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.

Cheeky Man (Yeomtong-e teolnan sana-i, 염통에 털난 사나이, 1970)

(3 Believers)

The original Korean title of "Cheeky Man (Yeomtong-e teolnan sana-i)" means "guy who has a hairly heart", which is an expression of Korean that implies a man who never feels guilty. This film is a comedy film about a scam of religion. In this film, there is a man saying "I am Jeong-gam". "Jeong-gam" in this film means the guy with some super natural power, who is going to be a king.

This is a comedy that laughs at old Korean book called "Jeong-gam-rok" that was historically very popular back in 18, 19 century. It contains all the predictions about future wars, mass-histeria, and a new kingdom. It is probably the most popular prediction book in Korean history. Even some people in 20th century think this book is interesting.

This film is not well directed one, but it anyway reaches its goal of laughing at the people believe this pseudo religion. The problem is many of the jokes in this film are nothing to do with the main theme. The many of them are just lame meaningless routine jokes of 70's Korean comedians, such as showing a man wearing girl's costume.

It begins with a story about a man who is crazy enough to believe he himself is actual "Jeong-gam", and his two sincere subjects. They are wearing 19 century Korean costume, and move to the house of an old woman who is a worshipper of him. The story ends up with the man's failure of selling his "magical healing water" to public.

(Putting healing power)

The odd moments of this film include:

- The man and two followers try to run on the motor way with their traditional Korean style hand carry sedan. The news reporters gather to know about them. But soon the man is regarded as a lunatic. The man and two followers are captured in a mental hospital. But they escape.

- The man thinks a grand daughter of the old woman is very pretty. Since the old woman is a worshipper of the man, the man orders to offer the girl. The old woman gets happy, because she thinks the girl, her grand daughter will be a queen. But the girl and his father hate this.

- The girl's father offers some girlie show at a night club instead of the girl, his daughter. The man and his followers watch a bikini dancer and they do some awful drunken dances to get the bikini dancer.

- The man finds out the girl has her boy friend. The man wants to duel with this boy friend. The man and his followers now dress as fencing, boxing, and Taekwondo costume, and attack her boy friend.

(Duel!)

- The boy friend tries to run away, disguising himself as a girl. But the man now thinks this person in girl's dress or the boy friend is pretty. Then the boy friend threatens the man to reveal this situation to the girl. The boy friend wants money. But the man is actually not rich.

(The girl and her boy friend)

- The man murmurs "I am helpless as Samson cut his hair by Delilah." And the scene of sleeping people follows. The background music is the song, "Delilah". The scene of sleeping people just continues without any words till the end of the song.

- The man hires 3 wandering beggars to play wounded people. The man touches them, and plays putting "healing power" on them, in front of the old woman's family. Old woman's family now believes the man's healing power.

- The man touches bowls of water, and yelling meaningless words, which may be some kinds of spell. Many people buy this water, and pay a lot of money. But a few days later people find out the fact that it is nothing but dirty water. Angry people attack the man, taking all the money away.

- They become penniless wanders or beggars. And they happen to meet their old principal of their elementary school. Old principal beats them, as a punishment. After that, the last scene of the film is they are riding a car running along the some country side, and without no explanation, they are all wearing army uniforms.