Daenseo-ui sunjeong

A lot of people are not keen on watching Korean movies. The language sounds weird the first time you hear, the style is something that you're not used to, but I'm very happy that I gave this movie a chance. It's a sincere and sweet romantic comedy and it's much better than a lot of movies in this style. The scenes and emotions are not pushed but feel natural. The acting from both leads in most scenes is really good. On top of that, it's a movie about dancing and the leads can dance well, they have good posture, etc. Their body types are correct for it, too. Especially the guy looked great as a dancer! You don't feel like they took two celebrities and just put them in shiny dancing clothes.

Na Young-sae was once touted as the best dance trainer in Korea, and was in contention for another trophy during the national dance competition, until dirty underhand tactics by rivals ruined it all for him. Seeking a comeback, his manager and him hatched a plan to import a foreign talent from China, Jang Chae-rin, to partner with him and reclaim his spot at the top.

Alas, Chae-rin turns out to be the inexperienced teenage sister of the real mccoy, and Young-sae goes into a frenzy as the championships is only 3 months away. Reluctantly, and realizing the lack of time, Young-sae has no choice but to make do with what he has, and put his training skills to the test in turning a rookie into a professional ballroom dancer.

The storyline sounds familiar, like Dirty Dancing's, exploring the situational device of having a teacher and his protégé go through their lives together experiencing new found relationships through the language of dance. They start off awkwardly, and most of the time the plot focuses on the rigorous training in which Young-sae puts Chae-rin through. There is an unnecessary subplot though, of the marriage investigators who probe into the fake marriage between Young-sae and Chae-rin (that's the rouse used to get her to Korea), just to add to some laughs.

Dance has always been associated with passion, feelings and love. This movie doesn't stray from these themes, and the main leads heat up the screen with their sensual dance moves, albeit too little screen time. Just when you thought it's time for them to take on the championships and arch-rivals, the plot takes a twist, which I thought was probably an attempt to avoid being predictable.

Ladies might want to prepare your hankies for the emotional scene towards the end, where Young-sae and Chae-rin declares their love for each other indirectly at the marriage bureau. Extremely touching that, especially when you think back on their attempts to fabricate a fictional story on their relationship, which has taken on for real.

It is of course helpful that the two leads are eye candy. Park Keon-hyeong as Young-sae seemed to have the easier role of the mentor, snarling most of the time with a diva-ish, yet tender attitude towards his protégé. Mun Guen-yeong has the tougher role to flesh, transforming herself from simple naive girl into chic professional dancer, with a heart pining for Young-sae. The chemistry between the two is superb, and their dances together once they got their groove right, just magical.

Which of course brings me to my main gripe - I want more! But the attempt to make the story unconventional turned my request down, although the end credits featured a clip of them dancing, serving as some kind of compensation for the lack of dancing screen time. It's not the partner, but the partnership that mattered, said Young-sae. It rocked, and left me wanting more! Some might find it "been-there-done-that", but I recommend this for those who which to get jiggy with it on the dance floor. I found myself tapping to the soundtrack as we get whirled around the ballroom, and I'm sure ballroom dance lovers, or romantics at heart, will do the same too.

Unless one truly is a well-rounded person or likes all kinds of film genres, some may not be aware that movies involving dance is actually a thing. Although if anyone has seen a musical, play or live performance one could easily realize this. There are however stories that revolve around dance but do not involve the actors or characters breaking out into song either. No matter what though, dance is an undeclared love language in some cultures because it truly can bring people together. Now to those even more unfamiliar to the international market, dance can obviously cross over into other countries. South Korea is no different. For every Step Up (2006), there will be other movies that are in the same genre. Of course the film would have its own cultural twist on it though.

The story is about Na Young-sae (Keon-hyeong Park), a renowned dancer and teacher who almost made it to the finals if he wasn't sabotaged by his opponent Jung Hyun-soo (Chang Yun) at the last moment. This ended up leaving Young-sae with a bum leg and out of commission. Trying to help, his manager Ma Sang-doo (Park Won-Sang) finds Jang Chae-rin (Moon Geun-young) a Korean raised in China. However, it turns out she does not know how to dance and it's up to Young-sae to teach her for them to both make the rematch against his rival. Written by Gye-ok and Young-hoon Park, the narrative is a wholesome one about redemption and learning from failure with the support from others. Gye-ok Park has had experience working in Korean film before and Young-hoon Park who also directed this feature has also worked in other films with stars like Lee Byung-hun.

Overall the writing is decent. It contains a blend of romance, drama and even small amounts of comedic moments from the main cast and even side characters. Moon Geun-young who rose to fame after My Little Bride (2004) a year before still has her youthful characteristics here. Her character is more mature though and displays those moments accurately. Keon-hyeong Park shows how troubled his character is after his fall from grace and then being paired up with someone with less experience than him. Together both show likeable chemistry and have their tender moments. Park Won-Sang as Young-sae's manager performs fine. The character itself though is a bit abusive though. One would almost think the same for Chang Yun as Jung Hyun-soo although it is never shown. Yun as Hyun-soo plays quite a confident character and will stop at nothing to succeed.

The part of the writing that is less clear are some of the questionable decisions various side characters make. Perhaps this goes back to Korean culture during the 2000s? Not sure but some of it is weird in the sense that it would be seen as uncalled for. That or the fact that after some individuals' action to another, the two still remain friendly. It's a little bizarre considering how out of hand some situations become. Since this is a film involving dance, this component can't be left out. The choreography for the dancing sequences are well executed and performed by the actors. When it comes to nailing down moves and rhythm, one must imagine how much practice that takes to get it right. Pretty much nothing to point out as a flaw there.

For cinematography, the camerawork was handled by Jong-yun Kim. For what the film shows, the scenes are well lit and capture the right actions to be seen. What's interesting is seeing how Young-sae began in his apartment, only to see how Chae-rin brings his world to life in several ways. One aspect maybe that could've been done better was the CGI which is minimally used to begin with. As for the music in the film, Man-sik Choi composed the score which there does seem to be an album available. For whatever's heard, the score does bring out the right emotions for the scenes filmed. Much of the instruments heard among the tracks are performed on piano The one song though that seems to be popular is "1000 Years" by Kang Eunsu, which was the main song for the two main characters. It is memorable in its own way.

The simple digital elements to the feature along with some out of touch character decisions are just small flaws within this dance romance film. The actors are likeable, the music is easy listening and the dancing is mesmerizing.

I really enjoyed this and have watched it more than once, good story plenty of drama, nothing wrong with this you should enjoy it

Well I cried through part of this movie I can't say anything so I don't want to spoil the movie, but it was fantastic from beginning to end. This movie moved pretty quickly through what needed to go through the plot to get to the end, but I love anything that has to do with music or any art dancing or whatever. I didn't like the part where she gets slapped that's the only spoiler I'm going to put in there but in most movies I've seen women get treated a lot worse in movies is this my opinion, it's just like watching a scene either when a child's being hurt same thing.

I was crying at the end but it had a really good ending that's another spoilers sorry. Actually these kind of movies don't have a good ending and they don't have ending that makes any sense and leave you hanging.

I would watch this again later on this would be one of my go-to movies even though I cried through some of it.