With a huge mole on his face and a broken front tooth, former star comedian Shim Hyung-rae’s slapstick character “Young-gu” was everyone’s favorite in the 1990s.

Wearing tattered pieces of hanbok and a pair of black rubber shoes, the kind-hearted chucklehead character was adored by kids and parents alike.

Young-gu has now returned wearing a bow tie and suit as a long-lost son of a mafia boss in 1950s New York City in Shim’s newly directed film, “The Last Godfather.”

Written by, directed by and starring Shim, “The Last Godfather” reflects his ceaseless efforts to transition from iconic comedian to notable filmmaker, despite the mostly negative reviews of his fantasy action film “D-War” in 2007. 

Despite its box office success and impressive CGI effects, the fantasy film was regarded as immature and poorly made due to lack of cinematic craft. This time, Shim steps away from fantasy and gets back to his forte: slapstick comedy.

Setting 1950’s New York City as its background, “The Last Godfather” opens as mafia boss Don Carini (played by Harvey Keitel) welcomes his long-lost son Young-gu home. He had escaped to Korea during a battle between mafia groups in New York and had an affair with a local woman there. He had returned to New York, leaving the woman and their newborn alone and had lost touch with them.

Carini plans to train his mentally-impaired son as his successor, but soon realizes Young-gu simply is not capable. Generous and kind by nature, “Young-gu” tries to please and impress his father, while unintentionally helping his local neighbors and their businesses. “Young-gu” also becomes romantically involved with Nancy Bonfante (Jocelin Donahue), the daughter of his father’s mafia enemy. Shim’s performance in broken English is natural enough to entertain the international public in universal slapstick genre.

Shim’s ability as a director, however, is still in question. The actors ― many of whom have already proven their skills in previous productions ― often seem like they need more direction in their performances.

This is especially evident when Keitel’s character becomes enraged as Young-gu openly expresses his love for Bonfante. It’s hard to find much depth or complexity in Keitel’s performance in this scene, which required a mixture of emotions from the character as he both loves and feels guilty for his newly-found, mentally challenged son.

In terms of the movie’s romance, it is hard to find any chemistry between Donahue and Shim. Perhaps it was intentionally done to fit the film’s PG rating, but the two actors, especially Donahue, do not make it very natural for the audience to watch when they make joint appearances throughout the film.

The biggest achievement of the film though, would be the successful return of Young-gu. Despite the film’s setting in New York, Young-gu is still the same personality who genuinely cares and makes people laugh. The Korean public will be delighted to see him again, while foreign viewers should still be able to connect with him and his kind nature.

The movie artfully recreates the fun of 1950s New York with its high quality CG technology. Korea’s popular girl group Wonder Girls also make a brief appearance in the film.

The movie opens Wednesday.

By Claire Lee (clairelee@heraldcorp.com)