Being a big fan of the Asian cinema for more than 20 years, I am always excited to get the chance to watch something I haven't already seen. And I happened to come across "I Married an Anti-Fan" by cosmic luck. Reading the synopsis made me sort of excited to sit down and watch the movie, because it sounded like it had potential to be a great romantic comedy.
And it did... have potential. However director Jae-Young Kim didn't really grasp onto this potential and took full advantage of what readily available. As such, then "I Married an Anti-Fan" sort of turned out to be nothing more than a lukewarm and generic romantic comedy. A movie that offered absolutely nothing new to the genre.
The story is about Miaomiao Fang (played by Yuan Shanshan) who is no great fan of Korean pop sensation Zhun Hou (played by Park Chanyeol). She lost her job because of the pop-star and is bent on doing everything in her power to make him pay for that. When an unforeseen chance to be in a reality TV show with him, she leaps at the opportunity for her revenge. However, being forced to be together all the time starts to tear down her anger and resentment towards the pop-star.
Right, it was a fairly average storyline. Actually the plot is something that has been seen countless of times in other romantic comedies, just with a different setting of course. So don't expect anything new or innovating from "I Married an Anti-Fan".
I will say that the acting in "I Married an Anti-Fan" was quite good, and the two leads, Yuan Shanshan and Park Chanyeol, did perform quite well and more than did their parts to lift up the movie. And they did have some good chemistry together on the screen.
There were also some genuinely fun and good moments throughout the movie, but they just couldn't lift the rest of the movie out of mediocrity.
Perhaps I am just getting old or because I am not in the loop of the Asian fashion industries, but why did the glasses and spectacles worn by the cast in the movie have no optical glass in them? A fashion statement or just downright idiocy on the props department? "I Married an Anti-Fan" is a generic run-of-the-mill-romantic-comedy movie. You know, the girl-hates-boy-then-girl-falls-in-love-with-boy type of romantic comedy.
I am rating this movie a mediocre five out of ten stars. I will say that "I Married an Anti-Fan" is worth spending about two hours on if you enjoy Asian cinema and have nothing else better to watch. However, this is hardly the type of movie that you will watch more than once. It just didn't stand out in a flooded romantic-comedy genre.
