Tarzan in Korea (Tajan(Tarzan) Hangug(Hanguk)-e oda, 타잔 한국에 오다, 1971)

This is 1971 Korean movie of a legendary Korean comedian, Bongseo Goo, starring as, of course, Tarzan. It is a comedy that has its story of Tarzan who is missing in Korea, because of an airplane accident.

It is poorly edited, filmed, and recorded movie, however it has simple and clear plot structure. The plot is a comedy that has two components. The one component is a story of wandering Tarzan who is lost in 70s' Seoul, Korea. The other component is a bunch of different people who chase after Tarzan, because of their own purpose.

(The poster)

The people searching for Tarzan are:

1) Country girl: The first person who found Tarzan. Without any reason, girl suddenly likes Tarzan, and Tarzan likes the girl. They move to Seoul, (without any reason), and wander around together till the end of the movie.

2) Country boy: The first person who found the crashed airplane. He sees Tarzan, and tells it to his town people, but they do not believe. Now he chases after Tarzan, proving that he really has seen Tarzan.

3) Tarzan's agent: Japanese guy who planned a Tarzan's show in Japan. Now he lost Tarzan. He desperately needs to find Tarzan for the show. He offers a reward, a lot of money, for Tarzan.

4) Man who lost his father's body: Man whose father is dead. His dead father's body was shipped in the plane, now it is lost, since the exact spot of the crashed airplane is unknown. He chases after Tarzan to know the place of the plane, in order to find his father's body.

5) Chinese astrologist: Astrologist, saying that he has some super natural power to feel any person. He wants to find Tarzan for the reward money.

6) French reporter: Reporter/photographer who wants to take a good news photograph. She is played not by actual French woman but by Korean actress.

7) Chinese astrologist's assistant: A little dumb, but faithful assistant of the Chinese astrologist. But in this film, there is no such scene that he uses any of his power at all. It is just told in the introduction scene of him.

8) Assistants of man who lost his father's body: There are some mysterious guys who obey the order of the man.

9) Private detective: a private detective hired by Tarzan's agent. But he just disappeared from the movie without any reason without any explanation after about the half of the movie. (played by Hae Song, who is legendary TV show host, still hosting popular singing contest.)

(Tarzan played by Bongse Goo)

The main part of the story is a farce, which takes place in a hotel. Why? The reason is Tarzan accidentally breaks the aquarium of the hotel, and he must pay the price for it, so he and the country girl work for the hotel as janitors. The farce is not so well designed, but anyway there are scenes that people chase each other in the hotel. For example, there is a scene that the French reporter seduces the Chinese astrologist, but when he touches her, she has a secret electric circuit under her clothes, which electrocutes him. Any reason of her action or purpose is explained.

(The girl and the boy)

The story ends with a little twist that is the true identity of the man who lost his father's body. He is, in fact, a smuggler. He had hid his diamonds in the body, which were lost in the plane accident. He wants to find out the place of the crashed plane. So, he chases after Tarzan to know the place.

He finally captures Tarzan, the country girl, and the country boy. But Tarzan escapes without no explanation, and chases the man with the girl and the boy. Tarzan is so surprisingly good at moving fast in the woods that he can catch up with the man's car. Of course, this movie is not that well filmed. We can not actually see how he can move so fast. Anyway, Tarzan is also very good at fighting, and he take the man and his guys down, rescuing the girl and the boy.

And suddenly there comes the police, and one of the policemen says "Didn'y you know that Korean police is very good?", taking the man and his guys beaten down by Tarzan.

The final scene is Tarzan leaving the girl, for the show in Japan. They feel a little sad. But the girl and the boy finally get back to their home town, happily.

(Japanese manager(left), Private Detective(right))

This film looks a little more stable than many hilarious films in 70s'. It has clear theme and relatively clearer plot. On the other hand, it dose not have many enough hilarious moments in the movie. However it has its one strong hilarious theme in the film, which is Tarzan in Korea. It looks interesting this theme mixed with all the 70s' Korean cityscapes.