The relationship was weird and she didn’t need to be so childish in the first half of the movie. It made their romance and her sudden mature look really weird. His negging behavior is partially explained at the end but leaning so hard into the slave thing was really not believable. Also the very end didn’t make sense at all (is she a tutor? The guy was being nice and didn’t deserve a lesson. And her car wasn’t damaged at all)
What a depressing movie…I don’t think the love story was meant to seem realistic, but maybe an unhealthy outgrowth of the trauma the leads came from. As FL states near the end, she had no options due to her family history. ML seemed driven by guilt over not protecting FL enough. For both their love was a foolish, false escape.
I did really like the big boss best and Kim Min Joon was horribly terrifying and sleazy!!! Seriously scary and creepy
I didn’t think it was bad…The mom and daughter are annoying only because they are used to a life of privilege and not used to dealing with any emergency…I could imagine many people reacting the same way. It also seemed like a metaphor for the COVID-19 pandemic where the lockdown dragged on
The description tells the entire story (except the neighbor does not abuse the kids). But the movie shows the family’s struggle not just with poverty, but the struggle to accept kindness vs. maintaining dignity. A rich family is close to them but cannot figure out how to support them in a way their pride will accept. Thank goodness for the instant book deal at the end! It seemed to underscore that luck and circumstance mean more than goodwill or intentions
A funny, frothy sex comedy/ battle of the sexes that shows both how cherished women can be when considered pregnant and how pathetic men can be, either when henpecked or horny. The resolution among the three couples gets repetitive, but that anti-abortion message at the end was pretty amazing!
Rating low for the distasteful storyline. The male best friend she shot down for years turns out to be the guy she truly loves, but she only reveals this (repeatedly, according to the guy) when she is blackout drunk? And they had sex during the latest blackout, and he’s just playing dumb the whole movie. What a guy!
(We get no proof she really confessed her love to him during every blackout, just have to trust his word)
Then during the credits we see their happy married life which features the 1-year birthday of their daughter, where she reaches for a bottle of wine at the doljabi and the parents have “droll” concerned looks on their faces. Why was the bottle even there?!
It’s rollicking and well done but still icky. FL’s best female friend is good. Not sure they really explained why FL was such a problematic drinker.
Very depressing, gritty look at young people lured into seedy nightlife. Reminded me of 1970s hostess films, except we’re watching Kim Bum as the exploited, sad and angry boy toy!
The gang fight at the end was truly unexpected. I didn’t get the impression that there were enough people in the movie for one gang, much less two. I guess it was victims vs. exploiters but really felt like a generic gang rumble
Very sweet and magical (loved the effect of the white smoke throughout!). Very nice to see ML in such a sweet innocent role instead of jaded, tortured or somewhat depraved ones
I liked how this meditated on life choices and being true to yourself and what you love (which seems to be a theme I really enjoy). The dual role highlighted how two people can seem so similar but have different experiences that inform their life choices. One seems to have everything but was shut down when he tried to express his true self, and maybe the other shows what happens when you don’t really try (felt they could have explored his character more). Good watch
The little brother’s physical ailments seemed random and not realistic (maybe missed why he would act like a madman after injecting insulin? Why he acted mentally deficient at times when he was supposedly just a diabetic 12-year old deep inside?). But still a fun one-time rambling watch with a great soundtrack (this is the second Korean film I have seen featuring a London Suede song!)
A high school boy rescuing a pop idol by heroically rolling a bowling ball through cartons of eggs to the swells of touching music is a movie scene that I could never have imagined. Also did not expect bowling to be so prominent! It is a sweet movie though
Wow! A movie to see at least once for its sumptuous, visually stunning and dreamy vibe combining the ugliness and creepiness of dentistry with lust, predation, sex, fairytale and fantasy with flourishes of ballet and old Hollywood silents, musicals or cartoons (with intermittent burlesque or stag film music during the many visual metaphors for sex which are both hilarious and impressive!).
I’m surprised the dentist/villain never tied FL to railroad tracks (though he does tie her to other stuff). It has a cute ending once the long, strange sexually charged dream ends. Highly recommend!
That was surprisingly sad and sweet but it felt like sex scenes were cut out or something? (Not that I ever really want to see any but the transitions were choppy at points, notably before or after it seemed sex was imminent). I watched the link shared below which has a slightly shorter run time than described above.
The movie spent some time focusing on ML’s anguish at having to be a sex worker, but never explained how he got into this work or why it was his only choice. His character was very awkward and priggish so he really didn’t seem suited to the work…Seemed weird to never really explain this
The interrogation scene was cringy yet hilarious! Enjoyed the addition of Daniel Henney and the spyware-augmented triple crossing they were doing throughout, but the SIL being so prominent strained belief and was pointless except to highlight the NK/US rivalry (which was funny but could have been limited to a few apartment scenes like the original). Putting her in stakeout situations did not actually make anything different happen.
Villain not as arresting this time (was it the haircut?), action had more guns which to me was less interesting. The fly swatter scene was ridiculous (I know it was an echo of the TP scene from the first movie but it was far less believable to me). Still a fun ride!
Wow, fantastic action/buddy movie, loved how each ML had action scenes reflecting their characters (Hyun Bin purely laser-focused and cool, Yoo Hae Jin bumbling, struggling to move from ordinary cop to action hero but just as determined)! Then the villain you hate until you couldn’t 😭
I don’t see how this is aping western movies. It has been a while since I watched one, but what I enjoy about good Korean action movies is the fighting seems higher stakes, more man to man and inventive, and there’s more specificity to the reasons behind the conflict (other than “let’s kill bad guys”), which this movie had.
Great performance by ML, the end was so frustratingly sad! The dream sequence (and aftermath when ML was trying to return to his dream) was my favorite part
Really sweet and wholesome movie about being a young woman with dreams. I cried during the final dance. It was also so neat that this was a very nice teen movie centered around dance, but it was traditional Korean dance instead of ballet or modern dance? I could see this as a new comfort watch
This really elevated my opinion about Daniel Henney; I wasn’t expecting him to be so intense! Action-packed and funny. I just rated lower because the FL was so annoying
I did really like the big boss best and Kim Min Joon was horribly terrifying and sleazy!!! Seriously scary and creepy
(We get no proof she really confessed her love to him during every blackout, just have to trust his word)
Then during the credits we see their happy married life which features the 1-year birthday of their daughter, where she reaches for a bottle of wine at the doljabi and the parents have “droll” concerned looks on their faces. Why was the bottle even there?!
It’s rollicking and well done but still icky. FL’s best female friend is good. Not sure they really explained why FL was such a problematic drinker.
The gang fight at the end was truly unexpected. I didn’t get the impression that there were enough people in the movie for one gang, much less two. I guess it was victims vs. exploiters but really felt like a generic gang rumble
I’m surprised the dentist/villain never tied FL to railroad tracks (though he does tie her to other stuff). It has a cute ending once the long, strange sexually charged dream ends. Highly recommend!
The movie spent some time focusing on ML’s anguish at having to be a sex worker, but never explained how he got into this work or why it was his only choice. His character was very awkward and priggish so he really didn’t seem suited to the work…Seemed weird to never really explain this
Villain not as arresting this time (was it the haircut?), action had more guns which to me was less interesting. The fly swatter scene was ridiculous (I know it was an echo of the TP scene from the first movie but it was far less believable to me). Still a fun ride!
I don’t see how this is aping western movies. It has been a while since I watched one, but what I enjoy about good Korean action movies is the fighting seems higher stakes, more man to man and inventive, and there’s more specificity to the reasons behind the conflict (other than “let’s kill bad guys”), which this movie had.