Meet the Big Fat Korean Wedding
by javabeans
Here’s more info on the Hollywood debut project for Kang Hye-jung. The Korean article mistakenly refers to the title of the film as “Wedding Planner,” but I believe it’s actually Korean Wedding, to be co-produced by Korea’s CJ Entertainment and American Vertigo Entertainment and Lionsgate.
Korean Wedding centers around an American man falling in love with a Korean woman; he proposes, and they set off for the mother country to gain her parents’ consent. Apparently this is based on the real-life experiences of one of the writers, Iain McConnell, who co-writes with his cousin, Jason Filardi, who wrote Bringing Down the House (which did such a cleverly original and multidimensional job of Odd Couple-ing the Uptight White Man and the Uproariously Loud Black Woman, no? No racial stereotyping there at all). I’d say it sounds based on My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Meet the Parents, but whatever.
I think the movie sounds terrible already (Look at those crazy Koreans! Omg what are they going to make me eat? Think of all the language misfires that will ensue! O, culture clash, were you ever so rife with comedic potential? Hilarrrrrrious), or if not terrible, then at least terribly trite. I’m a little disappointed that such a strong actress as Kang Hye-jung has chosen this kind of standard film as her crossover vehicle — she’s capable of so much more — but maybe I should just be glad she’s not playing another of many vampire or ninja assassins. (Of all the upcoming Hallyu-goes-Hollywood attempts, I think Song Hye-gyo‘s John Woo film is looking the most promising right now.)
Well, if anyone can bring to life the little quirky details of a character, it’s Kang Hye-jung. And yeah, I’ll probably see it. Isn’t that what counts?
Via Today Korea (in Korean); and in English: Variety Asia and Hollywood Reporter
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Tags: Hollywood, Kang Hye-jung
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1 Jessica
August 1, 2008 at 11:09 AM
Ugh... I have to agree. This movie sounds terrible already. Also the fact that this scenario has been done to death. Such a pity because she's an amazing actress...
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2 Jessica
August 1, 2008 at 11:20 AM
There is one thing they could do to make the movie interesting to me.
If the guy was an adopted, Korean American.
That would definitely add more depth to the story. Because not only is he going back to meet her parents but also to discover his roots.
(And in true k-drama fashion, they could have a subplot where he thinks that his birth mother---or father---might be one of his fiance's parents :) )
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3 Sonam
August 1, 2008 at 11:21 AM
John Woo hasn't made a good film in a long time.
I don't know why Kang hye-jung got her mouth fixed. She had that unique look which would have been great for an international career. She could have played Asian, French, Italian, south amercan ....Now she looks so generic. Just a pretty Asian girl.
She was the best thing in Oldboy especially the last scene when she is hugging her father and says....I love you. Very powerful.
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4 ash
August 1, 2008 at 11:56 AM
This it totally unrelated to this post.. but do you have Solbi's Cute Love?
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5 Amber
August 1, 2008 at 12:10 PM
How disappointing that Hollywood has to portray Asians once again as the oh so oriental foreigners who speak funny and eat stinky food.
And I'm just disturbed with the overall fetish-cization of an Asian woman.
I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree that this will be much more interesting if we had a Korean adoptee for the husband.
But ya know Hollywood... they think it will never make money if not given to a B-list white actor.
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6 Stawr
August 1, 2008 at 12:36 PM
ouchhhh... i hope this movie proves all of us wrong.
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7 bebo
August 1, 2008 at 1:19 PM
the plot sounds so stereotypical but i'll be watching it cuz it's about asians. i'm such a fob!
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8 ed
August 1, 2008 at 3:15 PM
oh man, this does make song hye-kyo's american crossover sound good...wait, it's called FETISH, in an asian beaut + "gnarly" white man pairing to boot!
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9 bambooshoots
August 1, 2008 at 3:40 PM
I COMPLETELY agree that the male lead should be an adopted korean-american, but I doubt that Hollywood would like an Asian actor that didn't fit all the stereotypes that Americans put on us.
Honestly, sometimes, watching all these hilarious stereotypes being acted out can be really funny...if it's only once and a while. I don't think I could stand TWO WHOLE HOURS of Asian stereotyping. Ugh.
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10 rocketfuel
August 1, 2008 at 4:25 PM
They need to add the chopok element.....
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11 Di
August 1, 2008 at 4:43 PM
오머나... *shakes head in dismay and walks away*
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12 nileey
August 1, 2008 at 5:16 PM
well, perhaps it's so hard to get into Hollywood that she'll take on any role, even though it may sound so stereotypical movie
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13 ar_arguably romantic
August 1, 2008 at 9:41 PM
wincing right now. and the film just puts up the assumption that if the woman is asian/korean- she must be originally from asia/korea. why can't she just be a korean-american and her parents immigrants from korea? i fell that this type of storyline would be more realistic- interracial relationships, having the girl straddle two different cultures- and having the american guy also straddle the two cultures but in a different way.
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14 Anna
August 2, 2008 at 4:50 AM
I have to agree that one of the few things that may have made this film something that I would have actually gone and watched is if they'd given the guy a Korean or Asian background. Something, anything to give the plot at little bit of meat.
Why not have the guy be some redneck who is too stupid to live. Stereotypes and paradies galore! Oh the hilarity!
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15 jenjen
August 2, 2008 at 7:06 AM
i almost wished that the fiance really loved the korean country once he came in contact with it, while kang hyejung's character dislikes her native roots
it'd be a nice role reversal that kind of rings true to many people who dont really like their cultural roots
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16 Illdielaughing
August 2, 2008 at 7:47 PM
I dunno I wouldn't be so quick to write this one off. It's easy to go off into crappy borderline racist movie but it could also show our cultural differences with tact and delicacy. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is great and funny, but I think we take for granted that it's realistic because a Greek woman, Nia Vardalos, wrote it and directed it based on her experiences.
I'm a bit wary of this film too but I'm much more optimistic. I feel like everyone one assumes that all Americans see all other cultures as one dimensional and can't write about them any other way. BUT then again, that's the history that Hollywood has created. But then again (again), I don't want to doubt this writer because I love Kang Hye Jung. But then again (again, again) the other writer wrote that bad movie Bringing down the house.
@ asianromance: I don't think they need to assume anything since they're the ones writing the script, they can just create it.
@ most everyone else: I don't think making the groom a Korean American adoptee would do anything but add a superficial story line and then give us some "My Father" type crap.
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17 triple6
August 3, 2008 at 4:10 PM
It seems things kind of started going downhill for her after that surgery...
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18 Squirt
August 4, 2008 at 2:07 PM
I thought it was called wedding palace?!
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19 Diana
August 5, 2008 at 8:59 AM
asianromance: I don't think I've seen Asian-Americans portrayed accurately and/or diversified-ly (treated as an individual, as opposed to a label) in Hollywood often. There ARE exceptions, of course. But a romance between a 1.5/2nd/3rd generation Asian-American and an American-whose-ancestors-immigrated-to-U.S.-WAY-WAY-back-when is probably a foreign concept to mainstream Hollywood. Or rather, they're afraid to approach it or even have an idea on how to go about portraying it, which is probably the more likely explanation. I like your idea though.
jenjen: There was a TV show that portrayed an interracial couple (characters: Morgan Grimes and Anna Wu) along those lines from "Chuck," with the scenario of Morgan meeting Anna's parents.
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20 Kim
August 10, 2008 at 10:08 AM
No No!! I just read that it is called Wedding Palace and is not with CJ Ent. thats a different movie but everyone got confused. Its with Brian Tee's (fast and the furious) production compnay TU or tee-yoo, not sure.
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21 Jessica
March 21, 2009 at 1:16 AM
Well, this is 1 year later but I might just find this more interesting---it features an Asian American cast!!! :)
Like Kim mentioned, it's going to star Brian Tee and it's called Wedding Palace.
Pressured to get married by family and friends before his 30th birthday to ward off an ancient family wedding curse, 29 year-old advertising executive Jason Kim finds the women of his dreams in cyberspace 9000 miles away in Seoul, Korea. Complications arise when his bride to be arrives in Los Angeles for the first time.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1280725/
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22 Christie the Asian Female
January 28, 2011 at 8:10 PM
I will watch this movie ONLY if both the bride and the groom are Koreans/Asians. I am so disgusted with the unnatural pairing of AF/WM that I actually stopped watching Hawaii 5-0 after the female Asian cop had a love affair with some white guy. That pairing is unnatural and disgusting. Stop it, already.
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