Well I've just spent 12 hours writing notes and dissecting the films Kung Fu Hustle & Bad Guy. It's mainly Bad Guy I'm interested in with my question because the main character smokes throughout the film and at the end he passes a cigarette to his "girlfriend" who has never smoked and she takes a drag I was wondering if this had any significance in Asian culture as in what is the opinion of smoking in Asia? The film is Korean if it makes a difference xD More questions xP Are the hotels in Asia specifically for sex called love hotels? Is a place with one of those automatic ball shooting things to practise baseball called a batting cage? Is there a term in Korea for a mistress of a brothel in fact is there a better term than mistress in English? Is smoking a large part of gang culture in Asia? Do prostitutes in some parts of Asia actually stand outside brothels dragging customers inside? Do girls sometimes get tricked into prostitution by gangs in Asia? If you drop out of education is it likely you'll become a prostitute in some parts of Asia? Oh and if you've seen Kung Fu Hustle are the axe gang in the style of American gangsters or is that how Chinese gangsters would have dressed? Sorry if these questions are a bit odd or worded in a bad way I've had no sleep, Bad Guy (if you haven't seen it) is the reason I need answers to so many prostitution related questions. I have tried to find the answers to these but some I'm double checking and some I've got conflicting answers for, any links to pages would be greatly appreciated as I'll need to write a bibliography. Crap 12 hours writing notes now I have a 3000 word min. essay to write using them... fun, fun!
I numbered your questions to make things easier 1. It's far more accepted in Asian cultures than in Western cultures where we ban people from smoking in pubs, stations, etc. When I was in China last year, I talked to an old man on the farming village on the island on one of the rivers through Nanjing for about half an hour. Very interesting: everyone in his family smoked, even his twelve year-old son. This isn't smoking cigarettes (although many of the city-dwellers do), most of the country-living folk smoke pipes, or (less commonly) chew tobacco. Some of the more educated business people in the cities like Shanghai or Beijing don't smoke, because they know of the dangers. Most of the people in the baby-boomer/X generation in Asia have relatively low education (and keep in mind that they don't have images of gangrenous feet and rotten teeth on cigarette packets) so they don't see the danger. 2. No, they're called brothels ;D But I'm sure they are commonly referred to that in Thailand or Vietnam where prostitution is far more common. (My uncle, who lives in Thailand, referred to a local hotel as a love hotel when he tried to buy my a root for my 18th birthday, I don't know if that was the true name for such a place.. but that might help ) 3. In my travels, I've never seen any. I'd be doubtful. 4. Queen? LOL 5. Yes. Very large. To my knowledge, any gang culture has smoking - it's a way to look 'tough'.. and it's a counter for boredom, a relaxant, a distraction during poker (or whatever Asian card game they play), etc 6. In Thailand, my word they do. They'll walk up to you and start talking and you're just like 'nah piss off' and they'll try to tug you in. 7. That's highly probable. Although I'd doubtful they'd be 'tricked', most likely threatened to get into it, or having to do that as a form of paying off debts. 8. There's a chance that'll happen to you in any part of the world. Significantly more likely in third-world countries, though. Anything to put food on the plate, pay off the loan-sharks, try and get back into some form of education, etc. 9. Why the fuck are you doing an analysis on a comedy spoof of other kung-fu films? LOL To answer your question, they're dressed as American gangsters. Chinese gangsters of that era would have worn more traditional suits (Chinese-style.. they look like Tai-chi clothes ).. nowadays they'd probably be likely to have a black suit, black tie, black sunglasses, black hair, black eyes, black heart.
Thanks for your input it's very helpful and for ordering my questions as well xD I've decided to do a comparative essay on the representation of gang culture in Kung Fu Hustle & Bad Guy I thought that because Kung Fu Hustle is a comedy it would be interesting to compare it with Bad Guy which is very realistic looking back now I probably should have chosen Goodfellas or Scarface instead but ah well I think I can get a lot out of Kung Fu Hustle from the gang perspective though comparing Korean & Italian gangsters would of added the culture aspect and boosted my word count. I've already got some clear topic headings like the relationship between gangs and police and how both films portray conventions of gangster films as they smoke and make their money from prostitution and gambling. It should be fine xD Thanks for this by the way my mind is over analysing everything at the moment because Bad Guy gets rather complicated but this will help me link some points together nicely. It's hysterical to watch them doing it in Bad Guy, sad but funny.
Another thing you could do is compare Scarface, an American gangster film, with the Underbelly series - which focuses on the organized crime within Melbourne. And contrast how each portrays the people, how each shows the victims, the paranoia of the 'villians', etc. But I'd certainly be comparing two different kinds of films.. it's quite hard to distinguish between Korean and Chinese IMO - so you might have some difficulty writing in that regard. If you've already chosen your topic, and had to submit a topic paper before you actually write the essay I guess you're stuck, but if you can change your basis for the essay now to analyzing a more appropriate choice of films/tv series it would probably be more advantageous for your final essay with regard to word count and substance.
I was just going to suggest something like this too, except I was going to suggest comparing Scarface with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
Haha I'm quite annoyed I didn't write on here before I started my marathon note writing at least my essay will be original and something the exam board will of most likely not seen before which is what I always try to do. I'll be able to hit 3000 easily I think Kung Fu Hustle may be a comedy but it gives me a lot of easy things to write about in regards to gang culture I think as much as Scarface just because the notes I would make about Scarface would be so narrative based.
That happens in Europe also, take for example the red light district in Amsterdam, they basically prowl the streets there o_o. The more developed nations in Asia control that aspect, but the poorer area's have no government control over the issue.
Lets hope they dont have internet in vietnam, Imagine popping online and reading this knowing your mother smoked But really yeah someone said that on a documentary dont ask i get bored sometimes