OneMetal.com REVIEW:
Dachimawa Lee

It’s the 1940s and Korea is still labouring under occupation by the Japanese. Dachimawa Lee (Lim Won-hee), is the most super of the nation’s superspy network. And hard at work he is, globetrotting with nary a thought to his own safety in effort to free his beloved country from the yoke of the Asiatic neighbours while simultaneously ferreting out anyone from his own side corrupted into colluding with the imperial administration.

Lee is a living legend as the most sly, stylish, suave and sensationally handsome spy on the espionage circuit. The fact that he’s a rather rotund average Joe (save the brilliantly coiffured barnet) with a prominent set of pearly whites that would put a Grand National nag to shame, just doesn’t register on the reality Richter scale. At least, certainly not with the ladies, who are wont to swoon at his size 8s.

Lee and his slightly sizeable girth swing into action on his latest all-action adventure when the Korean national treasure known as the Golden Buddha is stolen. However, Lee’s initial attempt to recover the diminutive shiny statuette goes awfully awry. With Lee’s evil agent elimination competence now called into question, the catastrophe is compounded by the revelation that a list of Korean secret agents has been half-inched. This is something that should spell the demise of them all if it winds up in the hands of the Japanese authorities. Throw into this Molotov cocktail mix a band of Manchurian mercenaries out for the list, a missing Korean agent who could well be the love of Lee’s life plus a mole inside Lee’s agency who needs to be (literally) unmasked, and there’s a whole load of danger-filled detective work to be done which leads Lee to a do-or-die encounter on the snowy slopes of Switzerland…

Keep your eyes on the prize, Mr Lee...

It has been oft previously uttered that it’s filmic folly in attempting to spoof a spoof: Austin Powers is proof of that overegged pudding. And yet, this is just what Dachimawa Lee earnestly sets out to do. James Bond is an obvious target but this this goes far beyond even the worst celluloid cheesy excessiveness of the Roger Moore years (that slide whistle during the river jump in The Man With The Golden Gun, we’re looking at you!). Indeed, this has much more in common with the scattershot 1967 version of Casino Royale: not quite so many star names pack the cast list but that irrevocable sense of irreverence is certainly there.

For director and co-writer Ryoo Seung-wan, basing this film on his 1998 short of the same name, there are no sacred cows here: anything and everything from the spy, action and romance genres are fair game. Mission Impossible rears its head, to the One-Armed Swordsman series, ‘Eastern’ Westerns like The Good, The Bad And The Weird and Millionaire’s Express and a hammy snow-bound homage to the opening of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. There’s also a mucus malfunction that puts Stephen Chow’s snotty nose in King Of Comedy to shame, not to mention some merciless ribbing of many a Korean spy caper from the 1960s and 1970s.

And ‘merciless’ is an apt adjective to apply to Ryoo Seung-wan’s approach to cranking the comic potential of every single moment of each beat of each scene up to 11 and then keep on trucking. There is so much intentionally awful dialogue, exaggerated interplay, overdriven audio cues, faux period tunes and natty costume design that it’s an overwhelming experience. The direct-to-camera gurning of the characters quickly grates, a lot of the wordplay is unaccessible to those outside the Korean audience while there’s far too much dialogue overall and the meandering plot simply serves to string the action set-pieces together.

This, at least, is where the film really does shine. With Ryoo Seung-wan’s longtime collaborative stunt co-ordinator, and erstwhile actor, Jong Doo-hong at the helm of the action unit, there is some seriously visceral stuff to be sampled with the desert-set dust up as the obvious apogee. These breathless set-pieces actually usher in some welcome respite from the machine gun delivery of gags which illustrates how overpowering the director’s intention is make this a movie the audience will fail to forget.

Lim Won-hee is altogether adept as the central character, showing off his impressive skills in the fraught fisticuffs while simultaneously sending up a more cerebral actor’s persona (and with a slick side-parting to die for). Kong Hyo-jin as fellow agent Geum Yeon-ja is lustrous as ever but frustratingly wasted by the film when she’s got some serious comedic chops (such as in the Park Chan-wook scripted Bizarre Love Triangle or the more recent Crush And Blush) which would assist in steadying the ship. There’s also the obligatory cameo for the director’s brother Ryoo Seung-bum who actually has one of the more reserved acting performances, relatively speaking of course.

Ryoo Seung-wan has previously shown some impressive cinematic credentials in thriller No Blood, No Tears (starring Jeon Do-yeon) and the far superior FX-laden actioner Arahan (also starring Ryoo Seung-bum). It’s a pity that he hasn’t been able to harness the potential of these earlier efforts in a cohesive fashion as letting loose his unfettered imagination on the screen soon overpowers his audience.

Bottom Line

Dachimawa Lee is sadly a simple case of too many spicy ingredients spoiling an otherwise exciting film broth.