While I assume that most people have seen or at least heard of Home Alone, I suppose it is still necessary to offer a brief summary. Home Alone tells the story of an eight-year-old boy, Kevin McCallister, who was inadvertently left at home during Christmas while the rest of his family flew to Paris and somehow didn’t notice that he was missing until the plane landed. Due to a number of implausible incidents, no one was able to communicate with or reach Kevin for days. When some incredibly moronic and G-rated thieves attempted to rob the family’s home, Kevin was forced to defend his home from the burglars using elaborately constructed booby traps made from items that just happened to be conveniently lying around the house. In the act of protecting his home, however, he basically wound up causing more destruction to it than the burglars probably would have inflicted. It seems improbable that anyone with an imagination should like this movie, but it seems especially improbable that people living on the other side of the world who don’t speak English and who don’t really even celebrate Christmas should like this movie. But I assure you…they absolutely freaking love it.
Two months ago when I first arrived here, it seemed somewhat odd but very natural that Home Alone should be playing on cable all the time. However, two months later, it is no longer natural for this movie to still consistently play on television, even if it were playing in the United States. But this is not the only thing about the Korean love of Home Alone that is unnatural. It is also unnatural that some of Kelly’s students would mysteriously start shouting “Kevin!” when she merely mentioned Christmas. It is also unnatural that some different students would reenact the scene of the movie in which Kevin rubs aftershave onto his face and bursts into a wide-mouthed scream.
It is also unnatural that on the train back from Busan, I noticed that the guy sitting in front of me was reading a full-page newspaper article that evidently had something to do with the movie, as the Home Alone cover photo was proudly displayed at the top of the article. It is also unnatural that when the name “Kevin” was used in a lesson I taught last week, one of my students looked at me, smiled brightly, and said “Ooooh! Kevin! Macaulay Culkin!” What is even more unnatural is that this same student pronounced the name “Macaulay Culkin” with perfect enunciation but is seemingly incapable of pronouncing almost anything else correctly in the English language. If you ask almost any modern-day American teenager who Macaulay Culkin is, he or she will probably just stare at you blankly. So how is it possible that a 14-year-old Korean kid can merely see the name “Kevin” printed in a textbook and immediately associate it with a childhood actor whose short-lived legacy ended before said Korean kid was even born? 
Kelly watching Home Alone in her apartment on February 20th...
It’s bizarre, and it’s a question that I am not prepared to answer. But there is a different question that I’d like to briefly explore: What does the apparent nationwide fondness for Home Alone suggest about the Korean sense of humor? As previously mentioned, the film is basically G-rated slapstick humor that is dominated by completely illogical and ridiculous scenarios that require little to no sophistication from its audience. My intention is not to insult Home Alone nor is it to insult Koreans for loving Home Alone. The truth is that I, too, happen to love this movie, for I occasionally find myself in the mood to watch a mindless film that elicits nostalgic memories of childhood. However, I do, more often than not, prefer comedy that is subtle, witty, and hidden in the dialogue, to comedy that is based on wildly outrageous and improbable situations, and I would venture to say that many Westerners share this same preference. About a month ago, I went to see Sherlock Holmes with some friends from various parts of the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Our row of 9 was the only row in the cinema that ever laughed, and we did so consistently. While the movie was mostly an action film, there was also a lot of subtle humor interwoven into the dialogue. I can’t decide if the humor from that movie was lost in translation, or if Koreans just don’t find movies funny unless an idiotic criminal gets his head torched ablaze by a Machiavellian 8-year-old…I guess I haven’t gotten to the bottom of this mystery after all…
For your viewing pleasure...I'm always a sucker for a good montage!
Extremely entertaining Jess! Mom
ReplyDeleteI wrote somewhat elaborately about the numerous plot holes in Home Alone about a year ago, and about 1,400 words later, I realized that I was barely scratching the surface.
ReplyDeleteNice work here.