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).
Okay, I thought this was really funny. It stars Ha Ji-won and Kim Jae-won. This came out way back in 2004 and the role is hugely different from anything else I've seen Ha Ji-won in as she's playing a high school senior (though she still gives the stink eye like nobody's business). Also, is there anyone that she doesn't have sizzling chemistry with? I swear they could cast her opposite a chair and we would all be convinced she and that chair are the OTP.
It is also my opinion that you should watch this movie for the scene where Ha Ji-won does a Sailor Moon impersonation. It's worth it. Trust.
Kim Jae-won plays the rom-com staple of Rich Jerk, although I think it's obvious from the beginning that he's manipulating the situation because he likes her. He holds her responsible for a ding on his car bumper and she agrees to become his slave to work off the debt. And hilarity ensues!
Goony stuff: They call each other Master and Slave. Yeah. I'm not going to touch that one. Also there is some gross out humor that made me actually gag at one point.
But I really got annoyed by the WTF ending. I don't even know what happened there, or who tacked that on and thought it would be a good idea. My theory is that they thought they were making her too wimpy and so decided to switch things up to....I don't know. But I didn't think it was true to the character and the story they had been telling up to that point at all.
Tropes that sucked me in: Contract Relationship, First Love, Sassy Female Lead
I've been taking a little break from my regular dramas because I've been on a Korean rom-com binge. I'll talk a little about what I've been watching and my opinions. I'm not going to do a movie review because that really isn't my thing. People who write those always seem to have a much better handle on storytelling through film than I have. I just have opinions.
She's On Duty - Wow, talk about your missed opportunities. Kim Sun-ah, Gong-yoo, you'd think this was made in heaven. Instead it just felt flat.
It's not that the leads didn't have chemistry. There were a couple of scenes where you could see that they did. I think the problem lay with the murky storytelling and the directing. The rhythm was off and it just seemed to jump from scene to scene but without any emotional weight, if that makes any sense. It was like: this happens, then this happens, then this happens. Also Gong-yoo was tragically (TRAGICALLY) underused. Sigh! Though there are some fun fight scenes.
Tropes that sucked me in: High School all over again, secret identities, bad-ass chicks.
