Across the Cultures

With relatively little to do at night during the cold months, I've taken to re-visiting one of my favorite past-times; watching Korean dramas. These are self-contained television series, usually 14 to 24 episodes long. They range from fun romantic comedies to police actions to historical stories. Some of my favorites include My Name is Kim SamSoon, Full House, Couple or Trouble (which is based off of the movie Overboard, starring Kirk Russel and Goldie Hawn), Chuno, and Goong.
My current favorite is titled Iljimae, a Robin Hood-esque series featuring a few good guys, more bad guys, a couple somewhere-in-between guys, martial arts, swordplay, and a dash of romance. Lee JunKi is the lead (I don't know who he is, but I'm assuming he's an actor based on the fact that he is, y'know, acting), with Han HyoJoo, Lee YoungAh, Moon JiYoon, and Park ShiHoo in supporting roles. I have to admit I am completely addicted to this series.
Here's the basic rundown: A young nobleman's son sees his father murdered and his family torn apart. He escapes, loses his memory, and is raised as a peasant boy named YongEe. YongEe eventually regains his memory as well as a thirst for revenge. He adopts the Iljimae persona to steal riches for the poor as well as to look for the people who killed his father. Mayhem ensues.
Tonight was the night for episode 14. I fired up the computer, found my Korean drama site, and clicked the mouse over episode 14.
It opened a page saying the link was broken.
After a few minutes of frantic searching, I found a site that offered episode 14 . . . with French subtitles.
I goggled for a few minutes (thinking, "What? The French watch this, too?") before deciding to go ahead and plow through it.
It was . . . interesting, to say the least. I don't know much Korean and the only French I know came by way of The Pink Panther and a few Gerard Depardieu films. From watching the previous 13 episodes, I thought I would be able to follow the story, if not understand all the dialogue. I listened hard while picking through the subtitles and became lost in exactly three seconds. I heard Korean, but everyone seemed to have a French accent. When the little girl was run over by the horse and the villagers attacked the castle, I heard music from Les Miserables. The words "Pepe le Pew" (or what looked an awful lot like "Pepe le Pew") kept flashing across the bottom of the screen. And I'm certain that someone was extremely worried about their churro. I did learn that "cheval" means "horse" thanks to the main love interest saying that word and then a horse appearing. I also learned that after being strung up and pelted with some sort of animal dung, the rider that ran over the little girl offered to pay her family 30 pieces of the currency of the time and 20 rolls of toilet tissue. Although, thinking it over, he could have used the tissue more.
Oh, and I learned that the French like Korea, too.