::A Geek in Korea::

Further conforming to those internet stereotypes, I went to see Juno yesterday. I had heard a lot of praise coming from NPR and some podcasts. I didn’t expect a movie with a plot such as “Quirky Midwest teen gets pregnant, hilarity ensues” to come over to Korea. There hasn’t been anything showing in theaters worth watching in ages.

However, this is around the time when there is a flurry of Oscar nominated movies all competing in theaters at the same time. I don’t follow the Oscars, and I don’t care who wins, but a diverse set of movies coming to Korea that are decent? It’s about damn time. This will continue for a few weeks, then we’ll go back to the same old crap.

Anyway, we saw Juno. There were only about ten people in the theater. There was a group of Korean woman that spoke fluent English, us, and a few couples. The group of other English speakers was laughing a lot more than anyone else. I was laughing hard enough a few times that I got shushed by my wife. This killed me:

Juno MacGuff: Your little girlfriend gave me the stinkeye in art class yesterday.
Paulie Bleeker: Katrina’s not my girlfriend alright? And I doubt she gave you the stinkeye that’s just how her face looks, you know? That’s just her face.
(Cuts to a girl that has a perfect “stinkeye” look on her face staring at them in the distance.)

I don’t think that the translators did a very good job of bringing out the flowing slang of teenage life. Juno without the dialog is missing a lot. Both my wife and I enjoyed the film regardless of any barriers of language though.