Hello. This is Prof. AKIA. Today, I am reviewing a 2013 Korean movie that is now streaming in America. I have something to say ...Korean Men do not live in Korean dramas
Introduction
There are
many movies that are not great. Among them, there are movies that you may rent.
Aside of those rentals, in a discount
bin, there are movies you may watch when they air on cable TV at night and you
do not want to talk to your significant other.
However,
even with this type of reject movies, some actually have “something” to show
you that is worth seeing although this “something” does not equal “fun”. “Queen Of The Night” is one of those type
of movies that is educational watching once and only once in your life.
“Queen Of The Night” shows a very
concentrated example of what kind of entity the actual “Korean man” is.
And it is not pretty.
Korean
Men do not live in Korean dramas
From
various Korean dramas which are soap operas in general, non-Korean viewers of
Korean dramas tend to have a rather skewed vision of what Korea society is
like. This was true when Korean drama really hit Japan during the 2000s. Korean
men were seen to be this charming, hansom, caring species of human kind. And I do
get why this happened. Japanese men are shitty to women in general! But the
truth is…
Korean men are only slightly better
than Japanese men in general.
They are Still stubborn.
Chauvinistic.
Insecure.
Careless
And
self-centered.
In many
ways, criticizing Japanese men is
like the pot calling the kettle black. However, I’ve seen writings saying that
Korean society is less suffocating for women than Japanese written by Japanese
women.
So… Korea may be a little better.
The only
value of “Queen Of The Night” is that
it illustrates the basic mentality of Korean men albeit a exaggerated one.
The
plot
“Queen Of The Night” is about a “nerd” tech
support Korean guy who is somehow living a charmed albeit lower middle class
life with wife that out classes him by a mile. So, it is like a dream come
true. More accurately, it is like a fantasy.
The wife is
a petite, beautiful, caring, and supportive individual that does all the house
work and also works part time. The man perceives her to be this pure and innocent
fairly come down from heaven. At the same time, he does not really hold in high
esteem her personality or intellect. In other words, the wife is a “pixy dream girl” without personality
that defines what a “pixy dream girl”
is.
One day, at
the man’s school reunion, the man sees the wife enter a dance competition for
the wives and girlfriends and is surprise that she can dance. Seeing that his
pure and innocent wife can actually dance, the man falls down the rabbit hole
of suspicion.
Oh! Did I mention that this movie seems
to be a comedy?
Korean
men and wives
Before
anything, “Queen Of The Night” is not
a good movie even with romantic comedy standards. The only reason why I would
recommend that someone see this movie is that it is not a too painful way of
seeing how real Korean men are like.
The plot
itself is rather cliché and pretty chauvinistic. The story of finding that “your significant other may not be the person
you think they are” is actually the story as old as time.
Well maybe not that old but you get
the picture.
The thing
about “Queen Of The Night” is that it
is very old fashioned and not in the quaint or adorable manner. It is more like
a “before women can vote” kind of old
fashioned.
In the
U.S., these type of “married a perfect
wife who I put on a pedestal and but found out she has a past not as clean as
my fantasy requires” movies could be seen a lot during the 60s and 70s. And, in most of those movies, the man feels
betrayed although the wife had not done anything harmful towards the man
directly. In other words, the men are offended by “violation” of feminine purity fantasy.
When the
roles are switched around in movies, men tend to be involved in more
significant acts. They could be a spy, a serial killer, or a thief. If you want
to go more mundane, they could be having an affair. In the U.S. nowadays, this
has become more of a standard with man and women having an equal chance of
being a spy or a killer. The offending act of “Queen Of The Night” is comparatively frivolous.
Insecurity
and Korean men
One thing good
about “Queen Of The Night” is that the
men do not come off looking good at all. The male lead, the husband, is riddled with insecurities. He is in the position in
which he is married to someone out of his league and, at the same time, feels
that she is not good enough. By being a comedy, the movie portrays the male
lead as being an idiot. This is not
helped by the fact that he is very nerdy and lacks social skills and common
sense throughout his search into his wife’s “shady” past.
Having the perverted geek best friend
tag along all the time does not make the male lead come off any better too.
The less
than faltering portrayal of men is the same for the other men in the movie
since most of the men are no more than frat boys. A good example is the dance
competition at the school reunion. The concept of getting your girlfriend or
wife dance on what is basically a cat walk surrounded by literally howling drunken
guys is rather demeaning in itself. The movie emphasizes this filming it as if
they were no other women in the crowd.
Another thing
that is off is that the men do not have their own dance competition. It is only
for women. Not only is this because of the chauvinism but it is because Korean
men are insecure. Getting up and dancing in front of everyone’s gaze requires a
lot of confidence. In that crowd of howling frat boys, it seems that there are
no men with the level of confidence to do it.
There are only two types of men there.
Those with impure thoughts
And those who are passing judgment.
“Queen
Of The Night” and women
The odd
thing about “Queen Of The Night” is
that, even among the chauvinism, the women seem to come out looking better than
the men. This is not a difficult thing when you take the men in the movie into
consideration.
The problem
is that the movie does not treat the women as anything other than plot devices.
“Queen Of The Night” is centered
around how the wife differs from before and after she met the male. However,
there is no why this happened. Why did she change from someone who was having
fun and actually had a personality to a “Stepford
wife”?
I do not know and I think the movie
does not care.
Even when
the conclusion of the movie comes, you do not know much about the wife compared
to the end of the first act of the movie. And the movie is OK with it. This is
not surprising since the movie barely put in any effort into the resolution of
the plot driving problem.
There is no big gesture. Only a
minor one.
The male does not learn anything
other than not being a cry baby.
And the wife does not become an
actual character.
At the end
“Queen Of The Night” is not a good movie
but it is oddly and unintentionally revealing about the Korean male psyche. If
you are interested in Korean society and have a distorted rose tinted glasses
on for Korean leading men, the movie “Queen
Of The Night” may be educational.
Score: D or 2.25/10
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Reviewer: AKIA Talking
The pictures and video used in this review are done for criticism purposes and are the properties of those copyright holders. This is review is mine.
Copyright@AKIA Talking
Reviewer: AKIA Talking
The pictures and video used in this review are done for criticism purposes and are the properties of those copyright holders. This is review is mine.
Copyright@AKIA Talking
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