Coming soon: "Expats" an action-comedy

[Caustic Saint]

From The Korea Herald:

The film will follow the comical adventures of a young, underachieving American man straight out of college who becomes an English teacher in Busan. The story will depict his culture shock experience and his discovery of Busan's seedy and infamous "Texas Street" meeting a cast of 'odd' foreigners. The main character and his unusual band of friends decide to rob Korean mobsters - renown for not carrying guns.

"Korea is a very obscure place to Americans; it's in between China and Japan, with no identity of its own for the world to recognize. I want to create a visual picture of Korea for Americans. When I visited Texas Street for the first time, I was totally amazed, because it was just perfect for film. Busan is unique because of the Russian sailors, Russian hostess bars, English teachers, and gangsters," Chin explained.

"Expats" will be a neutral depiction of Korea, through the milieu of the English teacher's experience. The portrayal of Korean gangsters and Texas Street is risky for 'image-conscious' Korean audiences, who boycotted the 2002 James Bond film, "Die Another Day" for its allegedly 'negative' portrayal of North Korea.

"Many will say 'Expats' is negative because it's about some reckless Americans who come here. I have to make the best movie I can; I am not interested in making a public advertisement for Korea," Chin commented.

Oh man, I can't wait for this one.

[GomiGirl]

Oh man, I can't wait for this one.

Written by friends of yours Caustic?

[Caustic Saint]

Oh man, I can't wait for this one.

Written by friends of yours Caustic?

Nope. I'm sure I'll be able to identify with a good bit of it htough.

I expect it'll be close to Please Teach Me English in terms of accessability. If you've lived in Korea, you'll get more of the in-jokes, but the movie should still be enjoyable even if you haven't.

[Taro Toporific]

From The Korea Herald:
"Many will say 'Expats' is negative because it's about some reckless Americans who come here. I have to make the best movie I can]

FGs here in Japan have gotta feel more than a bit of [url=http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/showthread.php?p=42647#post42647#43081]schadenfreude[/url] for the waygooks in Korea. For example, read the following Chosun Ilbo editorial about Koreans in the Philippines calling the locals waygooks. Sound familiar? Have you ever been refered to as a "gaijin" in your home country?

...Philippines. Every time I go there I find the behaviour of the Koreans there atrocious.
We spent in the summer of 2001 on Boracay Island. I vividly remember one such case. A group of us was having brunch at the famous English Bakery there. There was a Korean guide there with a bunch of Korean women. He was calling the locals "waygook" this and "waygook" that. I reminded him that "You are the waygook here, buddie!"...
---DIGITAL CHOSUN Feb 20, 2004

[Caustic Saint]

Ah yes, Boracay, home of "let's ugly foreigners" and Korea's #1 honeymoon destination. (One of my co-workers is going there for hers next month.)

(Oops! Didn't mean to rip your topic, Taro. I caught the "let's bury LiT" part and totally missed the rest.)

[leathernick]

Oh man, I can't wait for this one.

written by friends of yours Caustic?

you (or whoever) didn't write this based on yourself, did you?

[AssKissinger]

When I visited Texas Street for the first time, I was totally amazed, because it was just perfect for film. Busan is unique because of the Russian sailors, Russian hostess bars, English teachers, and gangsters," Chin explained.

That's for real. I used to hang out there. It was wild. I was really fond of this one Korean prostitute in particular. She was just a little fat, had a tattoo and talked to her deaf friend in sign language. One night I was buying her drinks and she was rubbing my cock saying 'Let's go make love!' I told her I was nervous about it because I heard it was dangerous in Thailand. She said, 'I don't know about Thailand but in Korea, a man and a woman make love, no problem.' I agreed on the conditions that I choose the place (I was afraid of getting jumped) and it would only cost me about 40 bucks US. We ended up going to her place anyway. Her digs were tops. It was lit up with this green light and the stereo was set to that Eric Clapton song, Tears in Heaven. She took off her clothes but I stopped her with just her panties on. Her body was really impressive. But soon she was furious with me because I refused intercourse. She called me an idiot and told me to leave even though I had paid for an hour. I bowed politely, thanked her and left. I still came to see again in the bar, however. And I still think of her as a special woman. She spoke English well. One time she told me that the Russian sailors who hired her treated her 'rough'. It made me sad. I felt bad for rejecting her, too. I just didn't want to take the risk of having sex with a prostitue, even with a condom. I hope she's ok now.

[Caustic Saint]

Oh man, I can't wait for this one.

written by friends of yours Caustic?

you (or whoever) didn't write this based on yourself, did you?

Nope. I've never lived in Busan. I wanted to though. When I was looking for jobs last year it was my first choice, location-wise. I just didn't like any of the offers from the schools down there.

If I weren't planning on moving to Tokyo at the end of my current gig, I'd move to Busan. It's supposed to be a really cool town and the option of taking the Beetle over to Fukuoka for a weekend whenever you feel like it is very attractive.

[leathernick]

When I visited Texas Street for the first time, I was totally amazed, because it was just perfect for film. Busan is unique because of the Russian sailors, Russian hostess bars, English teachers, and gangsters," Chin explained.

if they think busan is bad, then i would have to say pohang is MUCH more seedier. I remember big chunks and pieces of it, but in Busan, we had to sober up so we wouldn't be a 'bad american' by example.