Apr

30

2007

Moodori

Posted by luna6

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Movie : Moodori / Mudori / 무도리
Release Date : September 9, 2006
Country : South Korea
Director : Hyeong-seon Lee
Starring : Yeong-hie Seo, In-Hwan Park, Ju-Bong Choi
Run Time : 109 Minutes
Editor Rating : 5.0
Users Rating: 7.67 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars (3 votes)

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Plot Synopsis : Moodori is a small village in the mountainous province of Gangwando South Korea. The village revolves around three elderly men named Bong-Gi, Hae-Gu and Bang-Yun. The fortunes of the village gets turned upside when a young man that was passing through town commits suicide there. The young man turns out to be the webmaster for a website centered group assisted suicides. The town of Moodori becomes a destination of sorts for other people looking to commit suicide. Now the three elderly men decides to take advantage of their village’s sudden popularity by opening an inn set up to accommodate the influx of travelers coming to Moodori to end their lives.

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Movie Review : Moodori is a distinctly Korean black comedy in the vein of the very good, but overlooked, Korean film named “The Quiet Family” (Choyonghan kajok). Takashi Miike would later go on to remake “The Quiet Family” into the more well known “Happiness of the Katakuris.” While “Moodori” and “The Quiet Family” both deal with a remote Inn encumbered with suicidal customers, “Moodori” is a mediocre flick content with trying to provide some laughs with boorish physical humor. Also, “Moodori” doesn’t have the level of actors like Kang-ho Song and Min-Sik Choi that “The Quiet Family” had.

With such an unusual premise of suicidal groups and a town trying to profit from them, “Moodori” could have had endless interesting possibilities, but the filmmakers of Moodori opted for the easy route of low brow comedy. More often than not, the jokes missed their marks and just felt flat. In general, Korean films tend to show more scenes of people using the bathroom than films from any other country and in Moodori they gladly continue this dubious distinction. Perhaps I was just having a bad day with an ugly hangover, but the “funny” scenes of Mr. Baek sitting on the toilet was particularly difficult to endure. Other scenes of the three elderly men ogling over the younger ladies just didn’t come out as funny as expected. Another Korean comedy that offered similar low brow humor but was far more engaging would have been “How The Lack Of Love Affects Two Men” - check that one out. Also, I would have loved to know why the people that were to jump off the Moodori cliff always took off their shoes and placed it neatly on the ledge – some kind of Korean tradition?

The newsreporter Mik-Young (played by Yeong-hie Seo), was able to keep the movie flowing along relatively well, with her goofy performance as the undercover newsreporter trying to break the story of the “Suicidal Hot Spot.” Exploitation was something every character in the film seemed to be obsessed with. Yet, the film only broached this subject but never really tried to address it in any meaningful way. The film did do a nice job of wrapping up the film with a few heart warming scenes that was genuinely moving. During those scenes where the Suicidal Club would go near the ledge to jump, I had images of the Wilson Phillip’s video, “Hang On,” playing over in my head. Probably more scary than jumping off the ledge.

While the film wasn’t deathly dull, the low brow comedy elements of Moodori just struck me as crude and diluted the more enjoyable aspects of “Moodori.” Not a terrible film, but certainly mediocre enough that I would only recommend checking this one out if you don’t have anymore K comedies to watch (which is highly unlikely).

buy Moodori from YesAsia

Cast:
Yeong-hie Seo - Mik-Young
In-Hwan Park
Ju-Bong Choi
Hee-do Lee
Jeong-se Oh
Hee-seung Seo
Seung Mok Yoo

If you like this you may enjoy : A Quiet Family, Mapado, How The Lack of Love Affects Two Men, My Scary Girl

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2006 Movie Reviews, Korean Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |

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1 Comment so far

  1. 1 melvin Says: February 9, 2008

    this movie is something that too good to comment..they are the best..i love this movie so much,,