South Korea has another hilarious comedy - "Secret Zoo"
The film is based on the manga of the same name, directed by Sun Jae-kun and starring Ahn Jae-hong, Kang So-ra, Park Young-kyu and others.
Among them, Ahn Jae-hong has participated in high-scoring Korean dramas such as "Please Answer 1988", "Romantic Physique", "Third Stream Road" and has been nominated for the Green Dragon Award and the Big Bell Award.
Jiang Sura has starred in classic film and television dramas such as "Unborn" and "Sunshine Sister Tao", especially the role of Xia Chunhua in "Sunshine Sister Tao", which is very deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
As a family comedy film, the story of "Secret Zoo" is very simple and sand sculpture, and the male protagonist played by Ahn Jae-hong, in order to please his boss, is in danger of being ordered to go to a zoo that is about to close down as a park director.
In order to fill the shortage of funds, the zoo sold valuable rare animals, and by the time the male owner took office, there were not many animals in the park that could be visited by tourists.
The staff also dispersed, leaving only 4 old employees who have deep feelings for the zoo and are still struggling to make ends meet.
So in order to save this insoluble situation, the male protagonist, who has no way to retreat, came up with an idea that can no longer be dirty: use people to disguise the main animals.
It sounds outrageous, but all the jokes in "The Secret Zoo" are from this plot setting.
This is very much in line with the style of Korean nonsense comedy, and they can always handle some seemingly blunt plots with irony.
For example, the first high-energy bridge in the film: imitating the posture of animals.
This is the training content of everyone before the opening of the park, in order to be realistic enough not to be discovered by tourists, the male protagonist requires that each employee must strictly train his own posture, so that he can absolutely enter the drama and integrate people and animals.
So we will see the kim chief who imitates chimpanzees, even when exercising in the gym, using the chimpanzee posture:
Attracted a crowd of eyes.
Han Veterinarian, pretending to be a lion, practiced four steps at home to see how the cats at home were frightened:
There is also Haijing, who pretends to be a sloth, and when the zoo is not busy, she will go to work at a convenience store in Yuankou:
Like the lightning of "Zootopia", it is simply laughable and crazy.
In short, everyone is practicing hard, with the unique language and tone of the Korean language, it can only be said that Koreans are too suitable for a serious funny.
The lines of the film are also very interesting, for example, when the training is conducted, the male protagonist does not recognize what kind of animal the sloth is, and only thinks that the other party looks like the hairy monster in "Star Wars":
"Isn't that the hairy monster from Star Wars?" Is it the wrong goods in the store? ”
So everyone brushed together to look at this live-action version of the sloth:
Hahaha please ask the hairy monster to do something wrong.
And such a large sloth is sure to be serious, hanging on the tree like a tree ape Tarzan:
In short, these makeup props are the laugh point switch of "Secret Zoo", and once everyone puts on this dress, the joke comes.
Including the lions who were motionless when they officially opened in the later period:
Polar bears that dare not meet people:
And the overwhelmed chimpanzees:
A random freeze-frame picture is full of sand sculptures.
Another hilarious plot is that the chief of the Golden Section, who is in love with Hae-kyung, goes to avenge his ex-boyfriend after learning that Hae-kyung was cheated by his ex-boyfriend.
Chief Kim went to smash his ex-boyfriend's shop in a chimpanzee suit, and took the monitor away by the way.
The ex-boyfriend was so frightened that he called the police to say that the monitor had been taken away by the chimpanzee, but the police only cast a disdainful look at him.
The ex-boyfriend called the police to no avail, so he had to go to the zoo to seek justice, only to see more strange "animals" that were released from the cage:
Coming to the zoo to seek justice, only to fall into a larger wolf den, such a picture is really hilarious and absurd.
In addition to being funny, "The Secret Zoo" also tries to make some thinking about animal protection.
For example, the reason why Han Veterinarian is willing to stay in the zoo on the verge of closure is because she wants to accompany a polar bear that she rescued as a child:
But because of years of being kept in a cage, the polar bear has been replaced by a serious mental illness. It originally had the opportunity to go to Northern Europe for a more natural environment, but it was left behind because of Han Veterinarian's selfish desires.
This is human love for the deformity of wild animals, and sometimes in the name of love, it is just to increase their suffering.
There are also several protagonists who try to save the zoo, and after realizing in the later stages that the zoo may not be the best destination for wild animals, the goal of saving the zoo has changed to saving animals.
They gave up the plot of the zoo and instead handed it over to more capable people to develop and create open wildlife sanctuaries that mimic nature, so that the animals that live in cages all day long can return to the open world.
However, "The Secret Zoo" also has many shortcomings, and it is not an excellent work in terms of film creation alone.
The first is that there are many irrationalities in the plot of the film, the most unreasonable of which is the setting of the protagonists pretending to be animals in order to save the zoo.
This is almost impossible to happen in real life, and even if you pretend, you will definitely be recognized by tourists immediately.
And there are only 4 people pretending to be animals in the film, respectively, playing lions, sloths, chimpanzees, polar bears, these 4 animals, 4 animals in real life can not afford a zoo.
As the director of the park, it is too far-fetched to come up with such a way to save a company.
So "The Secret Zoo" is a typical theme-first movie, it just wants to create jokes through this brain-opening theme, but it does not perfect the unreasonable plot.
Secondly, the special effects of the film are not done well, and the polar bear rescued by Han Veterinarian in the film is made of special effects, but this effect is not as realistic as the bear pretending to be a person wearing a prop suit:
This is the bear in the zoo, this is obviously the appearance of the bear in the fantasy movie.
The five-cent special effect will be very contrary to the reality drama and affect the perception.
Finally, the intention of the film is also relatively shallow and thin.
"Secret Zoo" wants to convey the value concept of animal protection, but the proposition of zoos holding wild animals involved in the film is already a bit old at the moment.
Topics such as the scientific conservation of zoos and the humanitarian rescue of wild animals have been discussed by contemporary people for decades.
Of course, it is not that these propositions have no value, but that old propositions need to work hard if they want to make new ideas.
"The Secret Zoo", which has not been polished in the core, special effects, and script, obviously does not have the deep meaning and charm of this story.
There are many high-quality comedies in South Korea, such as "Happy Family", "The Gift of Room 7", "Strange Her", etc., which are funny at the same time, but also convey a lot of simple but profound truths, making people laugh and cry.
So in summary, "The Secret Zoo" does not reach the level of Korean comedy, but there are indeed many scenes in the film that make people laugh out loud.
If you just want to find a film to relax and simply laugh, "The Secret Zoo" is still OK.
Text/Lao Wang