Innocent Steps

One of my all-time favorite movies is Strictly Ballroom, so when I saw the synopsis for this I was sold. 

It stars Moon Geun-young and Park Geon-hyeong.  She's channeling her Mary character from Mary Stayed Out All Night a little bit in this one.  She's got the innocent waif thing DOWN.  In this case, she's an ethnic Korean from China in danger of human trafficking and Park Geon-hyeong is the best ballroom dancing instructor in Korea who is recovering from a leg injury and trying to find the will to dance again.  


The romance in this is incredibly sweet and the soundtrack is awesome.  I'm not familiar with Park Geon-hyeong's other work but he and Moon Geun-young do a great job with the choreography.  The angst is good and serves the story well without being too over the top.  I also liked the character arc that both the main characters go through; they both change for the better and I felt the happy ending was earned.


The story itself is pretty simple, there's no deep message here, but I liked the movie a lot and I would definitely watch it again.


Tropes that sucked me in:  Contract marriage, forced living situation, ugly duckling turned swan (though in this case it was more clumsy duckling turned graceful swan).