Lost in Translation..and this is in English!!
To be fair, my Korean friend had seen commercials saying this was the "Number One movie in Korea!" and was understandably excited. The other option was Tron and honestly I really didn't want to see another bad Tron movie.
Okay, I've lived in Korea for several years and I thought I had somewhat of an understanding about Koreans and their culture. However, after watching this incredibly awful movie I'm back at square one. First of all, the 50ish Korean director put himself as the main character and OH MY GOD he was doing Korea slapstick that does NOT translate to American culture AT ALL!!! Mr. Shim's a Korean tv star from the 90's and I guess that's all he knows as far as acting goes. I'm also willing to bet Koreans have moved past his ancient act. Keep in mind I was willing to bend over backwards to enjoy this movie, but Mr. Shim's shtick is literally Lost in Translation!
Another point to make is this is one of the first mainstream movies made in America by a Korean and understandably it's a huge deal in Korea, which is cool. This movie probably is a big attraction in Korea because of this. The movie was shot extremely well as far as the lighting, color, beautiful houses/old cars, costumes. I'd be willing to bet that if Shim hadn't made him the star of this movie it could be a big hit with the kiddies, it looked that good.
Sitting next to my Korean friend in the theater I just kept my mouth shut. After awhile I noticed he was nodding off and after the movie he remarked how god awful it was. Made me feel better that it just wasn't me lol!
My recommendation for you is if you're a Korean, watch this movie and feel proud that a Korean director has made an American movie with mostly American stars and that this is a huge deal for Korea coming up in the world. The movie looks good, just the director just had the audacity to put himself as the dimwitted star and used his once popular comedy routines from 20 years ago.
If you're an American, you probably have to keep a really open mind if you're going to see this movie. Just realize Korea is a small country that has made huge strides to get where they are today, the Koreans work hard and have to put up with a lot of crap over in Asia being that they're surrounded by China, NK, and Japan and they always get stuck in the middle. This Korean director has talent--he made D-War as well--he's the only one with the money and contacts right now to make movies (with a sizable budget) in America. I'd recommend checking out this movie just to learn something about Korea, it's a great country to study and learn about.