Personally, I think the girl is cute. I love Korean women, so I just keep watching Korean movies. In this movie, however, her character kinda sucks. She's just some really really stupid chick. Like, all spacey and stuff. Kinda like a retard. I'm not sure why anyone would want to marry a retard. But, well... she is a cute retard. (Hence the 2 stars instead of 1) The rest of the characters are just depressing.

I wondered a lot if maybe this movie makes more sense in Korean. I like the occasional dark comedy movie. Like the classic Happiness. But, I think maybe if a Korean person watched a movie like Happiness, they'd be like "WTF?!" Maybe it's a cultural thing, or a translation thing.

Altogether, this movie is so painfully difficult to watch, that I fast forwarded through the last hour of the movie. I felt deceived. This movie wasn't romance or comedy, it was just a bunch of depressing scenes about stupid characters doing things for only god knows what reason.

I'm not sure why the previous reviewers were so down on this movie; my guess is they saw the title and went in expecting something very different, like a cute romantic comedy with beautiful stars and a fluffy lighthearted plot -- which this movie ain't, by a loooong shot. I read their extremely negative reviews after I rented the movie, so as you might imagine I was rather apprehensive about what I was in for. Well, guess what -- I loved this movie! I'm not normally a huge fan of dramedies about 'quirky' divine-fool type characters wending their way through a brutal world and finding some kind of meaning to it all - but not a plot resolution - by the closing credits; usually they end up being pretentiously artsy or pompously 'wise', but this movie had me laughing out loud at several points. Mostly, though, it's a goofy, slow-burn kind of humor it projects, and I'll grant that it probably isn't to everybody's taste.

(MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD)

Also, the fact that the overall style of the movie feels as if it just manages to stay on this side of the Twilight Zone (the opening scene is so surpassingly strange I was sure it was a dream) probably doesn't help those who like their movies safe and familiar. On the other hand, if you are the type that likes having a tiny monkey wrench thrown into the works now and then, you'll love this movie. How can you not love a movie that actually has fun portraying the surreally offbeat lives of Soon-Yi, a sprightly free spirit (or should I say a tarnished angel) who ekes out a living making popcorn/puffed rice with an antiquated machine-that-goes-Boom! and is a magnet for loser-type men, in this case a lustful, failed cult leader and his three sons by former 'disciples'?

And those sons happen to be: an angsty motorcycle delivery man (I mean I think he delivers things on a motorcycle, not that he delivers motorcycles) who lies in his diary; an evil tow-truck driver (yes, evil); and a low-key gangster with three stabbing murders to his name. The wacky yet strangely tender and affecting scene in which the middle-aged gangster gravely and politely asks his much younger 'stepmother' if he could feel up her breasts had me busting my gut laughing, it was so out of left field. Add to this mix some fire-bug street urchins, gangster honor colliding with filial duty, an airhead TV personality, a camel joke, underage drinking by a very cute and feisty little girl who's got a crush on the evil middle son, some equally evil pimps, and yet another stabbing murder, and you've got one heady ride. The wonderful ending, in which a much used and exploited Soon-Yi, having been through purgatory if not quite hell, manages to give as good as she gets and emerges with her freedom and humor somehow still intact, had me cheering.

By the way, while Ye Ji-won does not have the kind of beauty that we've by now come to take for granted from S. Korean movie stars, I think she's adorable in her own idiosyncratic way, and I think her looks are just about perfect for this unusual role. All in all, this is definitely a movie worth watching. I know I'm adding it to my collection.

(This comment may not make sense- but then again neither does the movie)

Su-hyeon Kim the star of Old Boy directs a very strange, very disjointed movie about people living in a tenement. Centering around a father and his sons, who have names the [email protected]#$head, Dognose and So-So. This movie rambles from one bit to the next on a trajectory thats not quite aimed at the broadside of a barn. I wish I could tell you more about what this movie is but I have no real clue. Its just strange, really really strange. One son brings home an old girl friend for his father to have, another son has just gotten out of prison and likes to stab people, a third rides a motorcycle and makes deliveries. There are gangsters, and children, a guy who makes love charms...

...and its brilliantly filmed and acted to such a degree that I was transfixed by the technical aspects and the greatness of the pieces as the film as a whole slid slowly into the surreal. As a series of unconnected moments, or as a calling card of a film maker who's got a future, its something to see. The problem is that each brief piece never really connects to the next and after two hours you're worn down by the disjointed nature and lack of a narrative whole.

It just doesn't work, which is sad because so much of this is really good, just not when you place the pieces together.

Despite my middle of the road rating (for the pieces and certainly not the whole) I can't recommend it except for those who are truly adventurous film fans, or for those who want to see something weird for weirds sake. Then again maybe I should just say stay away, since this really isn't something you'd want to see.