Going to the movies in Korea is very therapeutic. If you need to just get away from the "Korean-ness" of Korea, go watch a Hollywood block buster. I always liked movies in America, but here they are almost a necessary indulgence--like ice cream, a good hamburger, and sleep.
But going to the movies is a little different. At home, you can easily pull up the movie schedule on the web. Here, for the first 7 months, Sarah and I would go to the theater, see when the next English movie was playing and then go buy tickets (usually for a movie that was showing in 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours away), and then go to a coffee shop/out to dinner.
Luckily, we were shown the online theater website--but guess what? It's in Korean. We have learned the written language--but that doesn't mean it doesn't take about 15 minutes to check out the times. One of those little things that would seem so easily but that is dastardly lengthened due to being in a foreign culture. I let Sarah be in charge of looking online.
Most movies are pretty straight forward. They are in English but with Korean subtitles. Being that the English movies are limited and played for a short time--I have seen movies that I wouldn't have at home. It is always a gamble. I don't watch Korean TV so I don't get to see any of the commericals about films. So we walk into movies that we have no idea what they are about.
One example of that was Nicolas Cage's The Season of the Witch. We just saw the poster: Nicolas Cage with a Sword. We thought it would be some regular "Magical Apprentice"-esk movie. Boy, were we wrong.
This does not look like an exorcist movie! Needless to say, it was ride. I think I actually enjoyed the movie that much more because I didn't know I was going into a bit of scary movie.
Another problem we run into is dubbing. Sarah, Jessica, and I went to go see Megamind. (Say what you will about 20-30 year olds going to see a Disney movie--but you can't deny that Pixar has some good movies!!) Well, we buy the tickets and we notice there is something just a little "off" about the way the ticket seller was acting. We get into the theater and talk a little bit to the kids in front of us. The movie starts. And we look at each other, confusion written on our faces. And then back to listening...and then burst out laughing. The whole movie has been dubbed. We spent 90 minutes trying to follow the movie (which, luckily, wasn't a very hard plot). We caught certain words that were from English--like "Downloading" and "Warming-up." We clung onto those words for all they were worth. And let me tell you, it is really strange to hear the "Brad Pitt" character say one of those smwarmy "hello" (like to a lady) in Korean. "Ann-yong--haa-seee-yo!!" Just doesn't sound the same.
On a similar note, on Saturday, Sarah and I went to go see X-Men: First Class. It was really good. A great paced movie with fun effects and a nice story. A great summer block buster. I was impressed. There was just one problem. The movie is located in different places around the world: Germany, Russia, France, and somewhere in South America. Which means, the languages change. Which means, while most of the movie was in English--there were scenes in German, Russian, French, and (I'm guessing) Spanish. Subtitled in Korean. ... Yep, that was a problem. The first time this happens is in the scene the bad guy in the movie shoots Magneto's mom (trying to get Magento to move the coin). In this tense-riddled moment, Sarah and I look at each other and burst out laughing. Silly Waegooks! [foreigners] Oops!
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