It is funny how things work out. I initially watched Action Boys (2008) intent on writing a view of that truly excellent documentary. However, inside of that film, several other movies appear as projects the stuntmen are working on. The Good, The Bad and The Weird is the one that receives the most attention (especially since one of the stunt crew died in the course of production) and the other was a little known movie called Champion Mabbagi which was released in Korean theaters in 2007, seen by less than seven thousand people during its run in theaters and disappeared. It has not been released on DVD as of this writing. However, I was able to watch it on Hana TV (one of Korea’s ‘direct tv’ services) and I was pleasantly surprised. It is a good film for children but for full enjoyment, it requires a little bit of previous exposure to the television show Gag Concert.
The character of Mabbagi, played by Jeong Jong-cheol, originally appeared on Gag Concert as part of a 5-minute sketch. During the entire sketch, Jeong and three others, including co-stars Park Joon-hyeong (playing Mabbagi’s trainer) and Park Seong-ho (the sportscaster), hit themselves continually on the forehead. The ‘gag’ was a test of endurance and week after week the three would give monologues as they smacked their heads while their arms became more and more tired. As a regular viewer of Gag Concert, I remember thinking that the skit could not possibly continue for very long. It was pretty childish and, I thought, genuinely unfunny. However, I was wrong. The idea caught on and was imitated by everyone from kindergarteners to businessmen. Many people submitted videos of themselves hitting their foreheads in ever more creative manners. It was a strange fad that I, for one, was not sorry to see eventually fade away.
You might think that taking such a premise and making an 85-minute movie would result in a disaster. Normally you would be right. However, the movie minimizes that key aspect of the comedy sketch—the non-stop hitting of the forehead—and instead creates a story with a fairly logical reason of why someone would do that to themselves. And besides being (relatively) entertaining, the movie teaches children a lesson in the dangers of transfats and the importance of eating right although this lesson is done in a way that manages to be humorous while getting its point across. For adults, it offers little except for the frequent cameo appearances of actors who usually just appear on television.
Gag Concert has, in fact, often donated its talent for cameo appearances in film. For example, Kim Gi-soo appeared weekly as ‘Dancer Kim’ later had a cameo in Jeni, Juno as a taxi driver and had a supporting role in Innocent Steps. Actor Kim Byeong-man has been in Radio Dayz (along with fellow Gag Concert alumnus Ahn Sang-tae) and other movies including Kim vs. Kim vs. Kim and My Wife is a Gangster 3. Admittedly, none of these represent great movies, but the contributions of Gag Concert to the comedic acting pool are undeniable.
Furthermore, the cast of Gag Concert seems to have picked up where director Shim Hyeong-rae had left off. After Shim abandoned his Young-gu character there have been very little in the way of children’s movies made in Korea. Various comedians from Gag Concert, most notably Jeong and Park, have been responsible for such movies aimed at kids as Galgali Family and Dracula, Magic Cop, and Bari-Bari Zzang in addition to Champion Mabbagi. Speaking of Younggu, it is interesting how the Mabbagi character follows in the footsteps of that popular character by being an elementary student, clearly older than most of his classmates and put into situations that would normally be reserved for people older than he is meant to be (like a boxing contender).
While I have no intention of ever seeing a movie like this in the theater, I hope that they continue to be made. Children’s films are an important and often ignored genre of any nation’s national cinema. The chances of this movie getting released on DVD with English subtitles are slim to none (a Korean-only DVD does exist) but overall it is not a bad movie for children under between the ages of six and ten.
The character of Mabbagi, played by Jeong Jong-cheol, originally appeared on Gag Concert as part of a 5-minute sketch. During the entire sketch, Jeong and three others, including co-stars Park Joon-hyeong (playing Mabbagi’s trainer) and Park Seong-ho (the sportscaster), hit themselves continually on the forehead. The ‘gag’ was a test of endurance and week after week the three would give monologues as they smacked their heads while their arms became more and more tired. As a regular viewer of Gag Concert, I remember thinking that the skit could not possibly continue for very long. It was pretty childish and, I thought, genuinely unfunny. However, I was wrong. The idea caught on and was imitated by everyone from kindergarteners to businessmen. Many people submitted videos of themselves hitting their foreheads in ever more creative manners. It was a strange fad that I, for one, was not sorry to see eventually fade away.
You might think that taking such a premise and making an 85-minute movie would result in a disaster. Normally you would be right. However, the movie minimizes that key aspect of the comedy sketch—the non-stop hitting of the forehead—and instead creates a story with a fairly logical reason of why someone would do that to themselves. And besides being (relatively) entertaining, the movie teaches children a lesson in the dangers of transfats and the importance of eating right although this lesson is done in a way that manages to be humorous while getting its point across. For adults, it offers little except for the frequent cameo appearances of actors who usually just appear on television.
Gag Concert has, in fact, often donated its talent for cameo appearances in film. For example, Kim Gi-soo appeared weekly as ‘Dancer Kim’ later had a cameo in Jeni, Juno as a taxi driver and had a supporting role in Innocent Steps. Actor Kim Byeong-man has been in Radio Dayz (along with fellow Gag Concert alumnus Ahn Sang-tae) and other movies including Kim vs. Kim vs. Kim and My Wife is a Gangster 3. Admittedly, none of these represent great movies, but the contributions of Gag Concert to the comedic acting pool are undeniable.
Furthermore, the cast of Gag Concert seems to have picked up where director Shim Hyeong-rae had left off. After Shim abandoned his Young-gu character there have been very little in the way of children’s movies made in Korea. Various comedians from Gag Concert, most notably Jeong and Park, have been responsible for such movies aimed at kids as Galgali Family and Dracula, Magic Cop, and Bari-Bari Zzang in addition to Champion Mabbagi. Speaking of Younggu, it is interesting how the Mabbagi character follows in the footsteps of that popular character by being an elementary student, clearly older than most of his classmates and put into situations that would normally be reserved for people older than he is meant to be (like a boxing contender).
While I have no intention of ever seeing a movie like this in the theater, I hope that they continue to be made. Children’s films are an important and often ignored genre of any nation’s national cinema. The chances of this movie getting released on DVD with English subtitles are slim to none (a Korean-only DVD does exist) but overall it is not a bad movie for children under between the ages of six and ten.
