovely, the reason why I really like this movie is that Hugh Grant radiates his charm mostly. He was born in England, and while he was in Oxford, he made his debut in 'Privileged(1982)'. In addition, he became famous for 'Four Weddings and a Funeral(1994)', and after that, he was known for the best actor of romantic comedy movies. Even though he's getting old, it is hard to find the signs of pasting time from him. On the contrary, his acting is getting mature, and the movie 'Music and Lyrics' is also one of the movies that I can feel his attraction.

Deuce Bigalow

Deuce Bigalow is also a comedy movie starring Rob Schneider. This movie was released in 1999 and was not so much successful also. However I liked this movie so much and want to recomend other people to watch it.

This movie is about a fish tank washer(Rob Schneider as Deuce Bigalow) becoming a male gigolo. Deuce was supposed to take care of a male gigolo's house but breaks his fish tank accidentaly. To make money to fix it, he begins to work as a gigolo. He meets lots of uncommon women and becomes their friend. Finaly, he meets a girl he has been dreaming of.

This is also a good movie to watch at home alone or with friends.

the Hot Chick

This movie is a comedy film starring Rob Schneider. It was released in 2002 and was not that successful. However I liked it pretty much and I think it is a funny movie that is good enough to make you feel good.

This movie is about a pretty teenage girl who gets her body changed with a dirty man(Rob Schneider) accidentaly. She behaves like a hot young chick but her appearance is a man. He is considered as a gay by others. Rob Schneider acts perfectly like a real gay. I laughed so much watching it.

For the people who likes Rob Schneider or Anna Faris, or who just wants to laugh I strongly recomend them to watch this movie. This movie is going to blow all of your stress away.

My Sassy Girl

This is one of the best Korean romantic comedy film that I’ve ever seen. This film is the perfect mix of comedy, drama, romance and some of the best storytelling.

My Sassy girl is based of true stories posted by Kim Ho Sik on the Internet describing his relationship with his girlfriend. These stories were later transformed into a best-selling book and a movie follows the book closely. It describes the meeting of Kyun-woo and an unnamed girl. Kyun-woo is shamed into assisting the girl because the other passengers mistakenly think she is his girlfriend. Once he helps her, Kyun-woo develops a deeper responsibility for her which enables him to tolerate the girls abuses.

I think I’ve seen this movie more than four times and still loving it. Because of that unpredictable and enjoyable love story and the two characters in the movie were awesome and touching. The humor is easy to understand and was not much about Korean culture, so even if you are not familiar with Asian comedies, you won't have any problems in liking the type of humor in the film. Be ready for a lot comical situations, great laugh and some unexpected surprise along the way.

By Amy

Attack the Gas Station

This is a Korean comedy movie. It is about four guys attacking a gas station just for 'fun'.

This movie was released in 1999, and unexpectedly, made a big hit. I and my best friend liked it so much, so we bought the video tape and watched it for more than 5 times.

My favorite character of this movie was Kang, Sungjin who played a weird rocker. His lines in the movie are extra funny. The best part was about a can of Pepsi. He insisted that Pepsi was a Korean company because its trademark looked like the national flag of Korea.

White Chicks

White Chicks, 2004, It's about two African-American FBI detectives, Kevin and Marcus, are in charge of babysitting two of the Hollywoods most annoying sisters, Brittany and Tiffany Wilson. But when they are escorting the girls to a hotel the car has a little bump causing them to scratch their noseand lip, which is such a big deal to them. With these scratches it is definately can't show their faces in public, but they need to be at Hollywoods largest charity event or they will blow theFBI's cover. So the two guys are transformed into two white women who could pass for Brittany and Tiffany. The Kevin and Marcus must keep acting like the sisters until they catch the kidnappers and restore their reputations.

The Wayans Brother played excellent parts, and really made me laugh. This was one of my favorite comedies. It's an excellent movie. I totally understand why many love this movie, but some really think it isn't worth watching it. If you want to see a serious comedy, you won't like this one because it's very absurd. However, the plot is very unreal, something you won't see in real life. When the two guys are transformed into women the outfits looked completely fake, and they looked more like alians than females, but I was still able to get passed all that and see one of the best comedies. The acting is great, the plot is very entertaining so I recommend this movie to everyone who wants to laugh a lot and enjoy a great comedy.

Before you watch it I advise you to eat as little as possible cause your going to laugh so much that your tummy's going to hurt.

Comedy or Horror?

Shaun of the Dead

Like it say on the poster its 'Romantic Comedy with Zombies'


The road to comedy isn't a one way road. It has lots of forks and arrows. It just has to reach laughter. So today there are more and more genre fusion. The boarder line that separated the genre are getting thinner.

The movie 'Shaun of the Dead(2004)' is on of the fusion genre. Its a comical horror movie, and also a parody version of the George A. Romero's Dead movies.

The movie is about appliance salesman Shaun who is not doing well in his life, and his friend Ed who is doing nothing in his life. One day people stated to turn into zombies so Shaun and his friend decided to rescue Shaun's mother and his girl friend. Shaun is a 'Think not to much easy thinker' so he thought it was going to be easy. But thinks gets tricky and unexpected happens.
This movie is a zombie movie and It also has blood and gore in it, so it's a so it horror film. But the way of Shaun and his friend trying to solve the problem and how they act to the situation is somewhat foolish and funny, so it's a comedy. If you see the film, at start its usually comical no scary stuff, zombies are no threat to Shaun and his friend. Only to be beaten by the foolish plane. But at the time go by and things don't turn out as it suppose to be, it starts to be horror movie. But still they don't take away the laughter by the wacky acts.

The danger of the fusion film is that if you combine two genre it could the nothing of both. So people who like comedy won't watch it and people who like horror won't watch it, neither.
But the good thing for these fusion genre is that you can make more kinds of people to watch it. People who likes comedy and don't have interests in horror movie might watch this movie because it has comical part and start to like the horror genre or be interested in it. And same as the opposite person.
As time goes by people want something new. So the fusion of the genre will go on.

Vaya Con Dios

dExcommunicated from the Catholic Church, only 2 monasteries of the Cantorian order remain in these days. They need no church, but only music, which should make them find the holy God through the wonderful sounds, which however is against the Catholic doctrines. As time goes by, the monastery must close down, because of a lack of funding. So, the monks embark on a journey to find a new place for continuing their life and the legacy of the Cantorian order.
dBenno, Tassilo and Arbo, the last 3 monks in the monastery, leave their lovely homeplace, and the long journey to italy, where their mother-monastery is located, begins. Like a scholar, Benno's full concern is about ancient literature. Tassilo, who is from a farmer's family, loves to eat and to make food. And Arbo, who is the youngest monk among them, was raised in the monastery since he was 2 years old, never even having the chance to accumulate any knowledge about the outer world.
dThe journey leads them to their past life, where they have escaped from, before they turned monks. And this awakens some desires for their past lives, or the alternative lives they could have had. These challenges are presented to them as temptations, and each of them has to overcome it.
dA movie about religion might be boring, but this movie made the theme easy to understand. One attractive point is the vocal harmony of the 3 monks, which will purify our minds when listening. It is also funny to watch, whether they can reach italy, or not, to the end.

by neri

What ia Parody?

Parody is one of the comic movie genre, today they are no so popular but there was a time when there was a parody movie of a big hit movie at that time,
The word parody is defined as "parody is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject." On Wikipedia.com. And on Collins English Dictionary it is stated "A parody is a humorous piece of writhing, drama, or music which imitates the style of a well-known person or represents a familiar situation in an exaggerated way" So parody comedy movie is usually about making a conventional or maybe serious screen and cliche into unexpected funny situation.

For example, Spaceballs (1987). Its a parody movie of Star Wars. It follows the main out line of Star Wars. But as it goes to the end you can see the changes to make it funny. Like when Luke come to faces with Darth Vader Vader says "I'm your father", but in Space Balls he say "I'm your father...s friends ...and his room mates..(and so on)"

The recent parody movie is 'Shrek 2' which was released on May 19, 2004. The movie took the conventional Prince and Princess fairy tale story to a not so prince and princess story. Usually it was about prince and princess, monsters, and witches. But on Shrek its about Ogres and princess, evil fairy and prince. They changed the act of the people. So they are making the screen of the movies unpredictable.

Then why is it funny? The main idea is that you know its coming but you don't know when and how it will turn up. Its like horror movies, the music comes in and you know its gonna happen but it always surprise you. In parody movie you just have to replace to scary feeling in to laughter.
But the down fall is that you have to have a knowledge of the movies they used so you can expect the unexpected. And some times they use social and political subject so you might not find it funny. Although its not a universal key to laughter, if you have the right taste it the best of them all.

Hot Shots!

Have you ever seen movie 'Top Gun'? Its a story about an United States Navy F-14 Tomcat pilot. Well the movie I like to introduce is also almost the same , except well.......that it is more wacky.
The movie 'Hot Shots!' was on screen on July 31, 1991. Starting by Charlie Sheen. It's a spoof movie, parodies and laughs all to the end. This movie plot line is mainly parody of the movie 'Top Gun' so the concept of the main character is almost the same. Navy pilot, and falls in love with his therapist, also rivalry and friend-ship. But other than those, they brought up lots of other pictures scenes and mad them funny.

Movies used in this film are 9½ Weeks, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Dances with Wolves, Rocky, Gone with the Wind, Superman, Marathon Man, Iron Eagle. It's really fun to find out what seen was used in 'Hot Shots!' and how they made it funny and wacky. So If you want a big laugh you should watch those movies before you see the 'Hot Shots!'.

There is a sequel to the movie, 'Hot Shots! Part Deux'. This time Charlie Sheen goes to Iraq to rescue a team. Well the story line might be familiar. Because this time the main stream of this movie is 'Rambo: First Blood Part II'. The movie stars like Rambo: First Blood Part II. But goes off road and ends up some where in between 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day'. And also the use the famous scene from 'Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope' where Darth Vader and Obi won meet.


This time movies they used are Rambo: First Blood Part II, Apocalypse Now, Predator, Missing In Action, Commando, Our Miss Brooks, Star Wars, Kickboxer, The Karate Kid, Lady and the Tramp, Casablanca, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Looney Tunes, No Way Out, Basic Instinct, Platoon, The Guns of Navarone, The Wizard of Oz,The Godfather, RoboCop, American Gladiators, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and the Energizer adverts. They used some sceens or used their cliché plot.

'Hot Shot!' is a real knee deep parody movie. From start to end its all most made up of it. And they use the scenes and cliche plot properly and show it to you when you never expect it.(Except scenes are meant to be expected) But you have to see the movies they used first. When I saw the movie first time, luckily I knew most of them so I had a real fun time. So I had to watch the sequels. But its a challenge to see all the movies they used, so if you don't have the time I recommend to see the Dances with Wolves. and Top Gun for the 'Hot Shots!', and for 'Hot Shots! Part Deux' you should see Rambo: First Blood Part II, The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars Episode IV, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Its a must see movie if you like parody.

S diary

A cute romantic comedy story about a girl Jini and her memories of first loves. Jini gets laid off by her boyfriend, that he was only interested in making love to her but no in a lasting relationship. She's puzzled and tries to find out whether her past three lovers were also only after her favors. So Jini checks back on her previous boyfriends.

The first love is Goo-hyeon, a church choir teacher, but eventually left her to become a priest. The second is Jeong-seok, a traffic cop who left Jinny when he found a rich woman and the last is Yoo-in, a graffiti artist, whom she left because he was too flirtatious. She has fallen in and out of love with all of them and reflects on the memories that they shared.
The turning point in the movie would be when she tries to get revenge on her loves until they've learned a lesson. Suddenly the movie takes a turn from cute romance love story to funny petty revenge. Its all in good fun though as most of the tactics she has are harmless and just cute.

This movie made me think about my past lovers, even though you've experienced bad breakup's in each relationship there exist beautiful memories.

I recommend S-diary for those who have loved and lost.

by Amy

The Beauty Is Painful

169cm, 95kg. This is the body size of HanNa, who looks like a wrestler. She songs pretty well, however, because of her fat and ugly face, her job is a backstage singer, so-called a singer without face. On the other hand, SangJun, the producer, is a really handsome guy, and HanNa loves him secretly. One day, She is invited to SangJun's birthday party, and there, his friends are making fun of her appearance.

Shocked HanNa decides to make changes. She goes to the plastic surgery, and asks a doctor to get a surgery, liposuction and lifting face. Even though the doctor suggests to stop her from getting the surgery, because it is too dangerous, but she goes through. Anyway, the surgery is successful, and she is changed from a fatty and ugly woman to a sexy girl. However, her appearance is not the only thing that is changed. All the attitude toward her from the people is changed.

The movie, 'The Beauty Is Painful.', if the story about a woman, who experiences many events by changing her appearance. You can laugh a lot while you watching it, because the genre of this movie is comedy. However, after watching it, you may feel some pain in your heart, because the movie shows that how much our society judge the people by the way they look.

My Scary Girl

Korean romantic comedies were never quite like this!

Dae Woo, is a university lecture of English, yet due to his awkward and shy nature around women, his never been on a date with a woman. However a beautiful art student Lee Mi-na moves into his apartment complex. Dae-woo asks her out and finds himself in an almost too good to be true relationship. Yet, Mi-na seems to be hiding something sinister and Dae-woo encounters an interesting twist to his fairy tale.

My scary girl has all the typical romantic setups but it turns the whole genre upside down. The unexpected result makes the movie delirious and tremendously refreshing!
Personally I really love Daewoo's character, theres no guy that is sincere and pure as him.

by Amy

My boyfriend is TypeB

This movie is a romantic comedy about relationshi between blood type A woman and type B man. It targets those audiences who still believe in the magic of blood type--personality analysis based on blood type.

According to national surveys, a majority of young people believe that blood type determines a person's personality whether it has been scientifically proven or not

The handsome type B guy in this movie is individualistic, egotistic, sentimental, but very gentle to girls. He dates a woman with type-A which is well known for being faint-hearted and timid. She blindly believes the myth of blood type and comes to have a desperate crush on him. As they continuously meet, she is deeply hurt by her self-centered boyfriend and is determined to break up with him. He eventually regrets his behavior and turns his mind toward her again, but he then has to face a harsh reality (also based on the blood-type myth): a blood type-A girl seldom reverses her determination.

I personally dont believe in blood type theory and i dont think many people outside Korea would believe in the theory either. However, if you want to find out about the culture of Korean young people, this movie might help.

I'm not sure they have the same blood types as in the movie, but the main characters actually have dated each other for couple years.

mapado(2005)

It is a Korean comic satire directed by Chu Chang-min.

Mapado is an island inhabited by five strong grandmothers who share all production, distribution, labor and possessions together on an equal basis.

They have not seen any men for 20 years.

Then, a corrupt detective named Chungsu is on ambush duty on Mapado along with macho man, Jaecheol,

in search of a woman who has concealed her whereabouts after hiding 16 billion won -- prize money from a lottery originally won by Jaecheol's boss.

When they arrive Mapado, these two men are exploited by five grandmothers.

and their adventure concerning how to overcome seduction and to find a billion won woman begins.

Five women in this movie are talented, legendary actresses of Korea as well as Lee Mun Sik who is playing the part of Chungsu.