cause a scene: My Sassy Girl

Okay, new awesome movie. It's Korean again...

I like chick flicks cause they have good stories and they're funny, and somtimes I hope I could meet a girl like the ones in the movies and then through a strange series of events, have this exciting and funny courtship, blah blah blah. I'm a hopeless romantic, just like Skye...we're a lot alike.

Anyway, so I found this movie called My Sassy Girl, that was made in 2001, in Korea. It was a HUGE hit and everyone loved it. It's a strange love story. And by strange, I mean that there's not much lovey dovey crap in it. It's a chick flick that I think lots of guys would actually really like.

It's about a guy who is just minding his business one day at the train station, when he notices that there is an extremely drunk woman teetering dangerously close to the edge of the platform, and the train is coming in. He runs over and saves her, just as the train whizzes by, and she's too drunk to notice. On the train, she throws up all over an old man, and just before she passes out, calls to the main character, Gyeon-woo (played by Cha Tae-hyun, who also starred in Speedy Scandal) and says "Honey!" Everyone thinks that he's her boyfriend now, and he is forced to not only help her out, but clean up the vomit. Poor guy! Anyway he takes her to a motel to rest, and jumps in the shower to clean off the sweat (from carrying her the whole way on his back) and the vomit. Her phone rings, and he foolishly tells the voice on the other end of the phone where they are, and before he knows it, the police break in and mace him while he's still naked.

He thinks that the relationship will end there, but it's only the beginning. What ensues is a strange on-and-off courtship as the girl (whose name we never find out, actually) tries to get over an apparently difficult breakup with her old boyfriend. She is strong-willed and has a temper that easily persuades Gyeon-woo to perform any of her silly requests, be it drinking coffee, rather than coke, every time they go out, or changes shoes, so he has to wear the high heels. He endures a very strange courtship, and is much too afraid to admit to anyone that she is actually his girlfriend, for fear that he might get in trouble.

They eventually are forced to separate by her father, and that's where the story really gets good, as the two try to decide what their relationship has really become, and how far it could actually go.

That's all I'll say about the movie, so as to avoid giving away any good parts. It's one of my favorite movies, and I've already watched it twice this week. I highly recommend it to everyone, even if you don't like chick flicks. The majority of the movie is not easily identified as a chick flick, or even a love story, but rather a confused courtship comedy. The comedy of the movie will keep the guys interested, while the fresh yet subtle love story will satisfy the girls in the audience.

It does have subtitles, but honestly, you get used to reading them, and won't even really miss anything at all. It is asian humor, and many of the cultural points and the style of jokes may be a little difficult to understand unless you have lived in an asian country for any period of time. I lived in Japan, and noticed many cultural similarites. Not only that, but I loved the humor, because it is so unmistakably asian. This doesn't mean that American's can't appreciate the film, though. My mom, who watched it with me the second time, loved it. I found myself explaining some cultural things to her, but she seemed to enjoy it ver much. She did admit that there were many things she thought were strange, especially the way that the girl acted sometimes.

This movie has been remade by a few different cultures, including Japan, India and America. My Sassy Girl, starring Elisha Cuthbert and Jesse Bradford, was released in 2008. I was in Japan at the time, but even my family, who live here, hadn't heard of it. I don't know how good the American version was, but I know for certain, that a remake that stays very true to many of the jokes and points in the plot would simply never work here in America because of the vast cultural differences between Americans and Asians. Or maybe that's why the movie obviously wasn't popular. I'll have to watch it to see...I just hope it doesn't ruin the original!

I would definitely give this movie a 10, but I'm pretty easy to please. I loved every part of the movie, and can't wait to watch it again. I highly recommend it!

This is the original movie poster, and the cover of the 2-disc special edition DVD: