Les Militaribles
February 7, 2013 8:55 PM   Subscribe

 
That was really wonderfully done. I was expecting a little amateur parody, but this is clearly something that involved pretty large-scale organization by the military communications folks and the service band.

Of course, with mandatory military service in South Korea, they don't have to worry quite as much about making the service look bad to potential recruits.
posted by zachlipton at 9:39 PM on February 7, 2013 [1 favorite]


And here I was hoping that it'd be the DPRK

The jokes would be a little TOO obvious.
posted by Artw at 9:41 PM on February 7, 2013


Grantland's post on it linked to an interview with one of the directors:

The supervising officers decided to embark upon this musical and cinematic endeavor "to lift the spirit of servicemen who had to work so hard to clear snow during the unusually heavy winter this year," and to "help shatter the image of the military as a dull place and encourage more youth to take the service with delight."

Any compulsory military service has a snowy uphill road to sell itself to inductees, especially when most South Korean men end up going between their second & third year of university. The logic is that you get two years of dedicated alcohol abuse after the grueling last year of high school/college entrance exams. Just long enough to get a girlfriend who will break up with you midway through your military service!

A friend of mine was drafted even though he had no idea he was a Korean national and didn't speak Korean at the time - he thinks of himself as the accidental soldier...
posted by spamandkimchi at 10:59 PM on February 7, 2013 [3 favorites]


Wow, this was really good! The woman who sang "I Dreamed A Dream" really sold it. Seriously, I was getting a little teary-eyed. And I am not even all that familiar with Les Mis.

I once had a two students in my class who were Korean nationals here on a student visa. They were good friends who had just finished their compulsory military service. Everyone liked them--instructors, their fellow students. They were by far the most mature students in that class, and they had that rare quality of being able to switch easily between being very serious and being charmingly goofy and playful. Sometimes they'd talk about their experiences being in the military; I have the feeling it had made them grow up quite fast. They were lovely students, exactly the kind you hope you'll have in a class. Some of the young men in the video reminded me of them; maybe that's why I liked it so much.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:20 AM on February 8, 2013


Les Meangirls
posted by schmod at 5:49 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]


And here I was hoping that it'd be the DPRK :(
Wait for it.....
posted by MILNEWSca at 7:02 AM on February 8, 2013


That was great, I didn't think I'd have the patience for all of it when I saw the running time, but they won me over.

Of course, this doesn't do anything to help me get the soundtrack out of my head.
posted by sparklemotion at 7:23 AM on February 8, 2013


That was a really nice even-handed parody - you feel for ValJean AND Cosette AND Javert. After all, the landing strip does have to be cleared (but I doubt they really only do it with shovels).
posted by subdee at 11:32 AM on February 8, 2013


On proper snow-clearing equipment, Seoul city was paralyzed two winters ago after a heavy snow caught everyone off guard (urban heat island + global climate change = much warmer winters in the Seoul metro region?). The city didn't have enough snow plows or de-icing salt to hit even fairly major thoroughfares for days. I saw one shopkeeper "shoveling" snow in front of his store with a repurposed plastic sale sign...

So shovels might actually be accurate. Sad and accurate.
posted by spamandkimchi at 3:19 PM on February 8, 2013


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