Dachimawa Lee is a feature-length expansion of a short by director Ryu Seungwan. Largely, it's a spoof film of primarily Corean action/spy films from the late 70's and into the 80's. In some ways you can liken it to a Mel Brooks spoof, back when there were still more focused. Almost all the jokes are rooted in some genre cliché taken to a ridiculous degree and the result is a somewhat uneven, but still terribly entertaining comedy that still manages to have several great action sequences.

The story is about as haphazard as the source material is, dealing with Dachimawa Lee's mission to recover a Golden Buddha that contains the list of all of Corea's secret agents, which has fallen into the hands of the Japanese. A note is that all the Japanese and Chinese characters in the film are ridiculous caricatures, made more ridiculous from the eeeevil caricatures from the genre movies that Dachimawa references. In addition, they all speak their "languages" by throwing together a poorly pronounced small phrase from the original language and then terribly exaggerated Corean (as was often done in the spoofed films as well). This can come across as terribly racist if you don't recognize that it's making fun of the caricaturization of these characters in the source material, as it struck me at first until I realized what the joke actually was. Unfortunately, in this case, there is still no striking contrast to show just how ridiculous these caricatures are, so it's an iffy joke that won't necessarily make fun of Corean action films from the 70's and 80's for everyone.

Along the way, the story takes a bit of a slowdown as Dachimawa gets caught in some part of China (Manchuria?) via another genre cliché. Unfortunately, taking the story as a huge joke on stories from these genre films does prevent it from being a great story on its own and so it ends up being a B-grade story with B-grade characters and development. Fortunately, the comedy and action are top notch (after all, Ryu Seungwan is an action specialist with a comic streak). The way that genre conventions are exploited for comic effect range from over the top acting (as with the titular character),to on-the-money use of day-as-night, costumes and so forth. Occasionally the comedy does range into broader territory, but even then the jokes aren't usually throwaway, which is very welcome as many modern spoofs tend to feature quite disposable jokes. As for the fight scenes, the set-ups are usually quite comedic, but the actual action itself is so well done that it's still quite exciting to watch.

Also have to give props to the cast for being able to play their characters so well, exaggerations and all. Rather than coming across as insincere, the gusto by which the characters are all played really help add to the coherence of the whole. Additional tech details are quite spectacular. I should also note the awesome and often comic score that draws so much from the source genre. Lastly, technical production values are up to date and modern and yet still manage to impart the look of a film from that era as well, which is a great feat.

Dachimawa Lee is a great spoof, although a lot of its effect might be lost on those who don't have a strong grasp of films from this decade and there are probably even more specific jokes that I didn't get since I haven't seen many Corean films from that era myself. But even so, there's a lot of enjoy here in terms of comedy and action, although those seeking anything more than a serviceable story as in some of Ryu's previous works might want to look elsewhere. I was surprisingly amused and would easily recommend this to persons who are well versed in their dated spy and action films. 8/10.

In 1946, Dachimawa Lee is a super cool spy in the vein of Austin Powers who finds himself on a mission to recover a golden Buddha statue with the names of all the Korean secret agents. Along the way, things prove to be not what they seem, and he is forced to unravel a conspiracy.

Basic plot, which is fine. The movie runs at an hour an a half, and is more about the humor, which is straight out of The Naked Gun, the action, the parody of spy movies and Korean entertainment, and the really fantastic editing and music that is straight out of a 70s action flick.

The movie is slick and at least worth a few laughs if you share the humor.

Across the board send up of of almost every type of film imaginable has the titled character in Japanese occupied Korea going after a stolen Buddha with hidden names inside it.

Nothing nothing is safe as the filmmakers poke fun at spy films, martial arts pictures, romance, communist propaganda and lord knows what else. Told with a series of set pieces the action is often fast and furious and while intentionally over done, it is quite a thing to see. Unfortunately outside of the action this film really falls apart. The humor is so spoofy and knowing that even though the actors appear to be playing it straight it all comes off with the wrong sort of a nod and a wink. Its a hyper active attempt at the Aiplane/ Naked Gun type of movie. Yes there are laughs now and again but they were way too few for my tastes. The film has specific takes on some films (a sequence where Lee has lost his memory is supposedly a send up of Tsui Hark's film The Blade- a film I really disliked for example) but if you don't know the films being spoofed much of the humor is going to be lost (it was on me and I've seen more Korean films than many people).

I sat there staring at the screen hoping for some reason to continue but as the film went on I couldn't believe I was still sticking it out. I checked the run time on the DVD at one point and couldn't believe that I had been sitting in front of the screen for an hour with hardly a handful of laughs.

I am so disappointed. This was one of the films that I had really wanted to see at the recent New York Asian Film Festival and was so upset that I couldn't make the screenings that I splurged and I picked up the import DVD. I think I made a mistake.

Given the choice I'd take a pass.