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My
Sassy Girl
 |
|
Country
: |
South
Korea |
| Year: |
2001 |
| Genre: |
Comedy
/ Romantic |
| Format: |
DVD |
| Running
Time: |
2H17 |
| Distributor: |
Starmax |
| Date
reviewed: |
01/25/2002 |
| |
|
| Producer: |
Chul
Shin |
| Director: |
Gwak
Jae-Yong |
Cast: Jeon Ji-Hyeon, Cha Tae-Hyeon,
Yang Geum-Yong |
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Story:
Gyeon-woo is a single Korean college student, still
not very sure of what he wants to become in the future.
One night, on his way back home, he meets an extremely
beautiful girl, but who is also completely drunk. Because
the girl talked to Gyeon-woo before falling unconscious,
the people surrounding them begin to think that the
girl is Gyeon-woo`s girlfriend. Having no other choice
than helping the girl, he decides to leave her in a
motel, since he doesn't know were she lives. The next
morning Gyeon-woo gets a call from this mysterious girl
who is very angry about him and wants to know everything
that happened the past night. She tells him to meet
her right now at the exit of the metro. Gyeon-woo thinking
about this, decides to go see the girl. From that night,
Gyeon-woo and the girl will become good friends, in
a strange sense. As the relation progresses, Gyeon-woo
begins to discover how crazy the girls really is, with
all her wacky behaviors, angry attitude and always wanting
him to please her the way she wants, even if it mean
that Gyeon-woo will pass for a complete idiot in public
places or gets beaten by the girl. But even if Gyeon-woo
suffer, physically and mentally, he really thinks that
this beautiful girl will have some sorrow in her and
he really wants to help her to get better. But at what
price?
Review: Why do I hate teen movies so much?
Because of their uninteresting crappy love story and
their unbelievable typical characters (you know that
the supposed ugly girl is a perfect super babe when
she takes off her glasses). Also because I can't support
all the clichés and stereotypes that these
kinds of movies like to exploit so much. It's just
not funny to me anymore. Of course, because in most
cases, cinematography wise, these movies mean absolutely
nothing, for me they have almost no artistic values,
I just found them a complete waste of time.
But why do I love "My Sassy girl" so much?
Because of that unpredictable and enjoyable love story
and that the two characters in the movie were awesome
and touching, especially that memorable and beautiful
Korean girl. Also, that the humor was always right
on time, not trying stupid sex jokes or stupid humor,
unlike other movie of its genre right now and that
visually the movie was surprisingly very well done.
Okay, I know what you are thinking right now, "He
said love story, this is a freaking chick flick then!"
No not at all
well okay, this movie has a lot
of material to please more to a female audience but
trust me, just once. I really don't like these kind
of movies and drama makes me sleepy, but I was really
touched by this sweet romantic story. The story looks
simple and yes it is, but there are a lot of things
going on during the movie that you will probably miss
some of the subtle details the first time you watch
it. These details are not essential to the comprehension
of the story but it makes a second viewing even more
fun. The first part of the story concentrates more
on the development of the characters, it really gave
us the time to know them and begin to feel attach
to the two main characters. Feeling sorry for Gyeon-woo
when he gets beaten or humiliated by the girl, but
also that a guy can't stay indifferent by that sweet
little face that girl can make when she wants to be
taken care of. The story is really only about the
two main characters and I can't tell you anymore about
it because it will spoil the development of their
relationship.
Strangely, the cast is almost composed by only two
people, most of the rest of the characters consist
of the parents of the two main characters and that
is about it. And to be entertained during more than
2 hours by only 2 actors, that is a real challenge
and they succeeded at it. The characters are far from
those cliché teen movies, Gyeon-woo looked
at first like the average guy, but this will change
as soon as he will become the slave of the girl. Cha
Tae-Hyeon played the role of the poor victim boyfriend
very good, making every humiliating moment a great
laugh for us and also making us feel pity for him
when things were not going as he would like to.
As for the girl itself, well I never saw a female
character as crazy as this, I mean on a realistic
level of course. The girl was played by Jeon Ji-Hyeon
and be ready to be amaze by this Korean queen beauty.
Her acting was great but how she personalized that
girl was even more amazing. How a sweet little girl
like this can be so violent, disturbed and extreme
will probably amaze you but what is sure is that it
will make you laugh. Love her for her beauty or hate
her for her behavior, this character was the shine
of the movie. Unforgivable that's for sure, specially
if you're a guy who likes Korean girls.
Since it is a love story, there are a lot of melodramatic
moments in the movie, but these moments appear in
the movie only near the end, at the moment when we
are really attach to the characters and that is why
the drama really works in the movie. Unlike other
films who try to make us feel sad right at the beginning,
"My Sassy Girl" takes its time to let us
appreciate the two characters and to wish the best
for them. The first half of the movie contains most
of the jokes, since it tries to introduce us these
two wacky characters. Apparently, the film was based
loosely on a true story, it's not hard to believe
since most of the jokes were very realistic, in a
way that by pure chance or bad luck, these situations
could have really happened. Also the humor was easy
to understand and was not much about Korean culture,
so even if you are not familiar with Asian comedies,
you won't have any problems in liking the type of
humor in the film. Unless you are looking for stupid
sex jokes or over the top humor, you might be really
disappointed. Be ready for a lot comical situations,
great laugh and some unexpected surprise along the
way.
Visually the movie was also interesting and great
to follow. Using colorful and cartoonish backgrounds
to make the transition to different events or just
how the camera was handling on some scenes was just
perfect. It really gives the right touch to make all
these laughing scenes ever funnier. I can't point
out any exact scenes that I have in mind because it
will give you some spoilers about the development
of the story. Also the music fits the humoristic and
dramatic tone of the movie very well.
I have no real idea why I wanted to see "My
Sassy Girl" in the first place. Maybe because
I wanted to watch every Korean movie available or
it got my attention because it was the second best
selling movie, behind "Friends," in South
Korea during 2001 and god knows how bad blockbuster
movies usually are. I didn't expect too much from
that movie, maybe which is the reason why I was so
surprised about its quality. Or maybe, I was just
simply in the right mood to watch this kind of movie.
But what I am sure is that "My Sassy Girl"
is one of the best Korean comedies I have seen and
my favorite Korean movie for 2001 so far. If you like
sweet comedies, don't miss this movie at all cost.
If you are more into coarse humor or action oriented
movies, maybe you might find the ride a little long
but you never know, maybe you will also get a great
surprise.
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DVD
[ NTSC, Region 3
] :
For their first movie DVD release, StarMax put together
a great packaging. The DVD comes in a big metal case
that you can use as a piggy bank, but what is also
great is that inside the metal case the double DVD
set come in a normal plastic DVD keep case, unlike
those big metal cases form Anchor Bay that can't fit
in your DVD shelf. The DVD is labeled as All regions
on the metal case but only the extra DVD is All regions,
the movie is Region 3. You have an excellent Widescreen
Anamorphic transfer and a very good original audio
track in Dolby Digital 5.1. The only problem with
the DVD is the subtitles, the timing is good, the
grammar too but they used the original script to sub
the movie with. No problem with that of course, but
they also put every characters name or expression
on the sub too. Very annoying at first but you will
get use to it. After a while you begin to skip the
first few words on a sentence automatically, but this
might be a big problem for someone who is not used
to watch movie with subtitles. The second DVD is also
full of extras, un-subbed again: Director & Cha
Tae Hyun's audio commentary on the film, Production
note (Original novel, county, hunting, CG making),
Must See (NG cut w/ Commentary, Deleted Scenes Making
Film), 3 separated short films. Except the scripted
subtitles, this DVD edition is almost perfect. If
you want to watch the movie, this DVD is the way to
go, be sure that you can play region coded movie.
(The Metal case is now OOP, but you can still find
the regular release, containing the 2DVD set, easily
everywhere they sell Korean movies).
Easter
Egg: To get into the secret menu, insert 'disc
2' first. Then go to 'Must See' and choose 'first
round (chonbanchon)' from 'Making Menu'. You will
see the first 9 items there. Move your underlined
indicator either to 6th or 7th item, click right-arrow
button. Then you will see 'Time Capsule' icon displayed
between Cha and Jeon change to blue color. Clicking
will turn 'Time Capsule' into the yellow, and you
will be entered to the hidden menu at last. And here
is one more hidden feature there. Go to 'CAST &
STAFF', choose 'Director/Kwan Jaeyong'. The name of
his previous movie is typed in red color. Click that,
you can see music video of the movie. This is easter
egg inside of easter egg. (Thanks to Tim Choe for
the Easter Eggs info).
Reviewed
by Janick Neveu
You
can buy this movie on DVD at: 
|
| Story |
Cast |
Entertainment |
Subtitles |
Overall |
| 4 |
4.5 |
4.5 |
4 |
4.5 |


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