18 새끼

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about baseball.

When I was in Seoul a few months ago, I went to a few games and just had a blast. My good friend Kevin Sweet and I spent a lot of time heckling the only American player [Brumbaugh, 브름바]on the Hyundai Unicorns for the sole reason that he was American. The guy got so pissed at us initially because we heckled him for a whole inning while he was playing in the outfield and then we went by the dugout to do it some more when they were up to bat. From there though, he was able to “get in a conversation” with us. From what I remember, it went something like this: “Hey Brumbaugh, we love you. . . . .actually, I lied. . . .we hate you!” Then he said, “What the fuck is your guys’ problem? How much money do you make? [I thought that was a little weird that he would ask that, but then. . . ] Tell you what, I’ll give you a hundred bucks to carry my bag for me.” Then I laughed and said, “Shut up Brumbaugh, you don’t have a hundred bucks! [You play for a Korean team was implied]” We were really just having fun with the guy and he was mad. However, after they went back in the outfield we went out there again. . .heckled him some more [he started kind of laughing at this point] and then yelled at him that we were just kidding and we really just wanted to drink beers with him. . . . .which was sort of true.

I am getting excited because I will be getting to Korea just in time for the start of the baseball season and I plan on going to a lot of games. I recently obtained a copy of the Korean movie Scout which seemed to be a light, baseball influenced comedy. Since I had the day off and had some time to kill, I decided to just sit back, relax and enjoy this movie.

Now, what do you think of when you think of comedies about baseball? For me, Major League, Bull Durham, The Sandlot, etc. comes to mind. I was ready to see some kind of iteration of these popular baseball comedy formulas. Man I was [still am] stupid. . . I forgot for a second that this was a Korean movie.

I guess I had just got caught up in the advertising for this movie. You look at the posters above and it’s easy to see how one might think that this movie would be a true comedy. I forgot that Koreans don’t make true comedies for the most part. . . there always has to be some crazy tragic moment usually towards the end that changes the whole dynamic of the movie. Sex is Zero couldn’t illustrate this point better as it was basically the Korean version of American Pie; Although the movie was pretty funny, the last fifteen minutes turn into a social commentary about the consequences of thoughtless sex complete with a scene of complications from an abortion. I think the closest thing I have seen to a true Korean comedy was called Master Kims [김관장 대 김관장 대 김관장] which was a cute movie about a Taegyun, Kendo and Woo-shu martial arts master all going for the same girl.

The Scout was definitely more like Sex is Zero. I would have known this too if I would have been more observant; on the bottom poster, there is some Korean writing at the top of it that says, “웃지마라! 심각하다!” which translates to “Don’t laugh! This is serious!” Hahahahahahaha, I thought that was so funny when I read it because it is so blunt and contrasts so much with the actual image.

I am about to talk a lot about this movie in detail, so if you plan on seeing it. . . . . .well, read this anyway. I am not going to tell you to not read what I write. I couldn’t do that to you. That is like placing a a perfectly cooked filet mignon complete with garlic mashed potatoes and corn in front of you, then telling you not to eat it. j/k

SPOILERALERT SPOILERALERT SPOILERALERT

The movie is kind of weird because it juxtaposes a light-hearted comedy about a college baseball scout whose job is to go into the countryside in Gwangju to search for and change the mind of a pitcher that is being recruited by a different college with the drama/romance of that same scout re-kindling the flame with his old college girlfriend who happens to be very active in the Gwangju protest scene. . . .oh yeah, and the movie takes place in the first part of May in 1980, days before the infamous Gwangju massacre.

The first 75% of this movie is the baseball comedy that I was wanting to see. The scout goes down into Gwangju to search for the pitcher who is being hidden from all the different scouts trying to sign him to a contract. The scout gets misled and ends up having to spend a few weeks there. He gets a job at a little school which just so happens to be the employer of his old college girlfriend. From here it is pretty standard Korean romantic comedy fair with the guy going after the girl who rejects him, but overtime warms up to him and realizes that she does actually love him. This is pretty similar to American romantic comedies, with the difference being that even though the girl realizes she loves the guy she still rejects him.

There were some funny gags. The main character is really funny too just by the way he acts. . I want to liken it to Jim Carrey but not that over the top. . .a little more subtle. If you have seen “Sex is Zero” it is the main character who “ate the sandwich.”

About twenty minutes before the movie ends, the scout is just about to finalize the contract with the pitcher that he has been searching for the entire time; the date just so happens to be May 18th, 1980 which is the day the Gwangju Massacre started. This is exactly where the movie changes gears, and plays out more like a 화료한 휴가”or 오래된 정원.

The scout goes back to the school to say goodbye to his ex-girlfriend just before going to dinner to finalize the contract with the pitcher; the ex-girlfriend is getting moltav cocktails ready. They talk a little bit and he tells her that he will start playing baseball again as he did in college. She smiles and says that he always looked best in his baseball uniform just not the striped one [hint hint]. Then the South Korean riot squad shows up at the school to stop the protesting. A riot ensues [what came first, the chicken or the egg comes to mind]. The two get separated but both end up getting arrested.

While at the police station the scout keeps telling the police that he was not a protester and that he was just a baseball scout from Seoul. Then the police officer takes him into a room where they are keeping the girl and interrogating her about all of her different cohorts [they view her as the leader of the protest]. They do this so that she will identify him as one of her own. . .but shock shock. . .she is like, “who is this guy?” And he plays along. . . .damn coward!

The scout goes to dinner to meet with the pitcher who happens to be in a striped, baseball uniform. This makes the guy remember why his ex-girlfriend made the comment about the striped, baseball uniform. Via flashback, the movie shows that after one baseball game the scouts’ team is in a locker room getting ready for a game [in their striped uniforms], then the captain comes in, yells at them and then tells them to rip of their names and numbers from their jerseys and follow him. They go to the scene of a protest and help to diffuse the situation. . . . . . .with baseball bats. The scout got hit or something and then starts going nuts beating some dude to a bloody pulp with a baseball bat. . . . . shock shock. . . .his ex-girlfriend was there and saw the whole thing.

So this makes the scout decide to forget about the contract he has been trying to get this whole time and go rescue that girl from the police station. He gets a bunch of protesters together and they raid the station. There was actually a really cool scene here where the riot squad takes on the protestors in a very narrow hallway. The scout is somehow behind the riot squad and he can see the girl on the other side fighting. So, he starts climbing on top of the riot squad to reach her. . .he is almost there. . . almost. . . .and then he watches her take a billy club right to the noggin’. She got knocked for a little bit, but he gets her out of there and puts her on to a truck going to safety. Then he tries to go back to the restaurant to finalize the contract and the police catch him.

From here, you don’t know what happens to the scout at all; does he go to prison? does he get murdered by the police [most likely]? We don’t know. As for the girl, it shows a flash forward almost 30 years in the future where a baseball game is playing on TV in her house. She and her grown children are watching it and she sees the pitcher who is now a pitching coach that the scout was trying to sign the whole time. . . .and she starts crying. The End. NOW THAT’S A KOREAN MOVIE FOR YOU!

THE SPOILER ALERT IS OVER NOW!!!!!!!!

CONCLUSION CONCLUSION CONCLUSION

Seriously, I do like Korean movies a lot because their directors have the same technical skill for filmmaking that any Hollywood director does. Sometimes they make these fucking awesome movies like Oldboy, Failan or The Crying Fist that just knock your damn socks off and then they make stuff like this. It was very well made, but the whole bi-polar thing can be extremely frustrating. I was enjoying that movie as a comedy. . . .the Gwangju massacre scenes were very well shot. . . .but I just couldn’t stand the two together.

Finally. . .the trailer: