"Golden Tower" Episode 2

Part of the trouble with farming these days is that people have an unrealistically romantic view of it. Farming has changed in the last several hundred years. But even then it's difficult work with dubious economic viability. Modern farmers try to take advantage of the former to deal with the latter by acting pretty much the same way they do in this episode- pretending like they're emulating a traditional way of life for the benefit of tourists.

The obstacles here are pretty obvious. The cast of"Golden Tower"is more-or-less what modern farmers look like (the ones under the age of forty anyway), yet in a group consisting largely of clean-shaven men and the occassional oddball there's really not much that plausibly resembles traditional Korean culture. Hence the source of the jokes. The farmers must take their goofy idea as far as possible for the plan to work. Besides, they were getting bored anyway.

The humor in"Golden Tower"is effective. It's low brow, but effective. The preview last time pretty clearly telegraphed the shirtless man joke, but actually seeing the sequence in full is still just as funny. Of course these guys are going to be used to taking their shirts off- they live on a farm in the middle of summer for pity's sake. Normally it would be an unremarkable act except when there's the occasional woman hanging around.

Something else worth noting about farming- there aren't that many women hanging around, because the work is back-breakingly difficult and very low prestige. Hence whyGuzal Tursunovawas cast- farms are the main place in Korea you're likely to see foreign women, for the simple reason that the sex ratio problem is bad enough that even bringing them in from overseas is a practical solution to solving a life of difficult, lonely work in the middle of nowhere.

As forSamuel Okyere...well I don't really care why he's here because the shirtless man joke really is that good. If"Golden Tower"wants to be low-brow comedy about somewhat deranged men and women trying to keep the farming way of life alive, that's fine by me. The decline of modern farmers tends to be a depressing subject, so it's easy to root for these people to succeed. It also helps that they all put so much effort into it- everybody in this drama is really motivated, even when the goals are short-sighted or silly. Now that's encouragement.

Review by William Schwartz

"Golden Tower"is directed byMin Jin-gi, written byJeong In-hwan,Jo Seung-heeand featuresChoi Jong-hoon,Lee Yong-joo,Kim Jae-woo,Baek Bong-gi,Hwang Je-seongandBae Seul-ki.