Young-Un is a 29 year old young South Korean guy whose life suddenly runs off the tracks. (How is it that folks over there always look ten years younger than their age? And 'Young-Un' is his name, and is not intended to be play on 'young 'un'.) His gold digger girlfriend dumps him, and while he's on a business trip to Japan, his company back in South Korea gets shut down for selling fake ginseng. He's in Japan, freshly unemployed and without a shoulder to cry on. He tries to get hold of his girlfriend in case she might have reconsidered but she texts him back a picture of herself and her new boyfriend embracing. She's done with him for sure.
(A sub-plot of the story is that Young-Un's father runs a big company and he would like his son to follow in his footsteps, but the two are not on the best of terms and Young-Un has chosen to make his own way elsewhere. Was there ever a better name for a son than 'Young-Un'?)
As he hits a low point - unemployed, dumped by his girlfriend, alone, Young-Un meets a man and his wife who run a school teaching foreign languages. They see him blowing up by himself at the park after getting his ex girlfriend's texted picture and they note that he speaks Korean - just what they need for their school. At first, they take him out for supper to console him but after quite a few drinks, Young-Un agrees to teach Korean to the Japanese-speaking students in their school. Reluctantly he agrees (after sobering up the next morning) and begins his new job as a teacher. In the class he teaches, he meets the lovely Sakura, a single Japanese mom who is going through some rough spots in life herself and needs to learn Korean quickly to keep her job.
I don't want to give away too much of the story but both Young-Un and Sakura are well-played and appealing characters you care about. (If I don't care about the characters I won't stay interested in a movie.)
A couple of little Easter Eggs in the story: when the owner of the school and his wife take Young-Un out for supper and drinks, we're treated to his Karaoke performance of a song that shows he actually can sing pretty well - and, later in the film, we get a brief sample of his dance moves. Neither are key to the story really but they're fun to see and add a little dimension to his character. I was not aware when watching the movie that this guy has been a famous member of boy bands and other things in S. Korea - so that is where he gets his 'chops'.
You'll note some interesting cultural differences in Korean movie-making, such as the occasional use of cartoonish sound effects (i.e. 'boinggg!') and the piano background music sounds like something from a silent movie. These don't harm anything though. Anyhow - it's a very enjoyable movie and I'm glad I watched it. I watched this one to the end and never once thought of bailing out.
