Well, last Friday I went to the local movie house and saw Lady in the Water. I liked it although it was corny–maybe because it was corny. Well, on the IMDB, someone asserted that the accent of the Korean person speaking English is stereotypically Asian. I asked what was stereotypical about it. In response, I got a comment that it’s a stereotypical accent. Another poster said that the Director’s Cut had Ms. Cheung’s character say, “Me love you long time” to the nymph. I was busy listening to the Korean and reading the Hangeul subtitles and not paying all that much attention to the way Cindy Cheung was speaking in English so I’m not sure what those folks are on about. And I seriously doubt that “me love” line was in there.
So, I really have two questions:
Is Ms. Cheung’s accent in that movie “stereotypically Asian” and, if so, exactly how, what specifically is?
Does the Director’s Cut actually have that line in it or is that poster making stuff up?
On search, I saw the other thread and it’s a few months old. I’m really not interested in a discussion of the merits or demerits of the movie anyway. I’m just looking for answers to those specific questions above.
Yes; it’s as stereotypical as it comes, really. It sounds like a mocking, intentional, joking “chinaman” caricature, straight out of a 1930’s racist cartoon or something. I was agog when I saw “Lady” - why hadn’t there been a controversy about the truly comical and exagerrated racial stereotypes in the movie? You could go watch an Al Jolson blackface movie and get a less offensive, less intentional racial parody than half of the scenes in “lady in the water.”
And then you get to what she actually SAYS (shudder)…
“Wha, you tink I stoopid? I take test with multipa choice!” :eek:
Well, I have encountered those same accent characteristics here in Pusan (current romanization is Busan). Obviously not everyone in Korea who speaks English speaks that way; however, some do. The toughest part of my job is getting the students to quit adding “Ee” to the end of English words that end in a sound impermissible for a Korean word ending.
I remember that woman from the movie. I don’t think I was paying a lot of attention to her voice, though, because I was too busy being distracted by the fact that she was fuckin’ smokin’ hot.
Well, there was that, too. In Korea, seating at theaters is assigned. After I sat down, two smoking hot young lasses came and sat in the two seats to my left. Made paying attention to the flick kind of difficult.