4/10
Maybe give it a watch if you have around 107 minutes to spare and are a huge fan of Uhm Jung-Hwa.
24 October 2020
As a movie, this doesn't have anything original or special about it. The story is a straightforward comedy-romance banking on the star power of Uhm Jung-Hwa and her chemistry with Daniel Henney, who play the leads. Min-June (Jung-Hwa) is a lawyer/legal-aid/secretary working for a Japanese firm, which is in the process of being taken over by a company led by Robin Heiden (Henney). She is a somewhat clingy woman who believes in true love, and can't understand why men keep dumping her. Robin is a "practical" man whose view of relationships go the opposite way. They have a chance meeting in Hong Kong, where Min-June crashes her car onto Robin's. Once she's back in Korea, she realises Robin is her new boss. The premise of the movie is that Robin tutors Min-June in the ways of modern relationships, as she tries to win back her flighty ex-boyfriend, and in the process, fall in love with each other. The movie takes its time to even get to the "tutoring" part, with plenty of time spent in mildly interesting interactions between Min-June and Robin, as she tries to "seduce" him with her wholesome ways, while he sees her every move coming a mile away and makes fun of her, thus proving his points. Finally, he offers to tutor her, and Min-June successfully wins back her ex, Jun Hyeong. But even as he's with her Jun Hyeong says something about the new Min-June, which leads to her realising that she can't be someone who views relationships as power games. She breaks up with him, and the rest of the movie is dealt with minor misunderstandings on the way to the happy ending. Apparently this was a hugely popular film in Korea, and one of the attractions was due to the fact the intriguing bilingual dynamic between the Korean-speaking Min-June and English-speaking Robin. Also important is the fact that Uhm Jung-hwa, who can be safely called the First Lady of k-pop, similar to what Madonna is in American pop, was going through a purple patch of successful movies in the prime of her movie career. This is definitely an important entry in her filmography, as well as Daniel Henney's. Other than that, there's nothing special to talk about. It could have done with better screenplay and editing, as there are parts that needed to be longer, especially the one where Min-June's relationships with her family members are explored, and Robin Henney's past relationships, as there's nothing much in the movie other than a few pieces of dialogue which delves into the reason behind his attitude towards relationships. There were plenty of parts that could've been cut short as well.
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