South Korean conscripts may have dreamed a dream of defending the homeland, but their life is one of snow shoveling and thwarted love — at least in a parody of Les Miserables starring real airmen that has become an Internet hit.
The opera-style video Les Militarables was made by 80 conscripts for US$900 and has garnered more than a million views in three days, raising hopes it could be on the way to a repeat of rapper Psy’s Gangnam Style blockbuster hit.
In the opening scene, a group of young airmen shovel snow to music from the Claude-Michel Schonberg adaptation of Victor Hugo’s novel, singing “Dig down, dig down, raise your shovels high” to the tune of Work Song.
“There is no end to this accursed snow. Dig down, you still have two years’ service to go,” they chant, referring to their national service stint with the air force.
South Korean men serve for 21 months minimum in the army and longer in the air force as part of mandatory military service. During that time, they are cut off from their families and friends for months on end. They are not even allowed to use smartphones despite living in the most wired nation on Earth.
The parody tells the story of hapless conscript Jean Valjean, or “Airman 24601,” who because of the shoveling, manages to spend only 10 minutes with his visiting girlfriend Cosette. She dumps him — the fate, his comrades assure him, of any military man.
“Snow removal is like a black hole. There’s no start and no end of it,” said Lieutenant Chung Da-hoon, 25, who directed the video and was a film student before being called up.
Inspiration came as he and a fellow conscript began singing a song from Les Mis after seeing the movie, he said.
“We thought we could get sympathy from all Korean men and women who have brothers or sons. But we didn’t expect the response from overseas,” he said.
The three main characters in the video are members of the air force band. The sergeant playing Valjean was a college freshman studying opera when he was called up, while his heartless commanding officer, Javert, majored in opera.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
For two decades, researchers observed members of the Ngogo chimpanzee group of Kibale National Park in Uganda spend their days eating fruits and leaves, resting, traveling and grooming in their tropical rainforest abode, but this stable community then fractured and descended into years of deadly violence. The researchers are now describing the first clearly documented example of a group of wild chimpanzees splitting into two separate factions, with one launching a series of coordinated attacks against the other. Adult males and infants were targeted, with 28 deaths. “Biting, pounding the victim with their hands, dragging them, kicking them — mostly adult males,
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
SUPERFAN: The Japanese PM played keyboard in a Deep Purple tribute band in middle school and then switched to drums at university, she told the British rock band Legendary British rock band Deep Purple yesterday made Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s day with a brief visit to their high-profile superfan as they returned to the nation they first toured more than half a century ago. Takaichi’s reputation as an amateur drummer, and a fan of hard rock and heavy metal has been well documented, and she has referred to Deep Purple as one of her favorite bands along with the likes of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. “You are my god,” a giddy Takaichi said in English to Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice, presenting him with a set of made-in-Japan
RSS