MovieChat Forums > Gongdong gyeongbi guyeok JSA (2000) Discussion > The English-Speaking Actors... :) ...

The English-Speaking Actors... :) ...

posted 18 years ago by petermoranman
21 replies | jump to latest

...were some of the worst I've ever seen! Did they actually think that they were doing a good job or something? I've seen B-movies with better acting. This will not do for such an amazing film. If they got a few competent english-speaking actors (from ANYWHERE, all you need is a middle-aged white man and a blonde-haired young white man), even hire real Swiss actors! It was truly ridiculous for an otherwise perfect film to have such uncomfortably bad actors on it. Anyone else agree?

"You are the Duke of New York! You are A # 1!"

[–] alluz 18 years ago

Yeah, it was really, really bad.

"This chair isn't so comfortable anymore after this nasty incident. SCHEISSE!"

[–] firstlastaccount 17 years ago

"This chair isn't so comfortable anymore after this nasty incident. SCHEISSE!"

Yes, that line was so lame. Wasn't Sophie's question to a superior officer quite insulting? "So, you're an armchair historian?" meaning that he supposedly doesn't know jack crap about how North and South Koreans really feel about things.

[–] hht1901 18 years ago

Yea... I dont think those English speaking guys were in fact English/American...

But you have to understand... finding the great foreign actors in such a minor role isn't the priority...

I see time to time that some korean american speaking korean in American movie/tv show and their accent is understandably laughable...

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] firstlastaccount 17 years ago

"I see time to time that some korean american speaking korean in American movie/tv show and their accent is understandably laughable..."?

Like in LOST?

[–] billybobd 18 years ago

Well, the characters weren't even intended to be native English speakers...

English is a common second language to Europeans, so this being the only language both the Swiss and the Swede could speak makes sense.

Those American guards that told Nam to put his gun down sounded good.

[–] simiesque 18 years ago

It makes sense maybe, but it's goddamn awful anyways. It doesn't help that the English lines are all corny. "You want me to tell them, 'Hey, please don't pull the trigger!'" or "So they call upon the IM-PO-TENT Neutral Nations Advisory Committee???"

The guy who plays General Bruno looks like he could be a pretty good actor in his native German (or whatever). But that doesn't make a damn difference in the end. Like watching Patrick Stewart speak French. It doesn't matter how godly-good Stewart can be, if he's speaking French, it just becomes garbage.

[–] vicky_lc2001-1 13 years ago

But it's not just the accent, it was the delivery, the acting in those scenes, & of course the inappropriate utterances like explained above.

OPEN YOUR EYES! dailymotion.com/video/xbi2hi_1993-chandler-molestation-extortion_news

[–] OnFireToday 18 years ago

You have to understand that in Korea they would watch the english characters with subtitles, and proabably wouldnt pick up on the bad acting, as well, the director does not speak english well(or at all).

[–] simiesque 18 years ago

Not an English speaker? That's no excuse for Park! : he should have hired a better English-language casting assistant.

I'm one of the biggest Park fans this part of town, but I'm not going to let him off the hook that easily!

[–] QueenNadine 17 years ago

I don't think it was bad acting, just bad English, and as has been said before none of the characters were supposed to be native-level English speakers. What's the problem? It didn't take anything away from what is a brilliant, brilliant movie.

54
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*2010*

[–] sullenboyoo 17 years ago

I speak both english and korean

an have seen a good number of korean films,

the director probably cant tell like we r so easily picking up, that their english sucks and their performance isnt really that great. the swiss girls partner in my opinion was weak. Although the other guy was ok, im not too sure about his accent.

But compared to kim ki duks Address unknown, this *beep* is kids stuff. Address unknown has the worst american acting EVER! OMG! Yet the film is so powerfull.

[–] Ichiban_Sensei 17 years ago

Yes it was poor, and jared against the otherwise flowing performances from the Korean actors. But i never really expected them to steal the show in a film where everything was in Korean.

[–] sofox 17 years ago

It's the other side of the fence.
Most of the time we see English movies with sometimes brief scenes where characters speak in a foreign language which has subtitles. The actors could do the language justice or mangle it in the worst way possible and we wouldn't have a clue unless we knew the language already (or knew someone who did). Hence the makers of the film or TV program wouldn't give it much priority.
Now we're seeing it from the other side, where the movie is foreign, where most of the movie is in a different language, and the brief scenes with a "foreign" language in it is our own native language.

[–] vicky_lc2001-1 13 years ago

That part was the only flaw of this movie IMO. But I can't help myself I still gave this a 10/10.

OPEN YOUR EYES! dailymotion.com/video/xbi2hi_1993-chandler-molestation-extortion_news

[–] svrurl 12 years ago

It sounded to me like none of them spoke any English at all, like they were just repeating the sounds from a script. All the emphasis, phrasing and the way they spoke was just completely wrong. I doubt many Koreans noticed but they were so appallingly bad for a movie like this.

[–] jagga_rmn 12 years ago

I facepalmed with half of the posts here.
Have you ever heard a swiss or a sweedish speaking english?
It's normally not perfect, they do got accents. You can tell me the lines were corny, I'll give you that, you can tell me it wasn't understandable at parts, I agree, but it's not far from real, the only thing I didn't understand at all was why the woman and her superior weren't speaking in french german or italian, but at the same time in Switzerland there are people who speak one language and not the other, so even that makes it believable that they might speak in english.

It's the same as seeing a film about americans in Paris and expecting their french delivery to be awesome on the two lines of french they have in the movie... You don't, people are supposed to struggle when they speak foreign languages...

[–] livan063 11 years ago

But I'm not supposed to see them struggle in the movie. It destroys the atmosphere. I can't even watch this film because the acting is so horrific in the beginning. It is cringe-worthy and unwatchable.

[–] moonjo 11 years ago

Every scene with Sophie speaking English is abso-f#$in-lutely terribad.
It just takes you right out of the movie.
They really should've dubbed her non-Korean lines.