This movie was like watching a car crash in slow motion. You know it’s going to be bad, and yet you can’t seem to look away. It was one of those stories that there are no characters to route for, as everyone is horrible and severely flawed in their own way. Throughout, you keep hoping that someone will grow and develop but that never really happens. In the end you are left watching the credit screen think, “What the heck did I just watch?!?!?”
However, throughout, I must commend all the actors’ performances, which were extremely well done especially given such dark material. In addition, the soundtrack was fitting and enhanced the mood without detracting from the subtle and slow melodramatic pace and way of storytelling.
Overall, worth a watch if you want a more mature, VERY twisted melodrama. Or to see Lee Won Keun’s butt. Whichever.
Happy Drama Watching.
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This review may contain spoilers
Honestly, I started watching this movie because of some movie clips I saw in YouTube. (Just to let you know I didn’t read the summary about it before I watched the movie) I did that because I got the vibe of romantic movie in the YouTube clips and thought that I need to see this immediately. And boy that was the worst possible vibe predicting ever. The beginning was very nice. They did a wonderful job at show us the way the FL was living and how she was feeling. Towards the middle it got pretty romantic, which was my favorite part. In that moment I still thought this movie is based on a romantic genre. I thought (before finishing the last half) that the last half would be them fight for their love and trying and risking everything to be together, but noooo. From the late middle of the movie till the end. It just got better and worse. It got better because it kept on keeping me in suspense and surprised. It was only worse because I eventually noticed that it’s not a romantic movie . Which got me in a depressive mood and I literally didn’t want to finish it, but I caught my attention so I kept going till the end. So, basically the movie was great in every single way and maybe even one of the best movies. It’s just not like that for me because it didn’t have the ending that I wanted (and he didn’t love the person I wanted). So, for sure my selfishness is modifying the end grade. The music was great, acting was super great (better than I expected) and (have to say this) the Lee Won-Keun scenes were extremely good. Final :
-normal person (a person who isn’t a fan of just one type of movie genre and likes all types of movie genres) rating : 9/10
-romantic person (loves mostly romantic movies and tends to prefer happy endings....every time)(just like me) rating : 6.5/10
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This review may contain spoilers
WTF Did I just watch?!
From the poster, I expected some "forbidden love" kind of scenes between Hyoju and Hyeyong but instead what we get is a cold Hyoju and a strangely one sided obsessiveness from Hyeyong that doesn't end up anywhere. I really could not stand Hyeyong as a character - the way she behaved was so STRANGE and awkward and I hated her hairstyle. Her lines were strange, her reaction to basically being sexually assaulted (had upskirt pics taken of her and circulated) was strange and her clinginess towards Hyoju was never properly addressed and made her come across like an idiot instead. The plot creaked by at an excruciatingly slow pace and it was unbearable despite being only 1.5 hr long. I also could not wrap my head around how 2 teachers could be so attracted to a student that does not even ooze an ounce of charisma. Are Korean teachers so sexually pent up they literally cave in at the mere flirtation of a young(er) male? Because this show does nothing to show how Jae Ha even manages to win over both these 2 women's hearts.Honestly, I dont even know what to say about this movie. It was trying to come across as provocative in the most conservative way possible (not a scene of nudity despite 3 sex scenes) so it was like watching a kid friendly porno. Oh and that "murder" scene was possibly the most PG scene of someone getting seriously burned ever. Plot doesn't make much sense and is too goddamn slow, Hyeyong is so fking annoying, acting is alright but nothing to write home about. Is this worth a watch? Maybe, if you've exhausted all other means of entertainment. Would I recommend this? Absolutely not, and if you're in the "mood" for more "scandalous" type of shows I would suggest watching a western show instead because Korean movies are really too sanitized.
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Wasn't the film I was looking for, but...
It was definitely suspenseful. I was hoping the lead teacher lady was gonna be the winner in this story, but things went awry in this film. There's no wholesome characters in this, everyone's a victim, because of everyone's flaws with jealousy, deceit, and power.I was cheering for the lead teacher lady, because she had it rough. From her own relationship to what she lives through with the other characters. It's like, you wanted her to get something out of this. In a way, she did, but ended up hurting everybody.
The acting was fairly good from everyone. The male lead was quite impressive playing an innocent high school boy, you felt sorry for him early on, then later, you get a surprise.
This film is worth watching once, but it's really twisted! Haha. If you're looking for a love story, this film is not it. There are better ones out there, but...If you want some betrayal and maybe some hot scenes, this is yours to watch.
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This review may contain spoilers
Kim ha-neul from 18 again isn't here
A good revenge movie , i really liked the third act it's so unpredictable and surprising that she killed her i really thought she was just hallucinating and thinking about it but, when I saw the body i was shocked , i didn't like the beginning of the movie, and I really hated the student, but i think the role is meant to be like this, innocent from the outside but really dark and evil from the inside, i liked the role of kim ha-neul although she was stupid, but what she did in the ending out of rage was unpredictable, but she was holding the anger all the way from the start of the movie, I'm used to watch genre movies and awards contenders like this so it was good to watch this,it feels like the director really wanted to make a kind of an american oscar contender, for me it's an 8 out of 10Was this review helpful to you?
The Ethics of Aesthetics: Misbehavior and the Limits of Subtext
Wow, okay. Well. To start, Misbehavior is not a bad film. But it’s also not particularly good. It falls squarely in that frustrating middle space. A story with potential, a mood with bite, and just enough talent on screen to keep you watching… but not enough follow-through to leave any lasting impression.The premise alone is already a lot to chew on: two female teachers. A senior contract instructor and a newly hired full-time one become entangled in a tense, jealous rivalry over their male high school student. There’s a sexual component. Possibly romantic, although the emotional dynamics are so shallow and confused that it's hard to tell if the film is aiming for erotic tension, predatory power play, or just general mess. Either way, the setup is deeply ethically questionable. But strangely, that’s not the biggest problem here.
Uncomfortable or controversial subject matter can work when it’s handled with nuance and clarity of purpose. Misbehavior doesn’t have that. The film seems more interested in aesthetic discomfort than actual character or thematic development. It wants to be unsettling, but it doesn’t seem to know why. It gestures at taboos, at institutional power imbalances, at buried rage, but only ever in half-measures.
Let’s talk pacing. The first half is slow and vaguely tense. Like the story is winding a spring, waiting to snap. But the second half unravels way too quickly. Critical plot points come in rapid succession without emotional buildup or payoff. It’s jarring, not in an intentional, disorienting way, but more like a writer realizing they’re running out of time and speed-running the climax. By the time the credits roll, you’re still trying to process a shift that didn’t feel earned.
Kim Ha-neul is the saving grace here. Her portrayal of Park Hyo-joo is unnervingly restrained. A woman so tightly wound, so completely at the mercy of her own internalized failure, that even her most violent moments feel like they’re happening from a place of quiet, hollow inevitability. You can see the years of professional frustration, emotional suppression, and self-loathing living just beneath the surface. It’s a nuanced performance trapped in a script that doesn’t give her nearly enough to work with. She deserved a better vehicle.
Lee Won-geun’s character (Shin Jae-ha) is less a person and more a plot device. Painted to be manipulative, but we all know he’s the real victim here. The second teacher, played by Yoo In-young, is equally underwritten, which is a shame because the bones of a compelling rivalry are there. Instead, we get cardboard motivations and stiff confrontations.
One thing I will give the film: it resists the urge to offer a character to "root" for. Everyone here is flawed in different, unappealing ways. It’s the kind of story where you’re not meant to pick sides so much as watch the trainwreck unfold. I usually appreciate that.. narratives where everyone’s just as damaged as the next person, and you’re forced to sit in the discomfort of it all. But even that quality starts to wear thin when the characters are this emotionally undercooked.
The film is painted with a lot of big themes: gendered power dynamics, academic hierarchy, social invisibility, the ways institutions suppress and warp women’s agency. These are all rich, worthy subjects. But Misbehavior handles them like set dressing. You can see the intention in certain scenes. A passing line about job insecurity, a glance during a faculty meeting, the subtle difference in how the school treats the two women… but none of it is interrogated in any meaningful way.
Visually, the film works very well. It’s cold, sparse, and tonally cohesive. The sterile setting of the school complements the emotional emptiness of the characters. There's a kind of quiet, aching bleakness to the whole thing that’s effective in moments. But you can only ride on mood and minimalism for so long before you start to wonder if anything’s actually happening.
Final thoughts? Misbehavior could have been a disturbing, layered portrait of female rage, institutional failure, and manipulative relationships. It had the atmosphere, the actors, and the potential. But it stops just short of doing anything meaningful with them. What’s left is a film that looks serious, acts serious, but never quite earns its seriousness.
Would I recommend it? Only if you're in the mood for a morally ambiguous slow-burn that leaves you mildly frustrated. Otherwise, you’re not missing much.
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No regrets
Of course the story line may looks unethical but why I doesn’t feel like that is I have seen number of cases like this, I am not justifying it is correct but sometimes at some helpless week times it will happens. The director successfully portrayed the actual life of a normal who encounters difficulties in professional and personal life who doesn’t have anyone to protect and no one to share the feelings and humble to be loved by someone. I am fully satisfied with the ending, few may think that the FL ruined her own life but by that way she teach the good lesson to those perpetrators who ruined her life.Was this review helpful to you?
Nothing thrilling
If the idea of a teenage high school student “seducing” an older teacher and a younger teacher at the same school appeals to a viewer than maybe you will find this enjoyable. I didn’t. The student was attractive but a teenager nonetheless. He came across to me as the typical hormonal teenage male . I could maybe see the attraction between he and the younger teacher but not the older one. Of course there have been a number of these predator- prey , student teacher relationships in real life so the plot was actually run of the mill. Three messed up people. The acting was ok . I guess there is a lesson to be learned which seemed obvious from the very beginning. Take a pass on this one.Was this review helpful to you?
