went to Queensbay Mall for Korean Air Fair. managed to watch a famous comedy specially performed for tourist other than 'Nanta' Show.
here you go ..... share with u guys the videos ........
A martial arts master stamps so hard that the foundations of his house shake; a wizened old man with an apparently crippled back suddenly leaps into the air and performs a series of flying somersaults, and in the midst of an athletic ruckus, a walking stick is rammed into a posterior.
.
These are just some of the elements of Korea's nonverbal comedy martial arts performance "Jump" — a show that its creators hope will leap onto the global stage next year and gain the international plaudits earned by another Korean nonverbal performance, 1997's "Nanta," (known internationally as "Cookin"').
.
"When I was in Italy, someone suggested, 'Why not make a show about tae kwon do?"' said Choi Chul Ki, the creator of "Jump," who was then directing a traveling production of "Nanta."
.
"Nanta," a "Stomp"-inspired performance that added traditional Korean percussion beats to a frenetic comedy set in a kitchen, became a surprise hit at the Edinburgh Festival in 1999. More than 1.5 million people have seen the show in 15 countries; it now runs at two theaters in Seoul and is playing at the Minetta in New York.
.
"Jump" marked its 500th Korean performance at Seoul's Sejong Cultural Center in December, and its creators are now looking abroad: Yegam, the company that produced it, is planning a Japan and China tour in April, has been invited for a run in Israel in May, and has booked the show into the Edinburgh Festival in August.
.
The plot is simple. A family of zany martial artists inhabit a traditional house — the set — where they are subjected to the discipline of "grandpa," the idiosyncratic family patriarch, who insists on daily training sessions. As the show begins, the family is engaged in testing out a nerdy potential son-in-law who hopes to wed the pretty daughter, when two bumbling burglars enter the home.
.
Neither set nor plot, however, is the performance's raison d'être. Nor is genre: While 2001's "Tokebi Peung" (Goblin Storm) is still running, it has not matched the smash success abroad, and other Korean nonverbal performances, such as "UFO" and "Colorbar Show" have tanked. The creators of "Jump" are banking on the core elements of their show — physical comedy, martial arts and gymnastics — to seize international attention.
.
"We want people to see 'Jump' as a kind of live-action Jackie Chan movie," said a cast member, Lee Sang Jun.
.
That ambition could be an Achilles' heel. Before moving into modern action films, Chan's slapstick-heavy kung fu comedies, while huge in Asian markets, never gained anything beyond a cult audience in the West, and it is unclear how Western audiences will react to the yelling, buffoonery and exaggerated facial expressions that Koreans howl at in "Jump."
.
But Jump's core differentiation as a show — its intensely physical blend of martial arts, gymnastics and Harold Lloyd-esque stunts — is stunning. It is here that the cast shines, in a range of exuberant physical set pieces ranging from gun fights and slow-motion fist fights to aerial acrobatics.
.
The cast trained for two years in gymnastics and a variety of martial arts — tae kwon do and hapkido from Korean, wushu and Drunken Fist from China, and capoeira from Brazil. The exhausting physical regimen requires a host of doubles: "A lot of actors have injuries, so we need two and a half casts," said Kim Kyung Hoon, the producer.
.
"Jump" places Korean marital arts in a new cultural context. "Traditionally, Korea's ruling class were scholars, and looked down upon martial arts," said Steve Capener, who has written widely on tae kwon do.
.
In addition, while Chinese and Korean martial arts are found in both traditional and modern performance culture, Korean martial arts are not. Despite the international popularity of tae kwon do as a self-defense system and a competitive sport, it is not culturally ingrained. Furthermore, Korean martial arts films have failed to develop a style of choreography distinct from Chinese or Japanese cinema.
.
For aficionados, the show's biggest draw may be the style used by "Grandpa": taek kyun, Korea's traditional fighting art and a predecessor of tae kwon do. The art, which mixes graceful rhythmic movements with kicks high and low, has undergone a renaissance in Korea after being within one practitioner of extinction in the 1980s. But despite its new-found popularity here, it remains relatively unknown abroad.
.
The varied combative moves and gymnastics routines in "Jump" are blended in the spectacular finale. As the actors ditch slapstick to display a series of choreographed routines in a darkened theater — then take turns literally running up the walls — audience jaws could be hitting the floor as hard as the tumbling actors' sinewy bodies. A martial arts master stamps so hard that the foundations of his house shake; a wizened old man with an apparently crippled back suddenly leaps into the air and performs a series of flying somersaults, and in the midst of an athletic ruckus, a walking stick is rammed into a posterior.
.
These are just some of the elements of Korea's nonverbal comedy martial arts performance "Jump" — a show that its creators hope will leap onto the global stage next year and gain the international plaudits earned by another Korean nonverbal performance, 1997's "Nanta," (known internationally as "Cookin"').
.
"When I was in Italy, someone suggested, 'Why not make a show about tae kwon do?"' said Choi Chul Ki, the creator of "Jump," who was then directing a traveling production of "Nanta."
The plot is simple. A family of zany martial artists inhabit a traditional house — the set — where they are subjected to the discipline of "grandpa," the idiosyncratic family patriarch, who insists on daily training sessions. As the show begins, the family is engaged in testing out a nerdy potential son-in-law who hopes to wed the pretty daughter, when two bumbling burglars enter the home.
Pix with grandpa
Pix with daughter in law
Pix with uncle
Guy in black? hehe .... his name is Jordonn from Fei Yang SB, KL (Tenor Sax) . He's here to visit us as he is in Penang for work & boring on Valentine nite.
Pix with grandpa
Pix with daughter in law
Pix with uncle
