Misseu Hongdangmu

If you've seen any of my other reviews you'll know I love South Korean Movies.

This is one of those little odd movies that hides away, waiting you to find it and watch it and love it.

The acting was really top notch, especially the main character and the daughter. Their interaction together makes the movie.

As always it's the small little things that are added as though making a movie is a matter of art as apposed to fame and money.

This is a quaint, odd ball, black comedy that warms your heart when the movie is done. It's great and well worth the watch.

This is a thoughtful Korean comedy, slightly risqué, that wins with wit, good acting, and a good (award winning) screenplay filled with surprises. (Park Chan-wook's got a co-write credit.) A number of times it will set you up to dare it to go somewhere, then it will go there and you'll applaud the way it's handled, delicately. There is mildly adult humor in the presence of a child so delicacy is warranted. Props to young actress Woo Seo for taking it all in stride, reminding us that kids are usually hip to the things adults think they should be protected from. Hyo-jin Kong, as the frumpy high school teacher who blushes easily, is surprisingly accomplished in her comic timing, often acting in a meta-aware fashion to her surroundings. The director seems aware of all the cheap ways to make us laugh but instead of utilizing them he steps back and winks at them. This is smart and funny ... not a goof-ball comedy even though it plays like one on the surface.

The scenario is so good! Anyone can be found in one or another of the characters, with a great empathy, I think so. For a comedy, the script have a little shadow of tragic, consequently enough to amaze us with bold, funny, great dialogues. If the dialogues deserves a few positive adjectives, the acting deserves tens. The main actresses plays their roles perfectly, in the most realistic way; you may forget that you see a movie. All the gestures of Yang Mi-sook (Kong Hyo-jin), of nervousness, of embarrass, of guilt or joke, finally, are prodigious. I'm impressed how the director (and the writer) Lee Kyoung-mi managed to film, to point out, all that wonderful gestures; plus that amazing face of Kong Hyo-jin. And it's not only the actress Kong Hyo-jin; are the faces filmed over the computers in sending messages (Seo Woo, Hwang Woo S.H.), the pointed out of the back and the underwear of Yang's competitor, all that little movements, but so suggestive, marvelous. The director present us a wonderful show, without a trace of feminism. I found so much equidistance in this movie. The images; some of them are really unforgettable even, to say, for a close-up filming technique. And that photo from first, is remarkable, an icon. Great work.

Considering the subject matter I was a little nervous that this would become whiny or preachy but it does neither, it stays light-hearted and funny through-out.

The acting is good, Hyo-jin Kong delivers an excellent performance as the slightly demented lead and Seo Woo is surprisingly good as her partner in exile from normal society.

The plot is straight-forward with a mostly harmless but obsessed stalker trying to get her man while has no interest as well as a wife and another paramour.

There are lots of little bits of humour as the two girls plans progress and come close to working but not quite succeeding, the cyber sex scenes are especially funny.

This is all situational humour, no slap-stick or word play just characters doing things that seem normal to them but not to anyone else or situations that get out of control, and there is plenty of it.

The ending lets the film down a bit, the reveal with the wife has very little humour and goes on far too long.

Still an enjoyable comedy with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

This is a refreshing black-comedy with a interesting story and narrative that got my attention from beginning to end. The plot is about a social outcast since her school days and has a chronic blushing problem falls for her teacher, who accepted her for who she is. Later she becomes a teacher and tries to get into a love relationship with him although he is married. Soon she teams up with the daughter of the teacher she is in love with, cause the daughter thinks her father is cheating on her mom. The intriguing premise is what got my attention, and enjoyed just about every part of this black-comedy. Although most of the comedic value comes from adult humor, it's nothing really to complain about. I didn't particularly liked the ending, mainly cause the character Yang Me-Sook who is in love with the male teacher didn't win my sympathy over at the end. Overall it offers a solid script and some great performances, most definitely worth watch, especially for fans of black-comedy.

7.9/10