Korean cinema went through a phase of overly melodramatic situations trying to uproot the heartstrings by force. It often came out cheap, although the production values were high and the plots were different enough from "normal" hollywood fare to make them entertaining.
By 2019, the level of refinement has increased dramatically, with "My Special Brother" proof of this (the English title is weird and far less effective than the Korean one, so I won't use it). This is a movie whose plot cries out for mawkish treatment, but whoever the director was handled it very skillfully and it turns out to be a strong emotional dramady.
Seha and Dong-gu are orphans who grew up in the same orphanage. Seha suffers from total paralysis from the neck down and he was abandoned there because of the great burden he was on his caretakers. Dong-gu is mentally underdeveloped and acts like a child, but his mother gave him up to the orphanage because of poverty.
Seha is the brains operation, and Dong-gu seems to admire him and obey him unquestioningly. On the other hand, Seha can not so much as survive without the help of Dong-Gu, and the director conveys this skillfully through scenes of their daily lives, showing us how Dong-Gu must get up several times a night to change Seha's position so that he doesn't bruise, for example.
When the pair reaches adulthood, some government lottery for the disabled allows them to live together in an apartment rather independently. This goes rather well until Dong-Gu's biological family, now economically comfortable as restaurant owners, want to reclaim him.
It would be selfish of Seha to demand that Dong-Gu stay and take care of him when a loving family is willing to take care of him, right? Well, it's not so simple and this movie goes on to effectively explore things like sacrifice, dependence, love, the meaning of family, and dignity in disability.
Veteran actor Shin Hagyun plays Seha to perfection. I don't have enough experience to say whether it's an accurate portrayal of a man in his situation, but with his avoidance of affect and strict but caring attitude to Seha, he is perfectly portraying a human being who is resigned to the fact that nature has dealt him one of the worst hands imaginable, but that life can still be bearable even so if it's taken one day at a time.
The guy who plays Dong-gu doesn't do as good of a job. It seems extremely overplayed and theatrical, with odd continuous tics and mugging. I was almost going to give it a 9 for that, but the rest of the movie is so good it makes up for it.
This movie doesn't attempt to surgarcoat or romanticize Seha's situation, but it doesn't wallow in self-pity either. He is able to function in limited comedic scenes which work well and aren't disrespectful or mocking like they would be in Mr. Magoo, for example. There's a sort of love interest as well and at first it seems like she's going to be superfluous, but the movie doesn't take a cheesy or unrealistic route with her.
The sub-ending is perhaps the best ending in any movie, the actual ending is good, and I really enjoyed the song for the ending credits.
Honourable Mentions: Born on the 4th of July (1989). Tom Cruise plays a paraplegic who becomes an anti-war crusader.
