Afrika

2) I was a little leery when I found out the dvd had been released only fourmonths after the movies theater run, but the movie isnt bad. Its basicallyyour typical womens road comedy, in this case involving 4 korean women whothrough circumstance come into possession of two guns, become robbers, andare chased by gangsters while becoming friends and working thru personalissues. The humor is light and broad, but viewers might be put off by someviolence which is a bit harsh for this type of movie, though for mewatchingthe goofy gangsters smacking each other around was fun (as well as theirverbal banter- they pretty much steal the movie from the leads). Irecommendhorror movie fans check out Kim Min-Sun and Lee Young-Jin (two of theactresses in this movie) in the schoolgirl ghost story MementoMori.

3) If you have watched the Korean action/comedy ‘Attack the Gas Station’(1999), you will be laughing at one of the spoof scenes in A.F.R.I.K.A.

In the movie A.F.R.I.K.A, the four girls went to rob a gas station.Turns out that the gas station owner is the guy from ‘Attack the GasStation’. The owner is frustrated that he is always getting robbed andhe is always forced to sing aloud. In the 1999 movie, he was robbed byfour guys (one of the male robbers, Yu Ji-Tae, went on to be thecoolest bad guy in Oldboy).

An average popcorn flick with four pretty girls. I do have to commentthat Lee Yu-won (Yo-won) looked extremely gorgeous after styling herhair in the middle of the movie.

4) Director Shin is a relatively and unexpectedly long-lasting film makeramong highly competitive film market of S. Korea. He has always devotedto off-beat comedy combined with some tone of social message.

Downside is that he usually picks some low-level performers, andunscripted scenario. The result is always mediocre and the viewer’sreaction is nothing but lukewarm. Afrika is none out of thisstereotype. Four girls have their own personal story, and differentmotivation to grab guns. They settle their feuds, resolve old paybackstoward masculine society.

However, what is the real story? Did he intend to launch a simplestupid laugh for highly-calibered sophomoric Korean filmviewers? Nothanks, and no more like this!!

5) Given the stricter regulations placed on firearms in Asia, it isconceivablethat the average Korean college coed will be about as adept with a Glock19as, say, a monkey with a pair of chopsticks eating Fugu and Chow Fun.Thistheory is proven ad nauseum in the hip chick flick `A.F.R.I.K.A.’, whichstars (I’m guessing) the Korean equivalent of SPEED or MAX in a `Thelma &Louise’-type road movie. In it, two young coeds from Seoul embark on aweekend getaway, unknowingly `borrowing’ a car belonging to a localgangsterwhich contains two real live handguns (Beretta 92FS Inox and ashort-barreled stainless S&W or Colt D/A .357 Magnum or .38 Specialrevolver). Not sure what to do, they embark on an odyssey in which theyunwillingly gain two more companions (a hooker and an ex-con), both ofwhomhave their own personal agendas involving the weapons. While the twocoedsfirst draw the weapons in self-defence (to deter over-enthusiastic males),the unstable hooker wants to steal enough money for a nose job, and theex-con wants payback on her ex-lover who made her take the rap for fundsheembezzled.

By far the worst two scenes involve the actors trying to mimic the gunplayfound in HK flicks, mob movies and rap videos. One involves the`gangster’(who reminds me a bit of Japanese actor/comedian Danda Yasunori) squeezingoff a series of shots with guns in both hands recoiling whether or not ashot is fired. The other involves the quartet carjacking a diplomat’scar,only to find that the driver is a big fan of the girls, who have becomerogue heroes of sorts. The rather confused coed holding the 92FS Inox tothe driver’s head has her right index finger BEHIND the trigger instead ofon it. Oh well. They should’ve given her a 1911 so she couldn’t do that.

Granted, the film would be even less realistic (if that’s possible) if thecoeds suddenly displayed flawless firearms handling protocol, but I mustadmit that watching people wave guns around carelessly makes me cringemorethan even Miike Takashi’s `Odishon’. Okay, maybe not, but it is reallydisturbing. But taken with a grain of salt, the movie itself can beentertaining at times, and while clearly not a masterpiece by any stretchofthe imagination, it – oh, who am I kidding? The plot, if any, was thin atbest and the acting marginal. I don’t know how accurate the English subswere, but if so, then the language (and ethics) of the girls rivals thatofthe gangsters. Mindless fun for the most part, but if terms like`ConditionOne Carry’, `PASGT’ and `Low Ready’ mean anything to you, you shouldprobably avoid this one. Just too painful.