In “Les Militaribles,” an Air Force parody of Hollywood musical “Les Miserables,” Valjean, right, begs officer Javert for more time off. [Screen capture from YouTube]

As Hollywood blockbuster “Les Miserables” heads into Oscar season with eight Academy Award nominations, the Korean Air Force’s condensed and Koreanized version of the epic, “Les Militaribles,” has hit its own jackpot.

The 13-minute movie produced by the Korean Air Force has gotten over 513,000 views on YouTube as of yesterday, a day after it was posted.

Air Force chief of staff Sung Il-hwan liked it, according to the film’s director, First Lieutenant Chung Da-hoon. He said, “Well done,” according to Chung.

Russell Crowe, who played prison guard Javert in the film, re-tweeted a link to it Wednesday.

The light-hearted satire of the tediousness of military life has six songs with lyrics adapted from the original and sung in Korean. It begins with a scene of conscripts shoveling snow and singing “Look Down,” which in the original is sung by convicts on work detail. Javert, a duty officer, tells airman Jean Valjean that his girlfriend is arriving to visit him - but he only has a few minutes to spend with her because the snow must be cleared.

The girlfriend, Cosette, waits for her boyfriend at a military visiting center and sings “I Dreamed a Dream.” (“As I take the intercity bus/crawling through the frozen roads/barely arriving at sundown/Jean Valjean is clearing snow.”) Cosette later dumps Valjean, and he and his fellow soldiers sing of the misery of enlisted life in “Red and Black.”

Snow shoveling is a common gripe among the 600,000 Korean men who are completing their compulsory military duty at any given time.

During winter, they are frequently mobilized for snow removal, especially those stationed in mountainous frontline units. Some viewers of the YouTube video left comments thanking the Air Force for a nostalgic walk down memory lane of their military days.

“I feel numbed by such a strong public reaction to the video, not to mention [both Korean and foreign] press requests for interviews,” director Chung told the Korea JoongAng Daily yesterday. “It cost us less than 1 million won [$918] to make the piece, half of which was spent on buying snacks for soldiers in the film.”

The film took a month to produce with a cast of 70 and a crew of 10, according to the Air Force, and two weeks to record. The actors who sing majored in music prior to their military service.

“The sole actress is a first lieutenant official who studied vocal music during college,” Chung said.



By Kang Jin-kyu, Carla Sunwoo [jkkang2@joongang.co.kr]




군인들 삽 들고 "제설 제설!"… '빵터져~'

● 유튜브 공군 레미제라블 패러디 인기 폭발적

대한민국 공군판 ‘레 밀리터리블’ 영상이 화제다.

공군본부 문화홍보과 공감팀은 5일 유튜브를 통해 13분짜리 영상 ‘레 밀리터리블’을 공개해 폭발적인 반응을 얻고 있다.

해당 동영상은 지난해 12월 개봉해 인기를 끈 영화 ‘레미제라블’을 패러디한 것으로 군 생활 중 가장 힘들다는 제설작업과 관련한 애환을 담고 있다.

공군들은 소복하게 쌓인 하얀 눈을 삽질하며 “제설, 제설”을 외치고 있다.

영화 ‘레미제라블’ 속 장발장과 노예들이 작업장에서 밧줄을 당기며 노래 부르는 장면을 떠오르게 한다. 이 영상에는 장발장을 괴롭히는 자베르 중위도 등장해 장발장을 죄수번호 ‘24601’ 로 불러 웃음을 유발한다.

이병 장발장은 제설작업으로 여자친구와의 면회에 늦고 자베르 중위에게 기합도 받는다.
장발장은 눈이 내리지 않는 봄이 오길 기다리며 영상에서 사라진다.

‘레 밀리터리블’ 영상을 본 네티즌들은 “생각보다 수준이 높다”, “대한민국 군인에게 겨울이란”, “뮤지컬 영화 뺨친다” 등의 반응을 보이고 있다.

◆ 동영상 보기