K-Movie: Hello Schoolgirl
I have a bit of a hang-up on age-gap stories (in either direction) so I am happy to do some handwaving for the fun involved.
This movie did a bit of glossing as far as plausibility goes, like where the girl ends up staying out all night, and her mother that lives with her alone doesn't notice. I was actually a bit uncomfortable, but not because anything about it seemed inappropriate--almost because of the opposite. Like there wasn't even that danger in the reality of the movie, so I didn't know where we were.
This movie had the kind of reaching-for-art-movie understatement I see in a lot of the Korean chick-flicks, and that makes me tense, not know what my expectations should be.
But the end pushed it over into one of the better movies I've watched in a while, at least as far as resolution goes. The main male character has spent the whole movie not saying much, going with the flow of things, really hesitant and only showing how much he's drawn to the girl by getting caught up in things he wouldn't naturally do. The final step of the story doesn't ignore that.
It wasn't a rom-com ticky-box ending but the perfect finish to the story that came before.
And the acting and set up of the scene do so much of the work that the simple words, "I like you" gave me chills.
In a language where that's one of the few phrases I know.
Because you see it in his eyes, that he can't help saying it. And she really does look subtly more grown-up and beautiful, the way he's seeing her and the way she's supposed to be.
(It's interesting how this guy has a very common look, and in some moments projects something very attractive without...changing.)
***
The pitch-perfect resolution is so important, and where genre fails writers if they don't pay close enough attention. You can walk away from a movie having laughed, and tell people it was "pretty good", without that closure of an intelligent ending. The feeling of having been through something more worthwhile, especially more than you expected, only comes from a finishing blow that brings out the best in the characters, and resolves the main themes of the story.
I am very interested in this phenomenon...
***
Hey, also if you're a K-drama/movie watcher with suggestions for titles that are pleasant to watch, please tell me about them!
I've watched the more obvious comedies like 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant, which went for overt gag rather than good close, and Innocent Steps, which went one step over into sort of horror-like, though its end would have been really sweet if I wasn't still horrified by the nastiness of the world it portrayed.
(A nastiness which did NOT make any earthly sense, by the way. Seeing the dark side of the real world or an imagined exaggeration of one is one thing, trying to believe a dance school gets away with crippling rivals with their car, several times in a row, and are still in the professional association to compete...it's ballroom dancing, and this is not just a little tack in a ballet shoe.)
So yeah. Pleasant. Not necessarily comedy, because this wasn't really one, but I like that, too.
This movie did a bit of glossing as far as plausibility goes, like where the girl ends up staying out all night, and her mother that lives with her alone doesn't notice. I was actually a bit uncomfortable, but not because anything about it seemed inappropriate--almost because of the opposite. Like there wasn't even that danger in the reality of the movie, so I didn't know where we were.
This movie had the kind of reaching-for-art-movie understatement I see in a lot of the Korean chick-flicks, and that makes me tense, not know what my expectations should be.
But the end pushed it over into one of the better movies I've watched in a while, at least as far as resolution goes. The main male character has spent the whole movie not saying much, going with the flow of things, really hesitant and only showing how much he's drawn to the girl by getting caught up in things he wouldn't naturally do. The final step of the story doesn't ignore that.
It wasn't a rom-com ticky-box ending but the perfect finish to the story that came before.
And the acting and set up of the scene do so much of the work that the simple words, "I like you" gave me chills.
In a language where that's one of the few phrases I know.
Because you see it in his eyes, that he can't help saying it. And she really does look subtly more grown-up and beautiful, the way he's seeing her and the way she's supposed to be.
(It's interesting how this guy has a very common look, and in some moments projects something very attractive without...changing.)
***
The pitch-perfect resolution is so important, and where genre fails writers if they don't pay close enough attention. You can walk away from a movie having laughed, and tell people it was "pretty good", without that closure of an intelligent ending. The feeling of having been through something more worthwhile, especially more than you expected, only comes from a finishing blow that brings out the best in the characters, and resolves the main themes of the story.
I am very interested in this phenomenon...
***
Hey, also if you're a K-drama/movie watcher with suggestions for titles that are pleasant to watch, please tell me about them!
I've watched the more obvious comedies like 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant, which went for overt gag rather than good close, and Innocent Steps, which went one step over into sort of horror-like, though its end would have been really sweet if I wasn't still horrified by the nastiness of the world it portrayed.
(A nastiness which did NOT make any earthly sense, by the way. Seeing the dark side of the real world or an imagined exaggeration of one is one thing, trying to believe a dance school gets away with crippling rivals with their car, several times in a row, and are still in the professional association to compete...it's ballroom dancing, and this is not just a little tack in a ballet shoe.)
So yeah. Pleasant. Not necessarily comedy, because this wasn't really one, but I like that, too.