Gutbai singgeul

Starts off with full on laughs and gradually get more serous. Eventually becoming a full on Drama.

This one is worth watching.

A female celebrity wants to revive her life and career by promising a pregnant teenager that she will adopt the baby after the mother gives birth. In the meantime, Go Joo-Yeon will pretend to be the one who is pregnant.

Sounds far-fetched and ridiculous? Not really. This is just another form of surrogacy. Earlier in the year, a Chinese actress went to the US to have a surrogate mother carry a baby for her. In the end, she changed her mind and left the surrogate mom and husband to hang and dry.

This story is way better because the characters are funny, dramatic, strong-willed, gullible and naive all at the same time. The comedy at the beginning of the film soon gives way to the drama partway through, but it's done so smoothly that it doesn't appear awkward.

After all, teenaged pregnancy and responsibility are serious topics. It's a good change of approach to not make the story funny all the way through.

I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the 2016 South Korean movie "Gutbai Singgeul" (aka "Familyhood") here in 2023, as I had stumbled upon the movie. And with it being an Asian movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I opted to sit down and watch it.

And without ever having heard about this 2016 comedy drama from director Tae-Gon Kim, I didn't really know what I was in for, nor did I have any expectations, aside from some laughs and an entertaining time.

Writers Jeon Go-Woon, Tae-Gon Kim and Dong-Sun Shin collectively managed to concocts a script and storyline that eluded my sense of humor, much less provide me with much of any entertainment really. The storyline and narrative was slow paced to the brink of utter boredom, and fact that the movie was devoid of laughs just didn't really help to win me over either.

The acting performances are okay, and there are some familiar faces on the cast list. But not even the likes of Ma Dong-Seok and Kim Hye-Su could manage to do much with the severe limitations imposed upon them by an inferior script.

I found "Gutbai Singgeul" to be a swing and a miss, and this is not a movie that I will recommend you waste your time, money or effort on. Just getting past the 30 minute marker of the 120 minute runtime was quite a struggle.

My rating of "Gutbai Singgeul" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Familyhood is an entertaining movie that moves the audiance towards the ending. However, the begining was a bit weak. We are presented with an arrogant actress who sees her career coming to an end, her relationship shuttered and her chances of having a family lost. The most, actually, interesting part was the student's story. The movie starts to offer some solid entertainment after the two women start living together and they form a family. However, it goes back to a weak downhill when the leading lady ignores the girl and focuses on her career. That's when the best performances are introduced and the movie hits a darker point. The ending, though, was satisfying. And the character development really good. So, seven out of ten.