I had long given up on Korean romances, when they degenerated from quality films such as "Palwolui Christmas" to the contrived melodrama that have flooded the market in the last few years. "Sad movie" is more of the same.
Having 4 stories presented in a sort of "Love actually" style helps a little, even just in providing diversification. The story of the pretty (word chosen deliberately) young man's quest to paint Snow White is actually not too bad. Snow White here is a mute girl who is also disfigured (but not seriously) as a result of a fire from which she was rescued. As she works in an amusement park as one of those photo-session figures walking around, together with the Seven Dwarfs, with over-sized head gears on, she is able to hide her face during most of her work day. The rest of the story is somewhat predictable, but nicely put together.
The other three stories are banal. Cha Tae-hyun (best remembered from "My sassy girl") provides most of the comedy element playing a professional "break-up announcing messenger" until his own girlfriend becomes a client. Another story features the mute girl's elder sister, a sign-language TV announcer and her fire-fighter boyfriend. If it aims at conveying the constant frustration and pressure of having a romance with with a fire-fighter, it's at best a pale shadow of "Ladder 49". As a run-of-the-mill romance, it has some passable moments. The mother-and-son story is contrived and sappy, employing a plot element that you see in just about every single Korean melodrama terminal illness.
The problem is really that the movie constitutes entirely of cliché. The unimaginative editing deprives it of its only chance of having some life. Not even with the most powerful microscope can you detect a tiniest trace of originality.
Having 4 stories presented in a sort of "Love actually" style helps a little, even just in providing diversification. The story of the pretty (word chosen deliberately) young man's quest to paint Snow White is actually not too bad. Snow White here is a mute girl who is also disfigured (but not seriously) as a result of a fire from which she was rescued. As she works in an amusement park as one of those photo-session figures walking around, together with the Seven Dwarfs, with over-sized head gears on, she is able to hide her face during most of her work day. The rest of the story is somewhat predictable, but nicely put together.
The other three stories are banal. Cha Tae-hyun (best remembered from "My sassy girl") provides most of the comedy element playing a professional "break-up announcing messenger" until his own girlfriend becomes a client. Another story features the mute girl's elder sister, a sign-language TV announcer and her fire-fighter boyfriend. If it aims at conveying the constant frustration and pressure of having a romance with with a fire-fighter, it's at best a pale shadow of "Ladder 49". As a run-of-the-mill romance, it has some passable moments. The mother-and-son story is contrived and sappy, employing a plot element that you see in just about every single Korean melodrama terminal illness.
The problem is really that the movie constitutes entirely of cliché. The unimaginative editing deprives it of its only chance of having some life. Not even with the most powerful microscope can you detect a tiniest trace of originality.