Jambok-geunmu

I spent the entire day feeling bored, so I decided to indulge in watching an old classic Korean film. My main reason for choosing this film was because it stars a rookie Gong Yoo. :)

The plot revolves around a female police officer who is assigned a mission to apprehend a gangster. To accomplish this, she goes undercover as a high school girl in order to get close to the gangster's daughter.

The storyline was somewhat predictable and had a few weak points with some plot holes. However, despite these flaws, I found myself enjoying the film, primarily due to the strong performance of the female lead (Kim Sun Ah) The fight scene and the ending kissing scene were particularly well-executed and added a delightful touch to the overall experience.

I am a huge fan of Asian cinema, and this Korean movie is worth a watch.

The story of a police officer having to go undercover in a school, and no one really wonders about her age? Yeah, already there is the first laugh.

The dialogue is good and funny, the scenes are well put together, and the movie works well all throughout. And the characters are well portrayed and have that sparkling on-screen chemistry going on.

The lead women, Seon-a Kim does a marvelous job in her role as the undercover police woman.

However, if you are unfamiliar with Asian cinema, you should know that many things in these movies are fairly extreme and out there, so you should approach this movie with the intention of being entertained and not having to think too much about what is going on.

It is a movie that you will pick up again later and watch it for a second time. It has good entertainment value, and could use a sequel for sure.

This is a light-hearted cop comedy about a young female policewoman who reluctantly goes undercover in a high school. Her assignment is to get close to the daughter of the second in command of the "Whacker", the biggest crime syndicate in Seoul. Actress Seon-a Kim is wonderful as Detective Chun Jae-in. She has the kind of plastic face and flexible body that can perfectly convey comedy in a physical way, a useful asset in a foreign language film where words and phrases often don't translate well. It's interesting to note that she is roughly ten years older than Sang-mi Nam, the actress who plays Seung-hee, the daughter of the crime boss. Sang-mi Nam was about 21 years old when the film was made, yet Seon-a Kim is totally believable as her peer. The film is a bit weak in the occasional action set pieces, and a lovely female gang member is woefully underutilized. Still, the movie, whose English title is "She's On Duty", is charming, delightful, and quite amusing. The DVD, which I picked up in New York City's Chinatown, looks great and has some decent extras: a still photo gallery, a music video, and an enjoyable video of the photo shoot for the film's posters and box art.

After ruining a sting operation which might have apprehended a top-ranking South Korean criminal named "Cha Young-jae" (Kap-su Kim), a female detective named "Chung Jae-in" (Seon-a Kim) is subsequently assigned a mission in which she has to keep tabs on the criminal's daughter, "Seung-hee" (Sang-mi Nam). This requires her to go undercover--as a high school student. Not only that but she has to somehow make friends with Seung-hee and at the same time try to fit in. Neither of these are very easy. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it I will just say that in order for this particular type of film to work it typically has to have some really good comedy to back it up. That being said, while there is certainly some comedy here, I didn't see anything special about any of it. Even so it wasn't too bad for the most part and as a result I suppose it was worth the time spent to watch it. Accordingly, I rate it as about average. But no more and no less.

A fish-out-of-water undercover cop comedy/action film in the same vein as Kindergarten Cop or Miss Congeniality, She's On Duty stars Kim Seon-a as tough policewoman Chun Jae-in, who reluctantly poses as a high school student in order to get close to Seung-hee, daughter of criminal Cha Young-jae. By befriending Seung-hee, Chun Jae-in hopes to find the whereabouts of the girl's father, who is needed to testify against an evil gang boss.

Familiar stuff through and through, this South Korean film lacks originality, isn't especially funny, and is not particularly great in the action stakes either (none of the performers are very convincing when throwing punches and kicks), but Kim Seon-a makes for a likeable enough lead (once you become accustomed to her exaggerated expressions, that is) and, with its upbeat ending, the film ultimately proves a charming enough way to spend some time nonetheless. I don't regret watching it, but I doubt if I'll ever feel the need to see it again.