DACHIMAWA LEE (Korea, 2008)
Directed by: Ryu Seung-Wan
Starring: Lim Won-Hie, Kong Hyo-Jin, Park Si-Hyeon, Hwang Bo-Ra, Ryu Seung-Wan, Ryu Seung-Beom

Korea’s greatest action director, Ryu Seung-Wan (CITY OF VIOLENCE), has decided that his mission is to out-Stephen Chow Stephen Chow, and with DACHIMAWA LEE he succeeds admirably. A spoof of Korean anti-Communist action movies of the 70’s and early 80’s, DACHIMAWA LEE is a send-up of James Bond, action movies, anti-communist fever, femme fatales, the romantic world of espionage and pretty much everything else you can imagine. On top of that, it’s crammed with hilarious action setpieces that feature some of the best fight choreography to hit the big screen since the glory days of Jackie Chan.

Dachimawa Lee is Korea’s greatest spy (played by perennial onscreen bad guy, Lim Won-Hie) sporting Korea’s shiniest haircut and he’s called upon to aid his country during the Japanese occupation when a priceless gold Buddha statue goes missing. Not only is the Buddha statue completely tacky but it contains a list of Korean revolutionaries. With the able assistance of Geum Yon-Ja (Kong Hyo-Jin, CRUSH AND BLUSH) they head to Japan (actually, Korea) where his darling is killed by evil Japanese ninjas. Now Dachimawa takes a new partner, Mari (Park Si-Hyeon) and heads for New Jersey (Korea, again) to get some awesome secret spy gear before traveling to China (also Korea) where he takes on bandits, loses his memory and then regains it in a jaw-dropping 15 minute tribute to Tsui Hark’s 1996 martial epic THE BLADE.

Lim Won-Hie’s Dachimawa Lee is a walking punchline, the goofiest looking ladykiller in screen history. And every frame of this flick is packed with high-fall-executing, hard-living kids from the Seoul Action School (featured in last year’s documentary ACTION BOYS) and between the head-spinning slapstick and the jaw-dropping stunts your face will be so busy dropping its jaw and spinning its head that it might just explode. So let director Ryu himself tell you how best to approach it, “Take off your ties, put some flowers on your head, then stop by the theater and laugh your heads off.”