context: it's why some bad things are so good
A while ago I posted about "Hello Schoolgirl", which was a rom-com without so much comedy.
In watching something else I was reminded of it, and I seriously think it has the best ending of any romance-focused movie I've seen.
Note: I watch a pretty limited range of movies. Most of them are not serious enough to have amazingly written endings.
This movie did NOT change that, in fact, its ending was worse than usual for rom-coms, but I'm going to talk about it anyway.
He Was Cool
This movie is based off of a web-novel thing, and has the plot of every over-dramatic Korean manhwa ever.
When I first tried it, I didn't understand this dynamic. I thought "Oh cute, a bickering couple!" and then I was all like..."and pretty much nothing more."
There were these totally overly stupid martial-arts-movie pastiche action parts. And then the sound timing was off. LAST STRAW.
Ah, so 80s tastic, and yet it's from after the Millenium
Naturally, I had to try it again when casting around for mindless amusement last week.
...the timing was still off, and the plot was still tired, and that stunt-section cheesy.
But my own context was so different this time. More manhwa I gave up on, more bad dramas I've watched all the way through, more immersion in the media surrounding it so it makes more sense. For example, that making-fun-of-martial-arts-effects is less of a joke, and more it's own brand of humor...
The heroine gets in trouble for posting insults in response to a gangster trash-talking her school, to set off the whole plot. I could be wrong about this, but the Asian shows seem to have more willingness to let someone be at fault for doing something dumb in their movies, rather than giving them excuses...
Then there's this guy:
who like many great Korean Movie Teen Guy Actors is closer to 30 than 20 never mind 18...
He has, since the last time I started watching this movie, starred in one of the fluffiest and most fun dramas I've watched, though.
Why is it that having a fondness for someone (in something else) can make something inferior more watchable?
Also, there's this one scene where not just the girl is caught in rollers at the salon, but the guy is dolled up in dyeing foils at the same time...and they discover they're each others' nemesis.
GOLDEN.