Watched Sad Movie recently. Kind of fun to realize that I can now instantly appreciate how 'star-studded' this film is, after having watched quite a number of Korean flicks since my very first one, Il Mare. The guy from My Sassy Girl is here. So is the girl from ...ing. (Ah, Im Soo-jeong! Sigh.) That woman from A Bittersweet Life is here too, and I now regret calling her "a low-rent Jeon Ji-hyeon," especially since I also saw her kick ass in Volcano High.
Anyway, here's an excerpt from the excellent Love HK Film review:
Talk about truth in advertisement. This mostly entertaining, star-packed film lives up to its title, although not necessarily in the way one might expect. Rather than deliver a straightforward melodrama, director Kwon Jong-Gwan instead delivers a genuinely funny romantic comedy, only to pull the rug out from under the audience in a brutally depressing final act. [...] Imagine a film in which likeable characters encounter life-altering problems, struggle to overcome them, and then seem to actually make some headway, only to have all their hopes eventually dashed in a swift and brutal fashion. If you can do that, you'll have some inkling of what Sad Movie is all about.
My favorite parts, aside from any of the scenes with Im Soo-jeong in them, were the funny bits: a bunch of amusement park employees in Seven Dwarfs costumes taking shelter from the rain, the sign-language banter between two sisters, the Seven Dwarfs beating up some hapless artist, and pretty much the whole Sassy Guy subplot, complete with absurd and amusing business venture. The movie-of-the-week mother and child stuff didn't grab me at all, and even the fireman story needed to be more compelling. Still, overall, it's fun to watch, at least until -- as Love HK Film puts it -- IT ALL GOES TO HELL!
Posts
3 comments:
"All for Love" is the better ensemble movie but "Sad Movie" definitely has the eye candies! I have an extra copy of "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" if you don't already have it. :)
Oo, I'd wanna see this movie.
DON'T, ROBYN!! It's DEPRESSING. He he. Actually, it's not that sad*; for the most part, as the review says, it's funny and entertaining, and cute. It lacks a little something though. I almost feel that an entire movie built around the Sassy Guy story -- or the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs story -- might have made for a better flick.
Also, I don't know why I was somehow expecting happy endings all the way up to the end credits. There were enough clues dropped all through the movie itself, not to mention that the title is a big fat warning already.
I think it may be because the movie adhered to so many Hollywood cliches already that I figured it would probably go for the biggest cliche of all -- the "everything turns out all right in the end" notion. I kept thinking that there would be more overlap among the stories, that this guy from this couple would end up with that girl from the other couple... I'm corny like that.
Already have the "Vengeance trilogy," but thanks a lot, Thor! :) I have "All For Love" too, will probably watch that next.
Yay eye candy! :)
*At least, not in the way that, say, Grave of the Fireflies is heart-rendingly sad. *weeps*
Post a Comment