Summary
This South Korean comedy gets metatextual as Cha In-Pyo plays a version of himself. For the star’s sake, let’s hope this is as far removed from reality as possible.
If you haven’t been keeping up with the career of Cha In-Pyo, that’s kind of the point of his new Netflix original movie. The star of TV’s Perfect Love and The Gentlemen of Wolgyesu Tailor Shop is known as much for his acting as his Korean royalty status with actress wife Shin Ae-ra. His latest role ponders what happens when the calls stop coming.
In WHAT HAPPENED TO MR. CHA? (차인표), the titular actor is a good sport in playing a washed-up version of himself. When his fictional counterpart chooses to take a shower in a girl’s school gym, you can probably see exactly where this leads. That’s right: he gets stuck underground after the building collapses.
You can appreciate what they were going for here. A sort of JCVD for the ageing Korean TV/film star set. This is most evident in the opening sequence, a knowing montage of the star in his heyday lounging on a motorbike, or giving his trademark finger wave to camera. Yet where Jean-Claude van Damme was intertextual and self-referential, Cha In-Pyo is quite literally phoning it in.
Once the naked Cha gets stuck under rubble, it’s about the last thing of any note to happen for another 70 minutes or so. More concerned with his reputation and being seen naked on TV, he naturally phones his manager A-Ram (Cho Dal-Hwan), who reluctantly helps keep rescue teams away.
Much of the plot, such as it is, consists of A-Ram and Cha discussing the latter’s career, or lack thereof, while Cha ponders existence in the buff. This is exactly as exciting as it sounds. Really broad slapstick – including an excruciatingly long gag involving fans and a hand covered in dog poop – gives way to a bizarre series of conversations, cutaways and dick jokes.
Most disturbing is the fixation the film has with the acts of ‘perverts’ and school girls. If Cha isn’t finding abandoned underwear, or worried about being accused of perversion, there’s a subplot involving a sex offender and school girl investigating the area. At one point, there’s a flashback to a teacher discussing the viscosity of semen. What kind of a school is this anyway?
You could be forgiving and say that this would work better if you knew Cha’s filmography, but one suspects this has little to do with anything Cha has done before. You could pretty much replace the lead with anybody of a similar vintage. Not a great start to 2021 in film.
2021 | South Korea| DIRECTOR: Kim Dong-kyu | WRITER: Kim Dong-kyu | CAST: Cha In-pyo, Cho Dal-hwan, Song Jar-ryong | DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix | RUNNING TIME: 102 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 1 January 2021 (AUS)
