Korean Film Review: Speed Scandal

Speed Scandal

Speed Scandal directed by Hyeong Cheol Kang delivered a heart warming, crafty humorous family film, which captured all audiences’ heart in 2008. Digging deeper into the film and analyzing the examples of family values and celebrity social status, Speed Scandal effectively shows the authentic Korean pop culture and how they are highly valued in Korean society.

Hyeoung Nam (played by Cha Tae Hyeoung), was just an ordinary wealthy man working at a Dj radio station. Hyeoung’s life was at the top of its peak until suddenly it all came crashing down when realizing he had had a secret daughter Nam Hwang Jeong (played by Park B Yeoung) and grandson Hwang Ki Dong (played by Hwang Seok Hyeon), whom he’d never known of, arrive at his apartment. In order to save Hyeoung’s image and reputation as a celebrity, Hwang and Ki Dong were kept hidden from the public to ensure that his image and reputation would not be tainted from the past relationship he’s had with Hwang’s mother. Having to hide his daughter and grandson in his apartment soon positioned them all in bittersweet relationship against each other until realizing how important family was despite fame and fortune.

From the Beginning of Speed Scandal, each characters personality developed and family values became more apparent. Both Korean male identities from the past to the present were evidently shown from Hyeoung’s character. From Hyeoung’s quoting “Where’s my meal” in one of the scenes indicated a traditional high authoritarian figure slaving his daughter Hwang to cook him food. This Traditional Korean male identity soon developed into a New Korean male identity towards the middle where Hyeoung became more individualistic, helping out with the house hold chores. Loyalty also contributes as the most important factor of family values in this film. It is evidently shown towards the climax where Hyeoung had to make an ultimatum on whether to continue on hosting his singing show or helping Hwang find Ki who had gone missing. It was the scandal of having a secret daughter and grandson that tore between fame and family. Another scene that emphasizes the family values was when Hyeoung and Hwang were arguing. Hyeoung questions whether Hwang was only intruding on his life based on money or wanted fatherly love that Hwang had never received. Hwang bursts out stating “That’s what I wanted, everyone else had a father, why do I have to say I have no father when I do!” After all the years, Hwang’s hope and determination to find her father was not lost. Hwang was loyal to her father and accepted him despite of being neglected after all these years.

Korean Celebrities in comparison to Western Celebrities differentiate from exposure of provocative and explicit images. The image of a Korean celebrity is very fragile and hard to recover after a scandal is brought into media’s attention. An example scene is when Hyeoung’s pushing Hwang and Ki out of his apartment when suddenly a newspaper drops onto the floor. This indicated that Hwang could expose the truth to the press media and ruin Hyeoung’s image as a celebrity. However Westerners are more accepting with these scandals and use them to boost their popularity. A good example is sex tapes, which Western Celebrities intentionally try to sell or leak their tapes to the public to gain publicity from the media. However in Korea and most of the Asian countries, such explicit images may result in the extermination of their career. A good example is Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian from the Western Pop Culture and Edison Chen and Gillian Chung from the Asian Pop Culture, who have all been involved with a sex scandal.

Overall Speed Scandal maintained a sense of authentic Korean pop culture and how they are highly valued in Korean society. Its light humor and family conflicts really brought out the elements of family values and celebrity comparisons towards a western perception of pop culture.