Dachimawa Lee is a sexy, shiny-haired James Bond-like spy in the 1940’s Japanese-occupied Korea, assigned the mission of retrieving a Golden Buddha statue that contains valuable information about other Korean agents. After his partner and lover is killed in a mission in Japan, Lee teams up the beautiful Mari and travels from New Jersey to China to the Swiss Alps in an effort to complete his task.
Korea’s top action director Ryu Seung-wan returns, not entirely satisfied with simply making another action flick. Instead, he takes an character from his early web shorts and builds an exuberant, colorful spoof of retro Korean action, influenced by 70s spy pics, David Zucker and Tsui Hark. As a result, this film is packed with so much that it’s hard to keep your head from spinning.
Fortunately, most of it works. Fans of Airplane or Stephen Chow films should be most pleased by the slapstick gags, hysterical dialogue and all-out silliness. The eccentric Lim Won-hee gloriously overacts his way through every scene, grieving extravagantly over the body of a fallen comrade or contorting his brow like the suave lady-killer he is. Director Ryu takes the rapid-fire approach with an abundance of jokes—some all too obvious and some way too subtle— in the hopes that our laughs will outweigh our groans. If the viewer can find this brand of humor appealing, it only gets better as the film goes on with dramatic plot twists and brilliant spy gadgets abound.
And though action is not the main focus like in his prior outing, City of Violence, Ryu still delivers some stylish, well-shot action including vehicular chases, unbelievable gunplay and a tangential homage to Tsui Hark’s The Blade. Why? Because he simply can. He has the freedom with his nonsense plot and high production values that allow him to mock cheesy filmmaking conventions, and bits of wild Korean nationalism, while simultaneously delivering earnestly exciting action. Armed with Jung Doo-hong’s choreography and stunt team, along with fun co-stars Kong Hyo-jin, Park Si-Hyeon and Ryu Seung-beom, Dachimawa Lee is one of the most entertaining cinema experiences viewers can have this year—provided it does not overwhelm them first.
Reviewed by Tarun
