Shibbal Sechie!

It has often been said that Korean men are chauvinistic and handsome. Another trait of theirs that is often swept under the rug, and hidden under the recent years of a wave of the new age Korean male image, is their violent behavior towards anything that irritates or frustrates them. This includes their parents, siblings, friends, family, children and wives. If you watch Korean movies, the violence is celebrated in many ways and most of the films of recent years produced from their stagnant scene is mostly of the gangster genre. Directors like Kim Ki Duk help fuel the opinion by releasing film after film that honors and glorifies violence in every angle, perpetuated by both Korean men and women, mostly from the men though.

Came across this Korean film commercial that was released to market both the film that it was taken from, and the car that was used in it. The producers initially included a scene whereby the woman was slapped by the man, and the person who put it up caught the act. It probably made some headlines in South Korea, since the offending scene was subsequently removed. Advertisers were accused of glorifying violent treatment of women in the country, which truth be told is actually quite common and accepted by the women no less. Korean women do not even want to talk about it, and some of the younger ones have the misguided view that their boyfriends are kind, gentle and nice. Wait till they get married or are refused sex.

Despite all this, the commercial was actually pretty good and who really cares about the slapping scene? The car looked quite cool with its sleek black design, not something you would normally associate with Korean made cars, which have long had the bad reputation of many years past of being no better than cheap used cars. They are of course much better now, and since they are still relatively cheap compared to cars from other countries, have become quite popular.

You wonder if the commercial could be made for another angle though. Man rides in cool car with woman. They enjoy a nice ride out with the wind blowing in their faces. Man slaps woman. They fight and argue. They later make up and the car saves the day as they enjoy another great ride that soothes both their souls and bodies. “How to save your marriage” might be a very viable title for the short clip since it does portray quite realistically what many modern women tend to accept as an apology when they feel like leaving their husbands after getting slapped, which is to get a real nice new ride. Of course, this probably applies only to the materialistic ones. It might be something that happens regularly in Korea, you never know. Seems to be the case when you watch them in K dramas.