No one's written a review yet, so I'm compelled to. The Korean film industry has turned out some great stuff in recent years. Though "Love Fiction" doesn't go at the top of my list (that's reserved for "My P.S. Partner," with the inimitable Ji Sung), it's still a smart, quirky, funny film.
We get to know the characters well--a writer with a serious romantic streak and the woman he falls for at first sight. They're original characters, though we don't get to know the heroine (played by the awesome Gong Hyo-Jin) as well as the hero. We follow the beginning and first year or so of their relationship in a meandering way. Sometimes the unfocused plot delivers marvelous, hilarious scenes, like a really unforgettable funeral service and the best discussion of female underarm hair ever. Other times it doesn't seem clear where we're going or if we're going anywhere. And perhaps we aren't: the denouement is abrupt and feels inconclusive.
The hero is a writer whose detective story protagonist sometimes appears and converses with him. This conceit works well, especially since this imaginary mentor has a habit of quoting the great European writers of the nineteenth century. (Werther comes up a lot. How can I not like a movie that keeps mentioning Young Werther?) What works less well are the scenes set entirely within the hero's hard-boiled detective novel. Luckily, the visits to imagination-land are short.
The mood of "Love Fiction" is more comic than romantic. The unusual secondary characters and the laid-back style give it a slice-of-life vibe. It doesn't deliver an emotional punch or much narrative tension, but you'll remember the oddball characters.
