RE: MASH, MASH, MASH (was Interest in the Korean War)

["Daniel T. Fahey" <DanFahey@DanSources.com>]

It was interesting that MASH theme was about Korea.
However the Korean people displayed did not wear wide straw hats.
The Vietnamese did.

Dan Fahey

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-KOREAN-WAR-L@raven.cc.ku.edu
[mailto:owner-KOREAN-WAR-L@raven.cc.ku.edu]On Behalf Of Martin Dunne
Sent: Friday, January 25, 2002 6:30 AM
To: KOREAN-WAR-L@raven.cc.ku.edu
Subject: MASH, MASH, MASH (was Interest in the Korean War)



----- Original Message -----
From: GRBroman@aol.com

[snip]

> Glen
> BTW, my favorite line from the original MASH movie was a dialogue between
Major Burns and Hawkeye (IIRC)
> MAJ Burns:  "How did such an incompetent person rise to such a position of
responsibility in the United States Army?"
> Hawkeye:  " I was drafted"
> You can't imagine the reaction this got from a theater full of young
troops and draft age males back nearly 30 some odd years ago when I first
saw it.

This was Major Hoolihan talking about Hawkeye (behind his back), the
denouement from "Dago Red", the priest.

I too like the MASH film, although it also has "about as much to do with the
Korean war as square dancing". There are a couple of good sites about the
making of this film.

This was a deliberate policy on the part of the director to make the
material (screenplay by Ring Lardner Jr., and I am guessing the Americans on
the list know who he was) both more relevant to the audience in 1970 and
more general. But unlike those who may have not read the scrolling text "And
then there was Korea..." at the start of the movie and may have come out
with the belief they had seen a film set in Vietnam, there was no reason for
my teacher to insist that the TV series MASH was set in Vietnam. Go figure.

I just assumed ysk meant the TV show. I have the impression from a couple of
Korean exchange students staying at my friend's place that MASH (TV) was
popular in Korea. This kind of confuses me, as what little I knew about
Korea and the Korean war when I watched that show seemed at variance with
its depiction. In particular my favourite episode (To Market To Market)
stars Jack Soo as a black marketeer. Unless the Korean audience took it that
he was obviously a Japanese super-criminal black marketeer, this casting
seemed a little odd.

Does anyone have any knowledge of the popularity of MASH in ROK, or insight
into its depiction of the war?