The Tower

Travelling by train ( or more precisely travelling in four trains) yesterday, can be a bit of a chore, but at 51 , I have finally worked out how to download movies onto my iPad, and now can indulge myself with  a bit of mindless cinematic fun to keep my mind off the great British unwashed.
Yesterday I sat through two hours of Korean disaster movie.
The Tower is a shameless rip off of ever Irwin Allen disaster flick of the 1970s. It is almost a remake of The Towering Inferno, with elements of The Poseidon Adventure , Earthquake, Backdraft and rather tastelessly 9/11 thrown in for good measure.
The production looks amazing, to be sure, and why wouldn't it ?.....(South Korea has a habit of bunging shed loads of dollars into its epics) but it despite its Hollywood roots The Tower remains reassuringly Korean in its make up as:-

  • All of the male characters scream  VERY VERY LOUDLY and cry at a drop of a hat
  • There is always one googled eyed screaming comic character to " lighten" the drama
  • Many of the characters refer to each other quite formally as " Mr" or " Mrs"
  • Everything is done at breakneck speed.
It's all bleeding rubbish. But it was polished bleeding rubbish........and perhaps because it was an emotional day all round yesterday,I found  the scene where a dejected cleaning lady Jeon Guk-jyang  gazes up in the night sky at the artificial snow produced for the opening ceremony dreadfully moving.

The only problem with watching a movie on your iPad in a packed train, is that when you laugh, you look like a loon!
I couldnt help guffawing at the moment when at the assembled party at the top of the soon to be destroyed skyscraper, all of the dinner suited guests raised their glasses to sing out a collective  cry of
" MERRY CHRISTMAS"
Possibly the hardest phrase for a set of Korean actors to shout in English!

Hey ho
Working tonight...have a good weekend 

13 comments:

  1. Do they at least get the words at the speed of the film now? I'm laughing thinking of the very old Raymond Burr Godzilla movie :)

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  2. How pleased were those doggies to see you back home. Were you flattened in the stampede?

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  3. I was reading a book on a packed train..I was trying not to laugh out loud ,the more I tried, the worse it got. I ended up not being able to stop laughing...tears streaming...people staring.
    Jane x

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  4. After watching Old Boy I gave up watching Korean films as I was left traumatised...before that I'd seen one with a big sea monster thingy which was almost as dark and tragic......

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  5. What is wrong with watching the world go by out of the train window?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:49 pm

      My thought entirely, Weaver of Grass.

      On a good day you might even find a fellow passenger not wired into some device, happy to talk.

      U

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  6. Anonymous4:04 pm

    John you are the winner of the Easter Egg candles at Under The Porch Light...please email me your mailing address to ournest@live.ca....congrats.

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    Replies
    1. I wonder whether they make Scotch Egg candles?

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  7. Well, if you would have appeared a loon by laughing at what you were watching, how about all those loons apparently talking to themselves (maybe they really ARE talking to themselves, and the cables between earpiece and mobile phone are just to distract).

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  8. Anonymous7:57 pm

    The great British unwashed...haha

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  9. I was awaiting surgery once in a room crowded with patients. I was reading a book and couldn't stop laughing. People stared. I didn't care.

    Love,
    Janie

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  10. Glad you had a good trip, John. ♥

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  11. I was laughing at greening cards once I found a super funny one and burst out laughing and people did look. The funny thing was one person when over to see which one I had picked out.
    O M G ! Korean movie are just like what you said. The TV shows are
    even better everyone cries, birth secrets and awful mother-in-laws.
    The Hong Kong Movie are also interesting, everyone usually dies except many be the head bad guy.

    cheers, parsnip

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