# Korean language joke(?) from a Korean movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** netflix, movies\ **Created:** [June 24, 2024, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-language-joke-from-a-korean-movie/1003247 "2024-06-24T02:31:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2024, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-language-joke-from-a-korean-movie/1003247/1 "2024-06-24T02:31:08Z")
(If this question is better-suited to GQ, go ahead and move it) I just watched a Korean movie, “The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure” on Netflix. I was watching it with the dialogue dubbed in English, since I don’t speak Korean. In one scene, the male and female leads are having a conversation, and the male makes some reference to tigers, in which he says “tiger” twice. Not consecutively, like “tiger tiger”; the word appeared in two separate phrases. The female lead replied with something like, “Please don’t say the ‘-ger’ part of ‘tiger’ in front of me again.” Her statement made absolutely no sense in English, so I’m left guessing that it was some kind of pun/joke in the original Korean that simply didn’t translate into English. Any Korean speakers here who might have an idea what that was all about? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2024, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-language-joke-from-a-korean-movie/1003247/2 "2024-06-24T02:54:52Z")
Can you post where in the film that conversation occurs? My best guess after checking Wikipedia about the flick is that Hae-rang (해랑) doesn’t want to hear the male character saying her personal name. 호랑이 (ho-rang-ee) means tiger. I can check with my wife after work tonight to see if my guess is correct, provided she’s seen the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2024, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-language-joke-from-a-korean-movie/1003247/3 "2024-06-24T03:01:27Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Can you post where in the film that conversation occurs? I had just looked in the English subtitle file to see if it said anything illuminating (it didn’t). It happened 25:43 in. 410 00:25:43,375 → 00:25:45,126 -Even a crying tiger– -Please stop! 411 00:25:47,629 → 00:25:50,423 Never say the “ger” in tiger in front of me again ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2024, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-language-joke-from-a-korean-movie/1003247/4 "2024-06-24T03:15:51Z")
The same lines from the Korean subtitle file: 울던 호랑이도 그친다는… 호랑이 그… 다신 내 앞에서 호랑이의 '호’자도 꺼내지 마라 Google translates that as: Even the crying tiger will stop… The tiger… Never again in front of me Don’t even bring out the ‘ho’ character for tiger. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2024, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-language-joke-from-a-korean-movie/1003247/5 "2024-06-24T03:24:23Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Hae-rang (해랑) doesn’t want to hear the male character saying her personal name. 호랑이 (ho-rang-ee) means tiger. Okay, that makes some sense, in context of what happens later in the film. Hae-rang is the captain of the pirate ship. A crew member figures out where the treasure is hidden, and how to get there, but he won’t tell unless he’s made captain. So Hae-rang steps down temporarily. While she is not the captain, the male lead (and I think the other crewmen) just call her “Rang”. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2024, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/korean-language-joke-from-a-korean-movie/1003247/6 "2024-06-24T03:27:21Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > 울던 호랑이도 그친다는… > 호랑이 그… > > 다신 내 앞에서 > 호랑이의 '호’자도 꺼내지 마라 That supports my guess. “Ho-rang-ee” minus “Ho” is “Rang-ee”. The “ee” suffix can be used after the name of a child akin to the ~y/~ie suffix in English. I can see she’d rather not have the male lead calling her “Rang-ee”. And she’d rather be seen as a tiger instead of a little girl.