Full House, 7.0
Full House. Korean Drama (2003).
(Min-hyuk, Ji-eun, Young-jae, and Hae-won. Images from KBS website.)
Stars
Song Hye-gyo.................Han Ji-eun, aspiring novelist
Rain (Bi)..........................Lee Young-jae, movie star
Kim Sung-soo.................Yoo Min-hyuk, Yahoo! Korea exec
Han Eun-jung.................Kang Hae-won, up-and-coming fashion designer
Synopsis:
Cheerful and innocent Han Ji-eun (Song Hye-gyo) is sent by her two best (and only) friends Dong-wook and Hee-jin (Do Han and Lee Young-eun) on an all-expenses-paid trip to China that they claim to have won in a contest. Boarding the plane, she is excited to discover that she is sitting next to celebrity actor Lee Young-jae (pop star Rain), on his way to film his next movie. However, the hotness of his appearance (I say this with some reservation, as will be discussed below) belies the iciness of his attitude, and he continually ignores her as she chatters away. She eats her in-flight meal with her usual hearty appetite, and then, to Young-jae's disgust, goes on to throw up most of it on his floral-print shirt. This development does not bode well for Ji-eun, and the fates seem further turned against her when she discovers upon her arrival that what her friends really provided her with is a one-way ticket with nothing waiting for her at her destination, part of their ploy to sell off her house and take over her bank account while she is gone to pay off their debts. She finally secures a hotel room with the help of handsome, sharply dressed Yoo Min-hyuk (Kim Sung-soo), who is on his way to visit longtime friend Young-jae at the hotel, and she spends the next few days living off instant noodles and seeing the sites of the Middle Kingdom on what is truly a shoestring budget.
In the end, Ji-eun manages to get back to Korea by borrowing money from the arrogant Young-jae, who grudgingly loans it after she pretends to be Min-hyuk's ex. However, upon returning to the beloved "Full House" left to her by her parents after they died, Ji-eun finally discovers the true extend of her friends' betrayal; finding out that the dreaded Young-jae is the new owner only rubs salt into the open wound. Eventually, the two strike an agreement: they will enter into a contract marriage, under which Ji-eun must cook and clean in order to repay the money she owes Young-jae. Additionally, the two will stay out of each other's private lives, and at the end of six months, they will divorce, at which point Ji-eun will get her house back. However, things quickly become heated with the flaring of tempers and the appearances of old flames and new. On top of their tenuous and argument-fraught relationship, the Ji-eun and Young-jae each have to deal with problems outside of the house. While the finagling of her two backstabbing friends cause her some grief, Ji-eun's main problem is fighting her growing attraction to both Young-jae and Min-hyuk, who, intrigued by her bright smile, encourages her to write a screenplay for him, romances her with flowers, and takes her out to nice dinners. Young-jae, on the other hand, needs to revive his flagging acting career, which is suffering both from the tabloid speculations surrounding his sudden marriage and a recent box-office bomb, and work out his feelings for his fashion designer and childhood friend Kang Hae-won (Han Eun-jung), who loves Yoo Min-hyuk. And on top of figuring out this love square, the newlyweds both need to maintain the public appearance of their marriage, particularly in front of Young-jae's family--his nagging grandmother, long-suffering mother, and disappointed doctor father.
Opinion:
Hae-won possesses good taste in men if not in clothes, and I certainly don't blame her for preferring Min-hyuk over Young-jae. She stocks Young-jae's closet with low-cut sweaters, an endless array of scarves, granny cardigans, and a pair of jailbird pants; for herself, she prefers the same bright colors in the form of frills, tight fits, and exposed bra straps. Sartorially, these two are as destined a couple as I have ever seen; thus, Ji-eun and Young-jae's story can be considered ultimately a triumph of true love over bad taste.
Overall, the acting is pretty good, though I think Ji-eun had more chemistry with Min-hyuk than Young-jae. However, Ji-eun's two friends drive more than just the people in the drama nuts. Though sometimes lacking the glossy perfection of Hollywood, with insects flying in and out of scenes, "Full House" is a charming take on an old formula.
Verdict: 7.0/10.0 Fun, though the dramatic scenarios get repetitive as the show goes on.
*My Girl, 7.7
My Girl, Korean Drama (SBS 2005)
(Jung-woong, Seo-hyun, Yoo-rin, Gong-chan. Image from SBS website.)
stars
Lee Da-hae.......................Joo Yoo-rin, female lead
Lee Dong-wook...............Seol Gong-chan, male lead
Lee Joon Ki......................Seo Jung-woong, Gong-chan's playboy best friend
Park Si Yeon....................Kim Seo-hyun, Gong-chan's girlfriend and Korea's new favorite tennis player
Summary:
Joo Yoo-rin (Lee Da-hae), having spent her childhood running from place to place with her deadbeat swindler of a dad, has finally found relative happiness using her multilingual skills (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, English) as a tour guide on Jeju island with her bespectacled friend Jin-kyu (Jo Kye Hyung). When her dad becomes the target of an irate loan shark, the two of them must evade nefarious henchmen clad in terrycloth warmups while trying to round up the funds to pay them back. By a stroke of luck, Yoo-rin trips in front of the car of Avenuel Hotel heir Seol Gong-chan (Lee Dong-wook, an Asian, slimmer, and more dashing version of Mark Ruffalo) as she is running away from the badly-dressed gangsters, and she decides to play injured and sue him for compensation. Disgusted though he is at her lying, Gong-chan realizes that this encounter is a godsend after he finds out she has the skills to be the translator (the last one suddenly quit) he direly needs for the important meeting he has with Chinese investors at a luxurious mansion owned by his family that evening. Yoo-rin agrees, tempted by the thought of the large paycheck, and the investors are so enamored with her bubbly personality that they want to hire her as their personal tour guide around the entire island.
After a few more fiascos, including Gong-chan's discovery that she is selling tangerines from the family mansion orchards, Yoo-rin ends up on the mainland, where she hides out temporarily with Jin-kyu's sister Jin-shim (Hwang Bo-ra), who owns a hair salon in Seoul, the city that conveniently is also home to Avenuel Hotel headquarters. Gong-chan has returned to the city as well, faced with the pressing task of finding a long-lost cousin before his ailing grandfather passes away. Grandfather Seol (Byun Hee-bong), chairman of Avenuel Hotel, banished his daughter after she married against his wishes. Since learning of her death years ago, he has devoted his energy to looking for his granddaughter, who may have survived the Japanese earthquake that killed her parents. Thus, as grandfather's health continues to deteriorate, Gong-chan continues the search with increasing desperation, assisted by Secretary Yoon (Lee Eon Jeong), who is the spitting image of Pochahontas and soon becomes Jin-kyu's object of affections. Believing that he has no other options, Gong-chan finally asks Yoo-Rin to pretend to be his cousin, since she looks like his aunt, speaks Japanese, and is used to lying anyway. He buys her nice clothes, trains her to behave appropriately, and then rushes her to the hospital, where Chairman Seol is so happy he makes a miraculous recovery and returns home to recuperate with Gong-chan's artist aunt (Choi Ran) and the family handyman/chauffeur/butler (Ahn Suk Hwan).Things are pretty dramatic in the Seol household as well, with the aunt sharing a tension-filled electricity with the family handyman. This, of course, develops in to middle-aged love, though not without its own overblown obstacles. Additionally, she has a love-hate, insult-fueled friendship with Madam Jang (Kim Yong Rin), whose playboy son Seo Jung-woong (androgynous Japanese anime look-alike Lee Joon Ki) is the hotel co-heir but spends most of his time wooing women in foreign lands, returning to Korea upon occasion to brave his mother's wrath and play squash with best friend Gong-chan. He comes back this time after meeting the intriguing Yoo-rin by chance while touring Jeju island, and he is shocked (but pleasantly accomodating) to find out that she's Gong-chan's cousin.
Meanwhile, the two main characters are getting along so badly that love must be just around the corner, though the inevitable slew of problems arises. Things get complicated as playboy Jung-woong develops lasting romantic interest in Yoo-rin, though that is nothing compared to when Gong-chan's long-absent girlfriend returns to Korea as the national tennis star after a two-year tennis circuit that includes a recent "Russian Open" triumph. It seems like everyone in this drama resembles someone or something, and Kim Seo-hyun (Park Si Yeon) looks, as an observant watcher put it, a lot like a bug. Additionally, Yoo-rin's dad reenters the picture, and his clumsy attempts at financial gain only serve to thicken the plot. When the couple finally acknowledge their fondness for each other, there is also the little problem of the way their relationship has been publicly defined.
Drama Reduction:
Can the Seol family ever forgive Yoo-rin for tricking them? Will the burgeoning love of Gong-chan and Yoo-rin survive her history as a liar, his best friend's own infatuation with Yoo-rin, his ex-girlfriend Kim Seo-hyun's snarky jealousy, her father's clumsy maneuverings, and ultimately, familial disapproval? Will nerdy, awkward Jin-kyu be able to win the affections of the polished Secretary Yoon and hit it big as Korea's next big model? And who will Gong-chan's cousin turn out to be?
Opinion:
Driven by misunderstandings, missed connections, and other standard drama fare, it is unlikely that any plot developments will be new or surprising. However, the acting is passable across the board, with especially strong performances turned in by the romantic leads, though Lee Da-hae falters as Yoo-rin during crying episodes and Lee Dong-wook seems to stretch himself when playing Gong-chan in lighthearted moments. As expected, there is some corny dialogue and the requisite visual motifs designed to melt hearts, but each episode was engaging and well-paced. I was unhappy with the tendency towards wrenching melodrama in the last two episodes, but found it forgivable in light of the series as a whole.
Grandpa is an unbelievably bad dresser given his social status, even accounting for his current invalid state. Additionally, his character is inconsistent, ranging from the sheer comedic force of his early appearances to the strict ultimatum-giver that he is at the end. Yoo-rin's dad is an equally frustrating character, though here the heart of the problem lies not in his erratic characterization but the very opposite, his dogged imprudence so overdone as to far bypass the tolerance of even the eternally patient.
Verdict: 7.7 Overall, the strength of the series is in the credibility and smooth integration of secondary storylines.
My Name is Kim Sam Soon, 7.5
My Name is Kim Sam-soon (aka My Lovely Kim Sam Soon). Korean Drama (MBC 2005).
(Sam-soon, Hee-jin, Henry, Jin-heon. Picture from MBC website.)
Stars:
Kim Sun-ah..................................Kim Sam-soon, pastry chef
Hyun Bin.......................................Hyun Jin-heon, restaurant manager and son of wealthy Hotel CEO
Jung Ryu-won..............................Yu Hee-jin, woman who broke Kyun Jin Heon's heart and went to the United States
Daniel Henney..............................Dr. Henry Kim, Korean adoptee searching for lost heritage and true love
Synopsis:
The troubles are countless for pastry chef Kim Sam-soon, aged 29 and still unmarried. She doesn't have a job (though she makes a mean mousse), only a name that she hates (the equivalent of Bertha or Helga, perhaps, but with even less association to feminity). She can't lose weight and is dumped by her boyfriend in a fancy hotel on New Year's Eve after she spies him going in with another woman. Things are so rough that when she seeks solace in an empty bathroom stall, she is rudely disturbed from her bawling session by an insistent knocking accompanied by a man's voice asking her what she's doing in the men's room. The handsome young fellow, although she doesn't know it yet, is Hyun Jin-heon, 27-year-old manager of a romantic, dimly-lit little restaurant desperately in need of a pastry chef. Fate, kind fate, intervenes on Kim Sam-soon's behalf, and she soon finds a friendly community among Jin-heon's restaurant staff. Her relationship with Hyun Jin-heon is a little rockier, due to the awkward circumstances of their meeting, and the tension is exacerbated by his request that she pretend to be his girlfriend in order to appease his domineering hotel CEO of a mother. Sam-soon agrees, but on two conditions. 1) He must call her Kim Hee-jin (the sound of the name stuns him into painful recollections); and 2) he will compensate her financially, so that the house she lives in with her mother and divorced older sister won't be lost.
The two tentatively begin to like each other, but everything is thrown into turmoil when Yu Hee-jin, Hyun Jin-heon's ex-girlfriend, reenters the scene. The malnourished beauty left him suddenly three years ago when she flew to the States, ostensibly to study abroad; she returns wanting to patch things up but is shocked to find that her old flame is apparently in another relationship. Hyun Jin Heon is equally surprised to find that Hee Jin has handsome, half-Korean Henry Kim in tow, though not as surprised as he will be when he discovers Handsome Henry's vocation and stated purpose in Korea. Drama unfolds upon drama as new loves are sorely tested and old feelings reemerge from long-hidden depths of the heart.
Drama Reduction: Will Kim Sam-soon ever find love, or is she doomed to live out life as a slightly overweight (though she isn't really) spinster? Can Hyun Jin-heon love Kim Sam-soon for the awkward individual she is, or will he pine forever for his first love/ be put off by Sam-soon's inelegant ways? What will be the first words be of Hyun Jin-heon's little niece, who hasn't spoken since the fatal car accident that killed her parents?
Opinion: Traffics in several standard soap opera plot developments, but manages to create complex and endearing characters nonetheless. Some bad (though earnest) acting on the part of our American export, but he's good looking enough that women are swooning anyway.
Verdict: 7.5/10.0 Generally good viewing, though I hold an intense dislike for the developments of the last episode.
The Widow of St. Pierre, 6.5
The Widow of St. Pierre (2001). French movie with English subtitles. 1 hour and 48 minutes, rated R.
Stars Juliette Binoche as Pauline, ("Madame La"), Daniel Auteuil as her husband, Jean (The Captain), and Emir Kusturica as Ariel Neel Auguste (Neel).
Summary: Neel and a friend committed a grisly murder one night on the little island of St. Pierre while completely drunk. Sentenced to die by guillotine, he is put under the care of the captain of the military until a guillotine (nicknamed "The Widow") can be sent over from the mainland and an executioner can be found. The captain's radiant and good-hearted wife asks for permission to have Neel help her with gardening and to keep her company on her trips to the fishing villages in return for better food and freedom to walk around in the courtyard. With hard work and an act of heroism, Neel wins the respect and love of the villagers, who no longer wish him to be executed. This change of the popular heart strikes an uncomfortable tone in the hearts of the governor and his cronies, who are deeply unhappy with the way the captain and his wife have chosen to treat the prisoner, and they begin going to greater lengths to make sure that the various threats to their authority are appropriately dealt with.
Opinion: An atmospheric film that felt longer than it was,
The Widow of St. Pierre is romantic in style, engaging from moment to moment, and well-acted on the part of each character, but ultimately doesn't find the unity of narration and purpose that causes movies to resonate. Giving more time to explaining underlying motivations and elucidating personal histories would have been helpful in filling out characters.
Verdict: 6.5
hana and alice, 6.0
hana & alice (2004), 135 minutes. Japanese movie. Directed by Shunji Iwai.
stars Anne Suzuki as Hana and Yu Aoi as Alice (Arisugawa), as well as Tomohiro Kaku as Miyamoto (Mark).
Synopsis: As middle school students, Hana follows Alice's lead. The two best friends are inseparable, whether taking the train to various places, going to school, or at ballet lessons. Coming across two uniformed boys at the the train station one day, Alice declares that she likes the taller, half-Japanese one, and tells Hana that she can have the shorter one, who always has his head buried in a book and constantly repeats a very long, nonsensical sentence to himself.
After passing their high school entrance exams, the two deal with the unflattering uniforms and continue in their friendship as before. At school, Hana joins the two-person storytelling club and is christened "Hanna the Funky" by the club leader, who wears a kimono, has a terrible hairstyle, and is extremely sketchy (more on this later). The only other member of the club is Miyamoto, the train boy, who completely ignores her and leaves her at the mercy of the club leader's bizarre behavior.
Following Miyamoto home from school one day, she sees him get in an accident (like everything about Miyamoto, this term is used in the most inert sense possible). She rushes to his side, declares that he has amnesia because he can't remember saying "I love you" to her, goes with him to the hospital, and henceforth makes it her goal to help him "remember" their previous relationship. This is, of course, a time-consuming endeavor, and she gradually drifts apart from Alice as a result.
Suddenly at leisure in her extracurricular hours and unable to stay at home, Alice starts pursuing a modeling career and is shown in a series of awkward auditions that lead nowhere, until Hana seeks her out again to help her maintain the web of lies she has woven around Miyamoto's life. Through these experiences, their friendship is taken through the breaking point of adolescence, with poignant lessons for all.
Opinion: My roommate Hanna and I held high hopes for our respective namesakes in this film, and were alternately frustrated and surprised by the sheer unpredictability of the story. As mentioned before, Miyamoto is a mere breath away from being inanimate, while Hana and Alice vary from being vulnerable to being totally nuts. This is a very, very quirky movie with many beautiful scenes, some hilarious scenes (whether purposefully so or not is up to debate), one scene that I found completely unwatchable (involving the storytelling club president in a very improper one-man show), and several scenes I can only describe as slightly absurd, though I don't say that in a condemnatory way. A bit too loosely edited, this movie would have profited from condensation in terms of duration and cohesion in regard to structure.
Verdict: 6.0/10.0 Hanna liked the movie a lot; I thought it was ok.
Dr. Strangelove 3.0
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), 1 hour and 35 min.
Synopsis: A British officer on an exchange program in an American military office is faced with the problem of dealing with the after-effects of a trigger-happy superior. Russia's existence, and the world's, teeters in the balance.
Opinion: How rottentomatoes.com misdirected me with this film. A biting Cold War satire where I clearly missed all the jokes.
Verdict: 3.0/10.0 It is obvious that this movie makes sense to some people.
The Lady Vanishes 7.0
The Lady Vanishes (1939), 1 hour, 39 min. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
Stars Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave
Synopsis: Lovely young Iris Henderson (Margaret Lockwood), who is staying with two friends at a ski resort hotel filled to maximum capacity due to an unexpected avalanche, is incensed to hear an incessant stomping coming from the room upstairs; she commiserates over the racket with a friendly old English lady living next door who wants the noise to stop so she can hear the serenading musician outside the window. (A few minutes later, we see this musician being strangled to death by a mysterious pair of hands. Until then, it seems highly likely that this film is going to develop into a bad comedy.) Unable to sleep, Iris finally bribes a hotel manager to deal with the problem. It turns out that the culprit is Gilbert (Michael Redgrave), a clarinet player trying to record folk dances for posterity--he has hired a bevy of dancing peasants to help him with his task. When Gilbert goes downstairs to see the woman who caused him to be evicted, the two clash so spectacularly that there is no doubt they shall meet again, and soon.
The next morning, Iris is hit on the head at the train station by a flowerpot pushed from a shadowy windowsill as she hurries to over to assist cute old lady from the night before with her luggage. Walking on the train, she loses consciousness and wakes to find the old lady beaming at her from the seat across from her. The two have tea together, and the old lady introduces herself as Mrs. Froy. This burgeoning friendship takes a turn for the ominous when Iris wakes to find that Mrs. Froy is nowhere to be found; going around to various stewards and passengers, she is confused to discover when they all say they have not seen a woman matching her description. Discovering Gilbert at the rear of the train, she enlists his help to solve the mysterious disappearance of a harmless old lady.
Opinion: Hitchcock is always dependable for a good movie. Although the first twenty minutes of the movie seem to drag on in a confusing mix of characters, secondary plots, and indecipherable dialogue, the film picks up quickly and more than makes up for lost momentum after Mrs. Froy disappears. Gilbert and Iris are a likeable pair (though the eventual direction of their relationship is perfectly clear from the first time they meet) and Mrs. Froy is like everyone's ideal of a quirky but loveable grandmother. Though some of the suspenseful moments may seem trite or standard to a modern-day viewer, the plot contains several unexpected turns that make for an interesting and exciting experience.
Verdict: 7.0/10.0 Other than the slightly tedious story lines attempting to explain the motivations of the actions of secondary characters (who have colorful but caricatured lives),
The Lady Vanishes is a very well-made movie.
Wit 6.8
Wit, HBO movie (2001), based on the play by Margaret Edson.
Stars Emma Thompson as Professor Vivian Bearing.
Professor Vivian Bearing, renowned to colleagues for her scholarship and to students for the rigor of her course on 17th century poetry and her complete unwillingness to negotiate deadlines, discovers that she has terminal ovarian cancer and learns some things about humanity through her endless rounds of chemotherapy, medication, and interactions with hospital personnel. It's hard to criticize this kind of movie, one which strives for unflinching honesty on the subjects of death and disease, since it's like denouncing spinach, but I didn't enjoy the movie because it encroached upon the territory of documentaries and teen flicks, relying on a narrator who addresses the camera as if the audience were in the scene. Didactic, yes, but the lessons on life that it serves ultimately feel antibacterialized and untouchable.
Verdict: 6.8
An Ideal Husband 6.5
An Ideal Husband (1999), 97 minutes. Rated PG-13. Based on the play by Oscar Wilde.
stars
Jeremy Northam as Sir Robert Chiltern
Cate Blanchett as Lady Gertrude Chiltern
Rupert Everett as Lord Arthur Goring
Minnie Driver as Miss Mabel Chiltern
Julianne Moore as Mrs. Laura Chevely
A light suspense that blends social satire and household drama to mixed effect. Plus, Jeremy Northam sports an unforgiveably awful mustache.
Verdict: 6.5/10.0
*Guns and Talks 7.4
Guns and Talks, Korean movie (2001), 120 min.
stars Shin Hyun-June, Shin Ha-kyun, Won Bin, and Jeong Jae-Yeong as four assassins, and
Jeong Jin-Yeong as the detective hot on their tails.
The title of this movie suggests a taut thriller bursting with highly trained killers dressed completely in black, intimidating defense systems, high-tech gadgets, hair-raising getaways, and unexpected plot shockers. At least, it was under such an impression that my brother agreed to join me for an evening of sibling bonding. Little did we know...
Guns and Talks is a movie that exists in a little trans-genre world all its own. Bookmarked by two complex jobs, the middle of the film is a floating series of vignettes stretched over the merest thread of plot: it's there, but barely. The four men are far from sophisticated, gaping with unbrushed hair at the beautiful anchorwoman on news every morning with a slackjawed air of idiocy that isn't entirely absent from their public personas: intimidation is definitely
not anyone's middle name. One is a former marathoner who falls very awkwardly in love with a pregnant woman targeted for a hit. Another doesn't really have any distinguishing traits other than being the one entrusted with the gun on missions, and, as a friend pointed out, bearing a slight physical resemblance to Michael Jackson. The youngest, played by Won Bin, waits for the day when he'll be allowed by the leader--his brother-- to shoot a gun, and in the meantime is in charge of girly tasks like procuring food. His train of thought serves as our narrative guide through the film, and he bumbles through that with the same mixed success that he goes through life: a scene dips into the absurd when he, in complete earnestness, gives a melodramatic soliloquy on love. Quirky details round out the comedic undertones of the movie: a runner fails to catch up with the car he is chasing when a red traffic light brings him to a screeching halt. Whenever poised on the edge of fitting into a mold--say, that of drama or suspense--
Guns and Talks extricates itself so smoothly that in the end one is not sure how to take the movie; it is amazing to me how this film neatly tied off plot lines while floating and billowing delightfully into unforgettably funny moments. Definitely strange, but also enjoyable.
Verdict: 7.4/10.0 Some slight inconsistencies in the assassination plots, but nothing seriously undermining.
