My Sassy Girl

Also known as "Yupki Girl"

Director: Kwak Jae-yong

Producer: Chul shin

Year/Place of Production: 2001, South Korea

Language: Korean/Cantonese

Cast:
Jeon Ji-hyun - Sassy Girl
Cha Tae-hyun - Kyun-woo

Review:

Based loosely on an anonymous diary entry on the net, this box-office smash movie is based on a guy, Kyun-woo (played by Cha Tae-hyun) who has no purpose or ambition whatsoever in life, falling in love with “the sassy girl” (Jeon Ji-hyun). Huh. We never do found out what her name is and I kind of like that about the movie.

Anyway, Kyun-woo first meets the beautiful, though incredibly drunk, girl in the subway and just about to fall over the train tracks. Of course, Kyun-woo rushes to help her but that was it. They then meet again on the train when the girl throws up on an old man’s wig and after that, she faints calling out to Kyun-woo, “Honey...” Kyun-woo, being the nice guy he is, carries the girl into a motel and looks after her, which then ends up being a cop bust-out.

The day after, the girl calls Kyun-woo and meets up with him, to find out what happened. She demands an explanation and if there wasn’t one, she’d kill him. And during the same day, she starts crying and telling Kyun-woo about why she was so drunk -- she had just broken up with her boyfriend. Well, everything goes off from there. Kyun-woo develops a deep sense of responsibility over her, as he wants to heal her pain, though eventually, Kyun-woo falls in love with the girl, but will she fall in love with him?

I just had to buy the VCD after reading so many good reviews about it and believe me, I was not disappointed. Though the movie was much too long for my attention-span, I enjoyed it immensely. And why was that? Well I suppose it was because of the creative, unpredictable plot as well as the fact that it was a romantic-comedy, with many cute, funny bits in it. And what do I mean by “unpredictable plots” and “cute bits“? Well, for instance, I loved it whenever the girl bullied the guy -- you rarely see that in movies nowadays -- and once, the girl was wearing high heels and they were hurting her feet so she made Kyun-woo swap shoes and chase her after that. Of course, there are loads of other good bits besides that, like when Kyun-woo is having a shower then gets out, still naked, to get a towel and the cops arrive. Another one is when the girl writes a script and forces Kyun-woo to read and it then switches to the script, with the characters played the Kyun-woo and the girl themselves.

But besides that, the actors and the characters also make the film so enjoyable. Admittedly, I’ve never seen any other Korean movies or series or known any Korean actors but Cha Tae-hyun and Jeon Ji-hyun were....wow. The way they depicted their characters and the way they played out the plot was again, wow. Jeon Ji-hyun suits the character of the girl perfectly. Ji-hyun was beautiful and that suited the girl, yet she was able to play a character which had both the characteristics of being a violent and mean yet sweet and vulnerable girl who believes in time travel, in her own way. Like I said, I don’t know any other Korean actors, but I very much doubt any Hong Kong actresses could have done as well as she could. Cha Tae-hyun was another good one, I loved the little subtle expressions on his face he had on his face whenever the girl was talking to him or whatnot. Plus he played the somewhat wimpy but loving and caring Kyun-woo. Two thumbs up for these two rising stars.

I admit that I don’t know much about cinematography, but I thought that the cinematography in this movie was good. The backgrounds and the way the movie was filmed suits the plot, light and colourful with subtle touches to it. And something I’ve never seen before in a movie took place in her -- the movie was split into three sections “First Half”, “Second Half” and “Overtime.” I enjoyed the second half more than the first half, though that was still good but I found overtime kind of frustrating. I hate it when two characters always pass by each other or whatever but never really see each other, which is kind of what happened a bit in the end. Although, I loved the very, very end of the movie. I won’t spoil it for you but it is very cute and surprising.

Notes:

- Dreamworks has just bought the rights for “My Sassy Girl” and are planning on making a remake, although I about very much that it would be as good this one.

- If you’re planning on buying a VCD version of this movie, I’ve got one and it includes three discs, two being the movie and one (with a picture of the two stars on it and their signatures and some writing in Korean) being an extra CD which includes the “I Believe” MV (the themesong of the whole movie), two out-takes and the trailer to it, though these two are still in Korean, though there are subtitles to it. The movie is in both Korean and Cantonese with the Cantonese voice of the girl dubbed by singer and actress, Miriam Yeung.