Well, the movie started with extremely violent graphic shots of the girl¡¦s mother chopping up chickens for her fry chicken take-out business, which is the main source of income for the family as the father is unemployed. Later, while tutoring (the girl's way of contributing to the family income) she said something embarrassing, and a parade of animated chickens marched above her head, each laying an egg. I guess you got the hang of it.
There are a few things that go against this movie. First, there is little plot and no story. Not that anything elaborated is needed for this genre, but MTF is more like a series of disjointed sketches. Second, the character of the male lead is unattractive. Kwon Sang-woo, who had made an impression in Volcano High, suffers here because of the lame script. Yes, he is cool in both. In Volcano High, the image worked well because his role was one-dimensional: an ambitious, ruthless contender who wanted to be at the top. In MTF, however, in the role of a super-rich, over-aged delinquent high school student who sometime seems to find a heart, this coolness is embarrassingly misplaced. Finally, I think a lot must have been lost in the translation, literally speaking. I suspect there¡¦s probably plenty of Korean colloquial and pun that are simply lost. In general, the Chinese sub-titles look like something fished right out of a garbage dump. The English subtitles make much more sense, but didn't tickle any funny bones.
On the other side of the balance sheet, there are good things about this movie. Kim Ha-Neul is one. I understand that this actress has so far been nothing but sweet and demure in Korean movies and TV series. In MTF, just the extent she would go to make herself funny deserves applause. And it wasn't such a bad job either. While Kwon Sang-woo does not make much of an impression in his delivery of drama, he certainly exceeds passing grade as a fighting star. Compared to Volcano High, which offers choreographed fighting, MTF has more solid fighting scenes, and there are quite a few of those. Finally, the cutest star in the movie, in my view, is the guy playing Kwon Sang-woo¡¦s father. I am not being sarcastic. He is really a joy to watch.
