Afrika

When you empower four Korean women with firearms and unleash them into a male dominated society, chauvinists beware. Laden with amusing gags and lots of pretty people, this film is a fun romp that amounts to finishing a bag of Doritos in one sitting, you feel bad for the mass junk consumption, but damned if you don't still feel inclined to wish you had some more left to consume. I wouldn't judge this against anything from serious Asian action genre, it's more like slapstick meets teen coming of age. Reckless, sloppy, unpredictable and sometimes incidentally hilarious. Cool.

Given the stricter regulations placed on firearms in Asia, it is conceivable that the average Korean college coed will be about as adept with a Glock 19 as, say, a monkey with a pair of chopsticks eating Fugu and Chow Fun. This theory is proven ad nauseum in the hip chick flick `A.F.R.I.K.A.', which stars (I'm guessing) the Korean equivalent of SPEED or MAX in a `Thelma & Louise'-type road movie. In it, two young coeds from Seoul embark on a weekend getaway, unknowingly `borrowing' a car belonging to a local gangster which contains two real live handguns (Beretta 92FS Inox and a short-barreled stainless S&W or Colt D/A .357 Magnum or .38 Special revolver). Not sure what to do, they embark on an odyssey in which they unwillingly gain two more companions (a hooker and an ex-con), both of whom have their own personal agendas involving the weapons. While the two coeds first draw the weapons in self-defence (to deter over-enthusiastic males), the unstable hooker wants to steal enough money for a nose job, and the ex-con wants payback on her ex-lover who made her take the rap for funds he embezzled.

By far the worst two scenes involve the actors trying to mimic the gunplay found in HK flicks, mob movies and rap videos. One involves the `gangster' (who reminds me a bit of Japanese actor/comedian Danda Yasunori) squeezing off a series of shots with guns in both hands recoiling whether or not a shot is fired. The other involves the quartet carjacking a diplomat's car, only to find that the driver is a big fan of the girls, who have become rogue heroes of sorts. The rather confused coed holding the 92FS Inox to the driver's head has her right index finger BEHIND the trigger instead of on it. Oh well. They should've given her a 1911 so she couldn't do that.

Granted, the film would be even less realistic (if that's possible) if the coeds suddenly displayed flawless firearms handling protocol, but I must admit that watching people wave guns around carelessly makes me cringe more than even Miike Takashi's `Odishon'. Okay, maybe not, but it is really disturbing. But taken with a grain of salt, the movie itself can be entertaining at times, and while clearly not a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, it - oh, who am I kidding? The plot, if any, was thin at best and the acting marginal. I don't know how accurate the English subs were, but if so, then the language (and ethics) of the girls rivals that of the gangsters. Mindless fun for the most part, but if terms like `Condition One Carry', `PASGT' and `Low Ready' mean anything to you, you should probably avoid this one. Just too painful.

I was a little leery when I found out the dvd had been released only four months after the movies theater run, but the movie isnt bad. Its basically your typical womens road comedy, in this case involving 4 korean women who through circumstance come into possession of two guns, become robbers, and are chased by gangsters while becoming friends and working thru personal issues. The humor is light and broad, but viewers might be put off by some violence which is a bit harsh for this type of movie, though for me watching the goofy gangsters smacking each other around was fun (as well as their verbal banter- they pretty much steal the movie from the leads). I recommend horror movie fans check out Kim Min-Sun and Lee Young-Jin (two of the actresses in this movie) in the schoolgirl ghost story Memento Mori.

Director Shin is a relatively and unexpectedly long-lasting film maker among highly competitive film market of S. Korea. He has always devoted to off-beat comedy combined with some tone of social message.

Downside is that he usually picks some low-level performers, and unscripted scenario. The result is always mediocre and the viewer's reaction is nothing but lukewarm. Afrika is none out of this stereotype. Four girls have their own personal story, and different motivation to grab guns. They settle their feuds, resolve old paybacks toward masculine society.

However, what is the real story? Did he intend to launch a simple stupid laugh for highly-calibered sophomoric Korean filmviewers? No thanks, and no more like this!!