Sitges 2008: DACHIMAWA LEE Review
Evidently no longer content with simply being Korea's Action Kid, director Ryu Seung-Wan has now taken it upon himself to become Asia's Blake Edwards as well, or perhaps an adopted Zucker Brother, with his new comedy Dachimawa Lee playing like the demented spawn of The Pink Panther and Spies Like Us with pudgy Im Won-Hee filling in for Peter Sellers. A head-spinning comic riff on just about every action or spy movie Ryu has ever seen Dachimawa Lee arguably gives just a little too much bang for the buck. There is no joke too obvious, no performance too broad, no gag too - dare I say - salivary for Ryu to include here. Kitchen sink? He's got the cabinets and light fixtures in there, too. Like all films of the type how much enjoyment you get from it will depend entirely on whether you share Ryu's particular sense of humor and film reference library - and there were a number of walk outs from those who evidently shared neither - and the gags definitely reach a saturation point before you get all the way through, but man ... when this thing works it positively soars.
Im Won-Hee is the titular Dachimawa Lee, a 1940s Korean super spy hard at work all around the globe to free his native country from Japanese occupation and root out any who may be siding with the enemy. He is legendarily handsome, he is smooth and charming, he is a fierce fighter and he is as sly as a fox ... and herein, of course, lies the film's very first gag for while the ladies swoon when Lee walks past and foes fall easily before his fists, Im himself is actually a mildly overweight, statistically average sort of guy who obviously has no issues at all when it comes to poking fun at his own appearance or athletic abilities. Plot? It's the sort of twisty, turny, winding affair that you'd expect in this sort of film but the core of it revolves a missing female agent, a mole within the spy agency, and a stolen list of Korean secret agents that could spell doom for them all if it ends up in the hands of the Japanese, which a group of Manchurian bandits is determined to ensure it does. But, really, the plot is just an excuse to string a whoooooooole lot of set pieces and gags together.
And what do we get? Obvious references to the James Bond films - Roger Moore era, I'd say - classic Shaw Brothers films, the legendary one armed swordsmen - Tsui Hark's version, I'd say - a bit of Indiana Jones, a bit of Mission Impossible and bits and bobs lifted from scores of other sources. Jokes? Everything from obvious slapstick to the world's worst runny nose, wordplay, actors happily inverting their typical on screen images, and some fantastic physical comedy from Im. Set pieces? Yes, loads. Fights o'plenty - some played for pure comedy while others are truly dazzling displays of skill - large scale chase sequences, a brilliant slip-and-slide gunfight and so much more that judging from the list of stunt men employed Ryu simply recruited long time friend and action choreographer Jung Doo Hong's entire action school.
Dachimawa Lee is arguably one of those films that would benefit from a less-is-more approach. It simply packs too many gags and too many references into the running time. It's as if Ryu figured he had only one crack at this so he needed to jam in a nod to every film he's ever loved and while many of the bits work just fine on their own the film as a whole would have been much better served by having a bit of space to breath in between the jokes and if the characters had been given the chance to develop a bit of actual character. That said, while it may be uneven in spots and prone to overload its audience there are some truly stellar moments within its run time.
