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My Sassy Girl

Type: Comedy Romantic, South Korea 2001

Director: Jae-young Kwak

My rating: 5
Key actors/actresses:
Tae-hyun Cha .... Kyun-woo
Ji-hyun Jun .... The Girl

Story:
Kyun-woo is an ordinary 25 year-old boy whose parents think he is no good and in fact a bit dumb. One evening, he meets a pretty girl who is extremely drunk, he saves her from falling off the platform of a train station. The girl calls him "darling" before passing out on the train. Subsequently, he is mistaken as the boyfriend of this mysterious girl and is being lectured by others that he must take care of her. Not knowing where she lives, he must spend the night with her. The girl is by now so drunk that she is not able to take care of herself. He takes her to a cheap hotel for the evening. One thing leads to another and Kyun-woo ends up in the police station for seemingly very questionable behaviour. After a series of mishaps, Kyun-woo really becomes the boyfriend of this sassy, bossy girl. Is this the beginning of his nightmare or is this the true love that he has been waiting for? Who is this bossy girl?

My review:
My sassy girl is a wonderful movie, it is funny, comical, romantic and touching. Excellent choice of main actor and actress. Ji-hyun Jun is the type of girl that young men dream about, the girl-next-door style, long hair, tall and with a nice figure and a pretty face. But the director has given this dream girl a nightmare type of personality, it's this love and hate situation that is torturing Kyun-woo. He is the submissive type and he has been giving in to the girl's demand: swapping shoes, beaten up constantly, and ending up in jail a few times. However, if you watch more carefully, the girl actually has a very nice personality, she is straight forward and is never afraid to speak out whenever she thinks someone has done something so terribly wrong. She fantasies a lot about romantic relationship. On the other hand, Kyun-woo seems dumb but he is the most loving and caring type of boyfriend that any girl can ask for. His unreserved care and determination to heal the heart broken girl has truly touched the girl's heart. The film is never short of funny moments, the clever thing is these funny plots are situational, not just in the script. Highly recommended, you will have a great time watching it. Ji-hyun Jun also appears in Il Mare, another highly recommended movie.

Advance review of the movie:
If you have not watched the movie yet, do not read beyond here. Come back when you have seen the movie.

Many people have missed a lot of the subtle details of the movie. Most people have the feeling that the old man who sat under the tree was Kyun-woo. In fact he is indeed Kyun-woo from the future. He is the person that the girl was referring to at the end of the movie when she said "I have met someone from the future". How do we know this, well, there are quite a few evidence, firstly, this old man was actually present inside the train at the very beginning of the movie when the young Kyun-woo first met the girl. The old man stared in a very concerned manner at his younger self during that train ride. The old man talked about how he knew about the story of the tree and how he had read both letters and he put that toad in the time capsule to scare his younger counter-part. He also talked about how fate will build a bridge for the lovers, the young Kyun-woo said the same thing at the end of the movie. When the girl was reading the letter under the tree, there was actually a UFO flying across.

Other subtle things include, the five identical brothers in the movie, they are the owner of the hostel where Kyun-woo took the girl to on their first encounter, the person at the reception of the hostel, the leader of the gang at the detention centre, the pick-pocket at Lunchi station and the station manager in the control room of the underground. Actually, you should have already seen the picture at that hostel showing these 5 brothers.

Never mind if you missed the above? It is still a very enjoyable movie without knowing the above facts. Watch it again, perhaps! :-)

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