may 05, 2008 10:57am – in Korea
I usually watch movies by obtaining them "legally somehow" and watching them on my computer screen. Until yesterday I hadn't seen a movie in a Korean theater, meaning I hadn't been to a movie theater in three months. Finally the opportunity to break that barrier presented itself, and I went with friends to see Iron Man.
South Korea has the fastest growing movie theater business (along with the single most vibrant movie production industry) in the world, and their theaters reflect that. Apart from the assigned seating and the (roughly) seven dollar prime time ticket prices, this wasn't much different from the big city theaters I've been to in New York and San Francisco. The screen was bright. The sound was (I'm no expert) loud, and quite clear. And the biggest surprise to me was the stadium seating, a very recent touch.
There was only one trailer (and no television commercials) before the movie. It was for "Penelope," the sickeningly whimsical-looking 2006 movie where Christina Ricci has a pig nose. Apparently they're giving it a Korean release. Ordinarily in the states they match genres with the feature. Maybe "American" is considered a genre here, but I doubt it. American movies seem to account for about half of what people watch.
I was fully prepared for big, obtrusive subtitles on the bottom of the screen, but these were narrow, white, barely noticeable wisps of Korean. What I was genuinely worried about was what would happen when a character spoke another language, and it had to be subtitled. Would they forgo English and just subtitle that section in Korean? Would I be confused? No. the Korean subtitles moved politely to the far right side, oriented vertically.
Still I was obviously the only person in the theater listening to the dialogue instead of reading the subtitles, and when Tony Stark craved an "American burger" upon returning from Afghanistan, I was probably the only person who scoffed at the Burger King bag, not because it was product placement, but because if Tony Stark really were from California, he'd have certainly gone to In-N-Out.
But my cultural objections extended well-past the trivial. The opening scene was a bunch of Army Hummvees roaring through the Afghani desert to the tune of AC/DC's "Back in Black." I felt like sinking into my chair in embarrassment, but no one laughed. Then the Muslim bad guys came out. Then the sports cars. Then the American ingenuity saving the world.
Later, one of my Korean friends asked me some questions about conventions in superhero films, such as the beautiful woman. I told her about the expectations of movie producers who have to be satisfied that a movie will satisfy a market.
My skewed vantage point also made me take stock of which quick fire quips (tailor-made, I'm pretty sure, for Vince Vaughan, but thankfully spoken by Robert Downy Jr. who is undoubtedly better in the role than Vaughan would have been) were likely to come across, and which were "a translator's nightmare." One that stands out was when Stark collides with a fighter jet and says "technically, he hit me." In the middle of an action scene it's probably hard to bring across a remark about car insurance. Consequently I want to watch Oldboy with these same friends now, and have them explain to me what I'm missing.
Also, the sudden imposition of Jim Cramer screaming about Stark Industries stock prices on "Mad Money" must have been completely baffling.
I wish I could watch Korean movies in theaters, but naturally they're not subtitled in English here. I've convinced plenty of people to sit with me in the theater and translate on the spot, but I probably won't cash in on that. For the time being at least I'll just keep watching American movies in theaters.