Showing posts with label kim ha-neul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kim ha-neul. Show all posts

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Blind: The Seeing Eye Dog That Sees Too Much in Its Owner

It's a good thing that dogs are so indiscriminately devoted. Otherwise, the Golden Retriever Seul-ki might not be so self-sacrificing for Soo-ah (Kim Ha-neul), the former police academy student to whom he's been assigned. He's adorable. She's unlikable (by human standards at least). Shortly after causing the death of her brother and losing her vision in a bizarrely comedic car accident, Soo-ah crosses paths with a serial killer (Yang Yeong-jo) who inexplicably crank-calls her for awhile as he continues his murder spree. Given her propensity for falling, bumping into random objects and pridefully disdaining help from others, Soo-ah may have delayed an attack by the killer because she seems too easy a target. But it's one of the missions of this film to challenge the audience's preconceptions of the blind as disadvantaged. You see, just because Soo-ah's a klutz doesn't mean she's forgotten her martial arts training as a cadet.

Now if only the academy did a better job at screening out candidates based on intelligence. You can kind of believe that goofy Detective Jo (Jo Hie-bong) might scrape by but it's harder to believe Soo-ah would have received even close to a passing grade in logic since her choices are so consistently poor. Even taking into account her heightened sense of smell (and the clues revealed by it), she doesn't merit serious consideration for anything but a sous chef or perhaps a job working with children -- and then only if she's supervised. I bet Gi-seob (Yo Seung Ho), the teenybopper motorcyclist who eventually adopts her as his older sister, would volunteer for those duties. After all the blood loss he experiences late in this movie, his own life choices are bound to be similarly ill-considered. Then again, improbabilities abound in Blind, so much so, that the movie's biggest surprise may be that Soo-ah doesn't get her sight back through the healing properties of dog drool.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

My Girlfriend Is an Agent: My, My, My! That's a Stereotypically Good Korean Comedy

Evidently, Americans aren't the only ones out there who make cheesy comedies in which evil Russians conspire to get hold of a deadly virus that could destroy the world, their diabolical strategy pursued not for political reasons but for personal ones. You know, there's one thing about those heartless Communists. They hold grudges like nobody's business. But do Koreans typecast just like we do? Not really. In fact, I'm trying to think of a single sympathetic portrait of a white person in a Korean film (comedy or not) and nothing comes to mind. Even great films like The Host, Antique Bakery, and Lady Vengeance all make use of Americans, Europeans, and Australians for comic relief at best. Know of a Korean film with a major Caucasian character who's a fully formed person? Please, let me know! Which isn't to say I didn't get a big kick out of the Russian baddies in My Girlfriend Is an Agent. The poorly acted, over-exaggerated nemesis is really a staple of comedy.

And My Girlfriend Is an Agent is a pretty good comedy. I'm an unexpected fan of the Korean "My" comedies -- movies like My Mighty Princess and My Sassy Girl. Generally speaking, rom-coms are not my cup of tea. But because this particular variation of the romantic comedy inverts traditional gender roles, I'm all for it. I like to see the man be the pretty sidekick and the woman be the muscle. In My Girlfriend Is an Agent, the nerdy part is Lee Jae-joon (Kang Ji-hwan), a bumbling undercover rookie with kissable lips and just enough smarts to justify his slapstick mistakes. The kick-ass part is Ahn Soo-ji (Kim Ha-neul), an infinitely more skilled martial artist who also works undercover (and who favors wearing her hair parted on the side... "Tomboy!")

He's trying to be taken seriously despite his lack of field experience; she's out to whoop ass, even if that means pursuing criminals while dressed in a bridal gown and driving a jet ski. Naturally they love each other. Just as naturally, they can't stop butting heads. You see, neither knows that the other one is actually working in the same field as a secret agent -- albeit for a different agency. Which means they're constantly lying to each other to hide their professional identities. He's out to track down a Russian cooperative but posing as an accountant; she's committed to saving the planet from a killer virus while pretending to be a custodial worker at a hotel. Their Confucian insistence of being good citizens first, good lovers second speaks volumes of a work ethic I personally admire. And the fact that love wins out in the end truly does make a good movie.

Considering what a light touch is evidenced throughout, it's strange to think that Shin Terra is the same director who did Black House, a serial killer thriller that isn't the least bit funny at all. But he did.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Lovers of 6 Years: Masochists for Eternity

Someone please pass me a razor blade. Lovers of 6 Years is one depressing romance. We're supposed to believe that the two lovebirds — Da-jin (Kim Ha-neul) and Jae-young (Kim Ha-neul) — are meant for each other because they share a few common interests: namely bickering, crying and cheating. Yet while misery loves company, I don't know that I'd recommend shacking up with a longterm partner because he or she makes you feel like crap and you do the same for him or her. There must be a better way to bond than commiseration. Not that Jae-young's alternative amour, Ji-eun (Cha Hyeon-jeong), comes across any better. She's a flirtatious sociopath who jokes about poisoning him and slicing him up into little pieces so she can take him in her new suitcase when she flies to Santiago. It's no wonder he wants to get back with Da-jin. But Da-jin definitely could do better.

Jin-seong (Sin Seong-rok), the guy with whom she has her reciprocal fling, is both taller and more talented than Jae-young. Even considering that he may be egocentric and eccentric, Jin-seong strikes me as one of those once-in-a-lifetime guys who are too-good-to-be-true if you don't believe you deserve the very best. And after six years with Jae-young, Da-jin's ego has been whittled down enough so that she doesn't think she's worthy of someone that great. That's my take. This is a woman who has reconciled herself to the idea that if she's invested six years of her life with a remorseless, cheating jerk who's more concerned with getting laid than he is about that lump in her breast, well then, she might as well spend the next sixty with him too. Familiarity is her comforter. Note to Da-jin: Familiarity also breeds contempt. (It's good to use cliches when describing a movie so full of them.) Co-writer/director Park Hyeon-jin also suggests that Da-jin might be pregnant by way of a scene early on in which Jae-young insists that they have sex without a condom and then a few more scenes which reveal Da-jin's subsequently unappeasable appetite. Coincidence? Probably not. It's possible that Da-jin subconsciously knows that she's knocked up and recognizes that Jin-seong, the handsome artist who's also illustrating her first novel, might not stick around if he finds out that her baby isn't his. Best to stick with the guy who caused it. If nothing else, you'll get child support.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Ditto: Suppose Peggy Sue Didn't Get Married


Here's to the supernatural weepies and to Ditto which merits at least two hankies. Director Kim Jeong-kwon's first feature film is what might be called a tragic romance shaped by soft science fiction. A timid young woman (Kim Ha-neul) with endearing stalker tendencies fixates on a bland fellow college student (Park Yong-woo) who aspires to office worker. Before their fantasized romance has progressed to so much as a kiss, however, chance has forced a magical ham radio upon our clueless heroine. That very night (a lunar eclipse?) she adopts the new hobby which will nudge her temporarily out of her shell while leading her to inescapable doom. Breaker 1-9. Breaker 1-9. I'm a petulant college-sophomore (Yu Ji-tae) who lives twenty years in the future. We go to the same school. I can read tomorrow's news online but I won't give you any stock tips. Isn't this fun? I'm about to shatter your world by informing you that your best friend and that dull dreamboat are about to fall in love and make a baby. Me! (Reach for the tissue here.) Jang Jin's script has its share of quasi-philosophical quotes but it also has an understanding of the evanescence of time and how love only comes to those who leap.