My Sassy Girl

(Spoilers) So, we have a film about a woman who can't let go of her first love, whom she obviously idealized. She subsequently struggles to accept a new suitor for what he is in his own terms. Instead, she wants him to magically become the old guy. It's more than ironic that so many of the critiques of this film do exactly that—fail to judge it on its own terms. So maybe your former lover really was superior, maybe Jordan's ex was better than Charlie, and, yes, maybe the original Korean version of this film was better than the American remake. I can accept that. But judge this film on its own terms, please.

The way the plot unfolds – without my spoilers – allows the oddities of its characters to go unexplained until near the end. In retrospect I found Jordan's character and behavior quite plausible. Similarly, Charlie is a bit two-dimensional at first, but then what do you expect from French Lick, Indiana – an artsy guy like Larry Bird? The guy's ambition is to go into corporate agricultural, after all. There really are people like that. This mysterious girl lures him into something more alive, to use his term. She gains depth in retrospect, once we understand her, and he gains depth because of her.

The plot is simply instinctive love exerting a force that carries two young lovers through well-placed doubts and formidable emotional perils. Not terribly original—perhaps even trite, but I liked it. Restrained as I once was by dull ideals, I strongly identified with Charlie's simultaneous resistance and compulsive attraction to this vector- deficient girl who takes over his life. Several times I told him to run fast and far. Yet, although I couldn't understand why, instinct told us to stay.

Based on the alleged quality of the original film, this remake of My Sassy Girl probably could have been a masterpiece, but this film is just fine in its own right. I take issue with much of what Hollywood does, including falling short in remakes, bringing every film to a cliché ending, and grossly overstating the presumed wealth of most characters – none of my physician friends live in anything near the multi-floor Manhattan mansion that the doctor, maybe 15 years out of med school – inhabits. With all its flaws, however, My Sassy Girl pleasantly filled an evening and made me smile.

Its a fun film with a lot of surprises some things doesn't make any impact but overall it works with fascinating camera directing amd acting is good to. The writing could have been more original the full potential of drama was missing, its a good to have a look into it.

Story!

The film opens with a brief background story on the hero, Charlie, who we learn was raised by an old-fashioned, extremely "nice" couple, who have instilled in their offspring an extremely "nice" character. This proves to be an important backdrop for the ensuing storyline, which requires the viewer to believe that anyone would be "nice" enough to want to continue seeing "sassy" Jordan Roark, who from their first meeting is completely rude, disrespectful, and even downright cruel toward Charlie. There is nothing charming about her, and it is made clear that she is being deliberately mean-spirited, not merely making innocent social blunders.

Not seeing the original My Sassy Girl, a Korean film from 2001, I appreciated it more than I probably should've. Once in a while, on a weekday, I'll watch a romantic comedy for the hell of it. I'll usually wind up liking it, but sometimes I don't want to watch something very negative and I'll just turn on something uplifting and positive like this film. There isn't much really to hate on a film like this.

Basically, you know the story. Guy meets girl, they fall in love, they break up, they get back together. Movie is over. This one decides to tweak the formula just a bit to try and stand out. Charlie Bellow (Bradford) is a high strung up and coming businessman who just wants one thing; to succeed. One day he is in a subway and finds a girl (Cuthbert), drunk out of her mind, who is about to get struck by a train. He pulls her intoxicated self to safety, and chemistry begins.

He takes her back home to his friends apartment where they await her recovery. When she finally does, the relationship from the two is a bit rocky, but soon they become closer and closer. That is when both realize they are beginning to fall for each other. Of course the audience has known that since the beginning.

Jesse Bradford was also the guy who played the misogynistic jerk in I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell a year later. It's fun seeing him actually fond of girls. Especially after he played such a simple minded character acting on impulse. It's nice to see him appreciate women. Elisha Cuthbert is also a gorgeous, and wonderful add to the film. Neither her or Bradford do anything wrong and their chemistry is believable.

It's not hard to get me to like a romantic comedy. If the story is cute, the characters are believable, the dialog is realistic, and it doesn't seem forced it works for me. In the grand scheme My Sassy Girl doesn't stand out, but it's enough to keep you interested. Still, I will go ahead and assume the original is the one worth seeing.

Starring: Jesse Bradford and Elisha Cuthbert. Directed by: Yann Samuell.

Watch the Korean version first. This version will just act as a spoiler. This is Hollywood just taking the short cut. Look at what is huge in other countries and ripping it off. I was fortunate enough to see the Korean version first, if I hadn't this would have lessened the impact.

The acting was only OK. A lot of the emotion was zapped out of the story. In the Korean version the Sassy girl was played and presented better. You knew there was something intriguing about the girl. She seemed emotionally hurt. In this version she seemed more psychotic, She just seemed to attack.

Yann Samuell's version of 'My Sassy Girl' is pretty much 95% a scene by scene copy of the beautiful Korean film. The hackneyed plot really lacks soul. It's not as bad as the trashy Indian version called 'Ugly Aur Pagli'. The friend character in this American version is annoying and one of the many Hollywood clichés including the Hollywood ending. The Americanized rewriting also makes the characters clichéd. For example the sequences of Charlie's and his friends discussion about relationships is something we have witnessed in numerous sitcoms and movies. No marks for creativity. Jesse Bradford tries to make the best of Charlie (despite the poor writing). Charlie comes across as whiny but remains tolerable because Bradford manages to make some of him likable. Elisha Cuthbert has never looked better but she fails to deliver in the comedic scenes. She's better during the more intense moments.

I loved Jae-young Kwak's 'Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo' which is one of my favourite romantic movies. So I was curious about this remake more so because I liked Bradford in his other movies and Cuthbert is quite pretty. This movie is no match for the original but it's not absolutely terrible (like the Indian one). Watch Kwak's movie if you haven't seen it yet and then give this one a try if you really want to.