Odds and Ends: Today’s half-finished love
by javabeans
javabeans: So, last weekend girlfriday and I sat down for a rare movie-watching session, which we hardly ever do, which I guess is kind of odd given how many hours of our lives are devoted to watching our screens full of pretty Korean people.
girlfriday: It’s just that movies always get back-burnered on the priority list, because there’s always another episode of a show to be watched. I usually manage to watch the big ones throughout the year because of my parents, but it’s fun for the two of us to sit down and watch something together. There’s just more snark involved that way. Also, that may have been the wine.
javabeans: The movie we saw was Today’s Love, mostly because girlfriday had the remote and Seung-gi’s face won out. It was a totally cute movie and I especially liked Moon Chae-won in it (Seung-gi was, you know, Seung-gi), but I swear if I were watching it alone I would have stopped it halfway through and never resumed.
girlfriday: You ALWAYS stop your movies halfway through! I don’t know how you do it.
javabeans: I have a really low tolerance for manufactured angst! As soon as the trouble hits at the hour mark, you just know how it’s going to go down and I just can’t finish it. It’s a tic — like when you have to pause because a scene is too embarrassing to watch and have to force yourself through. With me, it’s movies and stupid romance angst.
girlfriday: Which is a funny thing if you think about it, since dramas can be many many hours upon hours of manufactured angst.
javabeans: I realize this is not a consistent stance.
girlfriday: You could think of movies as very short dramas. Just two episodes, back to back!
javabeans: Nooooo, movies are completely different! Fine, so dramas use just as many stupid cliches and obvious tropes, but since a drama’s so long, usually the one single trope is never the entirety of the point. It’s a tool to get you on to the next thing, and it’s the overall series arc that keeps me in. But in a movie… one stupid misunderstanding could very well BE the whole point, and then I’m annoyed, and then why waste the next hour? I could just watch the next episode of Girl Who Sees Smells.
girlfriday: Or the last episode of Angry Mom again. What? I like Bok-dongie that much!
javabeans: You and all of Korea. Get in line.
girlfriday: Bok-dongie aside, I do think that the time invested in character development and longer story arcs is what makes us love dramas in a way that most throwaway movies can’t manage to do in two hours.
javabeans: I really do like Korean movies, and my queue is a mile long. It’s just that in that half that mile is full of half-watched things, all stopped at the hour mark. I know it’s a good movie when I don’t reach for the pause button.
girlfriday: Your hard drive is a wasteland of half-finished movies. It’s an interesting consistent thing with you though. Whereas for me, I either give up at the ten minute mark, or watch it all the way through. Never an hour in.
javabeans: I watch using a program that keeps track of where I left off, and that really enables the habit. Before that program, it was harder to remember where I’d left off and find that point again in the file, so I’d sit through the angst impatiently and force myself onward. But now I figure, “I’ll just stop and pick up later.” I just never get to later.
girlfriday: Because there are always shiny new movies lined up in the queue. And why does it always get longer, never shorter?
javabeans: And really, if I stopped halfway through the first time, shouldn’t that be a message that it wasn’t that great to begin with? It’s just me, softening the blow… for me.
girlfriday: For a diehard rom-com fan, you are a pretty harsh critic of romantic angst.
javabeans: My heartstrings are always ready to be pulled, but c’mon movie, you’ve gotta put some effort into it. If you don’t care to make it convincing, why should I care? If I watch a whole movie thinking of you as Seung-gi and not learning your name, really, have you done your job? That’s not a fictional fantasy, that’s just two straight hours of Seung-gi.
girlfriday: You say it like it’s a bad thing. Two hours of Seung-gi giving piggyback rides, cleaning my apartment, making me dinner, singing and dancing to stupid songs to make me smile, carrying my purse and my shoes…
javabeans: Now that’s a fictional fantasy. Snap out of it!
girlfriday: No. I like it here.
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Tags: conversation post, Odds and Ends
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1 hawoojinruinedme
April 25, 2015 at 8:20 PM
JB, what's the name of that program you use? I'd love to get my hands on it too! Like you, i also usually pause my movie-watching, which is ironic because i always get excited before I start them.
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Javabeans
April 25, 2015 at 9:40 PM
Plex! You can sync your Roku to your computer, and then play dramas on your TV through your Roku, and it remembers where you left off. It's like turning your hard drive into Hulu.
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hawoojinruinedme
April 25, 2015 at 10:29 PM
Thanks for the tip!
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Piggy Flower
April 27, 2015 at 7:47 AM
Thank you, 2.
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2 PeepsLeAwesomePotato
April 25, 2015 at 8:21 PM
Lol, JB. At least you pause the movie. I just end up dozing halfway through and wasting electricity.
I didn't like Love Forecast/Today as much as I thought I would too. I thought it would be like a Answer me 1997 kind of bestfriends turned lovers but... er... nope.
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nomad
April 25, 2015 at 10:22 PM
Yeah...I stopped at 15 minute mark, I think...and know that I won't ever go back.
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amie
April 26, 2015 at 1:04 PM
Wow, if it was that bad then I feel sorry for those people who actually went to the movie theater To watch this movie. They paid for the tickets, bought some snacks and had to sit through 2 hours of boring! Sure hope they had some hot date to at least hold hands with and pretend to watch, but really it`s all about the talking hands.
I am curious to check it out just to see how bad it is,yea, if and when I do remember.
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Piggy Flower
April 27, 2015 at 7:55 AM
The movie itself is not THAT boring. It was not for me, the very least. It is slow paced and nothing new, but...
But as much I enjoyed both leads' acting, and I love them both - as separate entities - there was no ounce of chemistry I could feel between them. Plus she looks much older than him. I googled and CW is not even half year older than SG, but...
Plus, as much as I tried, SG doesn't give that teaching vibe at all.
So all in all is like someone tried hard to mix and match three unrelated movies and make just one out of them. It feels rather confusing. Not necessarily boring. But worse than a soju drunkenness.
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3 Ivoire
April 25, 2015 at 8:22 PM
Korean movies take me longer to have access to. And by that time, there is already another drama to watch. There are some movies that I would really like to watch though. And I agree with you guys, the manufactured angst does not feel totally the same in most dramas. If one looks hard enough, one can find one or two (or more) things to like about the drama, and remain focused on those, to finish the drama.
Thank you for your thoughts... So maybe I should lower my expectations for this movie?
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4 kiwichan
April 25, 2015 at 8:22 PM
girlssss...I tried to erase about this movie now u bring this here LOL! I don't know about others but Today's Love is one of the boring movies I've watched eventhough I personally think the leads are cute & lovely yet talented but the plot is just so meh to me
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Baby panda
April 25, 2015 at 9:25 PM
Thank goodness I'm not the only one that thinks so! I turned it off half way through.
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kiwichan
April 26, 2015 at 12:25 AM
I thought I'm playing hard with them since I have a high expectation to watch their debut film but honestly their characters, plot are annoying. Probably I'm not a really fan of rom-com movies, even My Love My Bride is just an okay but better than TL. but then I watched A GIRL AT MY DOOR/DOHEE, this one is masterpiece! not a rom-com tho..Perhaps I'm more appreciate Korean heavy films compare to rom-com..Wish, Haemoo, Miracle in Cell No.7, Han Gong-ju, they are all good!
For romcom, let me just re-watching Windstruck! :D
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alua
April 26, 2015 at 12:52 AM
I think the problem is with rom-coms. There is very really one that actually does something interesting and new. Instead they all rely on clichés and fabricated angst that is difficult to relate to. I didn't watch Today's Love (well, I think I saw about ten minutes of it and then decided it would be too tiresome). I did watch all of My Love My Bride, but so many of the scenes felt just fake. It's the sort of film you watch and forget immediately, and a couple of years down the line you don't even remember that you watched it at all. (A pity, given that the actors were two I kind of liked.)
There are plenty of amazing Korean films, but it's certainly not the rom-coms. Girl at My Door is certainly brilliant.
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jamesgil
April 26, 2015 at 5:34 AM
Both Kim Sae-ron and Bae Doona are nominated for Best Actress this year for Baeksang T.T
Definitely agree with you on Today's Love and My Love My Bride though.
kiwichan
April 26, 2015 at 6:18 AM
Kim Sae Ron, that lil' girl! she's so something in "A Girl At My Door" and don't be surprised if she won Best Actress in this year Baeksang! Loved Bae Doona's performance as well! She won Best Actress in this year AFA I guess! but was disappointed that Chun Woo Hee is nominated for Best Newcomer Actress only tho
jamesgil
April 26, 2015 at 7:38 AM
@bluesky, it's Chun Woo-hee's first nomination for Baeksang awards, so it makes sense that it'll be for the Best Newcomer. I hope she wins though.
kiwichan
April 26, 2015 at 8:19 AM
@jamesgil
my guess is, they are having a hard time between Bae Doona and Chun Woo Hee for Best Actress so the judges decide to put CWH on the newcomer list instead so both can win!
5 riya
April 25, 2015 at 8:23 PM
I hardly watch Korean movies but I'm a huge fan of Hollywood films.I feel as if Korean movies kill the world that dramas create for me. Anyway, does JB ignores only k-movies or from other languages as well?
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6 Anna
April 25, 2015 at 8:29 PM
Basically, this movie was "Friendzone: The Movie" and I was too busy tearing out my hair to be that into it. It's like, "Guys, I think you seriously need to actually be physically away from each other like, a year or something." Their relationship went from being pretty cute as friends to uncomfortably dysfunctional and irritating. Although LSG dimples, damn it.
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7 baekhyunie
April 25, 2015 at 8:29 PM
i watched Today's Love too, and i was bored to tears... seriously, i thought a movie with Lee Seung-gi and Moon Chae-won would be awesome, but it falls flat in the end. they're funny, but i can't see the chemistry between them. this is one of those rom-com movies that failed in delivering both the romance and the comedy. :/
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dark chocolate
April 26, 2015 at 9:39 PM
As a fan of MCW, though it hurts to say this but I have to agree with most of the comments here, the movie bored me to death...maybe romcoms were not really my thing at all. I can't see the chemistry between her and LSG in the movie but I must say, they even have a much believable chemistry when they were both in Running Man as guests to promote this movie...IDK what happened in the movie..it's soooo forgettable..
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8 Mandy
April 25, 2015 at 8:33 PM
I am yet to love a Korean rom-com movie. Good ones are too difficult to come by and I'd rather be watching dramas where character development are plenty. I though Today's Love was dry, like real dry. No interesting conflict, nothing to make me care. But, Moon Chae-won was quite impressive; I've never seen her more animated since she plays very serious roles most of the times. She was definitely worth the watch.
Seung-gi, on the other hand, I'm still not sure why he'd pick something so mundane for a movie debut. It did decently well all thanks to the star power of both leads, but if not for MCW's spirited performance, this would have been a compete bust. I'm actually quite disappointed at Seung-Gi's recent projects. I hope this isn't the last we've seen of him before enlistment of it would surely be a very anticlimatic exit.
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pogo - sailing HMS Queen of Tears and HMS Sailboat Lovely Runner🍉
April 25, 2015 at 9:44 PM
Today's Love was an exceptional bore but not all Korean romcoms are like that. The best ones can be everything we like in dramas, but with all the superfluous stuff cut out.
Try My PS Partner (Ji Sung/Kim Ah-joong), it's NSFW but the dialogue is hilarious. Or My Love, My Bride, on the non-NSFW side.
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alua
April 26, 2015 at 1:08 AM
I wasn't particularly impressed by either My PS Partner or My Love My Bride. The latter was too cliched and the former, though funny at times, I thought tried too hard but sadly still has clichéd characterisation and plot twists. Never mind the fact that the memories of sex scenes with the ex are more explicit than the one with the girl the guy is having PS with (i.e. the very thing that the film sold itself on!). (I reviewed My PS Partner on my blog, but the review is a bit spoilerish.)
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pogo - sailing HMS Queen of Tears and HMS Sailboat Lovely Runner🍉
April 26, 2015 at 4:52 AM
Neither of those movies was reinventing the wheel, but for what it was worth, I felt that they told their stories effectively and well within the two hour limit, and the acting was solid too.
If they were dramas, well, the former would probably be watered down to 'my occasionally-flirting partner' (forget the PS) and the latter would just become a long-winded weekend drama full of cliches and useless side plots to keep the couple apart.
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Lizzy4e
April 27, 2015 at 6:41 AM
My PS Partner was great! I think the lead actress had a no-nudity clause which is why we saw SO MUCH more of the ex then the lead.
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gugugu
April 25, 2015 at 10:54 PM
Some of my favorite romcom movies are My little bride and My sassy Girl. They're both oldies but total goodies, I highly recommend!
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farah
April 26, 2015 at 4:06 AM
Try Herb! :)
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Wag_a_Muffin
April 26, 2015 at 6:22 AM
Is "Miss Granny" a RomCom? I think it is. I love that movie and recommend it.
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maldita
April 26, 2015 at 12:54 AM
Lee Minki and Kim Minhee's A Very Ordinary Couple (aka Temperature of Love) was pretty good! :)
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Mariah
April 26, 2015 at 9:02 AM
I liked that one too. Sort of an anti-romance.
I'm really looking forward to seeing Shoot Me in the Heart. Anyone see it yet? I love Min Ki, and the trailer looks awesome.
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karecity
April 26, 2015 at 1:14 AM
Agree with My PS Partner and My Sassy Girl. I also enjoyed My Girlfriend is an Agent starring Kang Ji Hwan and Kim Haneul and Very Ordinary Couple starring Kim Min Hee and Lee Min Ki.
But I agree with you....looking through my watchlist, good romcoms are quite a scarcity.
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wildfly
April 26, 2015 at 5:11 AM
My girlfriend is an agent is hilarious :-) also I think sensory couple's Elena Vashilivnashivanova was taken from there
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StacyA
April 26, 2015 at 6:14 AM
I'm so impressed you wrote out her whole name....0.0
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annie
April 26, 2015 at 2:50 AM
My favourite Korean rom-coms are 7th Level Civil Servant (My Girlfriend is an Agent) and Someone Special. The latter IMO is hilarious and very underrated.
I agree with you guys about good Korean rom-coms being hard to find though. I feel like a lot of times I start out a movie that seemed like a rom-com from the premise and trailers, is fun for the first hour, then suddenly turns into a tragic melo with cancer/gangsters/sudden and unexplained death. Which is a really horrible bait and switch and leaves one bawling instead of laughing. It's happened to me enough that I've become wary of Korean movies marketed as comedies.
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9 nate
April 25, 2015 at 8:41 PM
I think they put all weight of the movie to the main leads and relied to them..They even rushed the post production..At least the leads were so adorable and had good chemistry..This is the only thing that made me finished the movie..
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10 Nemo
April 25, 2015 at 8:49 PM
I watched it last week. I was excited because the trailer looks cute and funny. But it is so boring. Then I think I saw an article that Seung Gi was offered the role of Cha Do Hyun in KMHM then declined because of the promotions of this movie.
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Ahn Yona
April 26, 2015 at 6:55 AM
Thank goodness though or you wouldn't have met me!
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11 earthna
April 25, 2015 at 9:01 PM
I'm like you javabeans! For some reasons I never finish movies, most of the time stopping at an hour mark. Also, I wonder if it's just me but most of the Korean movies I've actually finished don't have good endings. Like really, it goes into the climax point then randomly finishes as if they didn't have enough time. It annoys me so much that I don't feel like watching another movie.
And yes girlfriday, I'd rather watch Bok Dong all day long.
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12 kinac
April 25, 2015 at 9:03 PM
hahhaha gotta admit i watched this a few weeks ago and it was pretty bad and the angst was just so stupid to me. can't blame ya javabeans!
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13 cat
April 25, 2015 at 9:07 PM
No wonder am into drama more than movies.i think the only korean movie that i have ever watch is millionaire first loving.though i love KWB i never watch any of his three movies
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14 stars4u
April 25, 2015 at 9:11 PM
Coincidentally we're watching this very movie right now. I really like MCW in this movie. She should do characters like this in dramaland
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15 Cocoboo
April 25, 2015 at 9:26 PM
I'm trying to watch more Korean movies, but I always have a drama I need to catch up on. I've watched like less than 2O movies. And the ones I've watched so far have not been good or satisfying... :/ I think that with dramas, the relationships feel more developed and mostly believable.
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Nemo
April 25, 2015 at 10:00 PM
My recommendation for you:
Miracle in Cell #7
Sassy Girl
Two Faces of My Girlfriend
My PS Partner
Speedy Scandal
Hello Ghost
Admiral:Roaring Currents
Miss Granny
Steal My Heart
Sunny
Going By The Book
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Wag_a_Muffin
April 26, 2015 at 6:25 AM
Oh, Hello Ghost. Yeah, the first Korean comedy I feel in love with. It had a real ending. (So often they just quit, or keep going on too long--sometimes even starting another movie.) And EVERYTHING fit together. After you watch it, all the little moments that I thought, "oh. This is nice, but necessary," turned out to be part of the whole.
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Cocoboo
April 26, 2015 at 9:50 AM
@Nemo, Thanks for the recs! I haven't watched any of these yet.
Admiral - Roaring Currents is on my to-watch list. I had just forgotten the name of it recently!
And I learned about My PS Partner from this thread. Excited to see Ji Sung is in it.
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pogo - sailing HMS Queen of Tears and HMS Sailboat Lovely Runner🍉
April 26, 2015 at 10:02 AM
@Cocoboo - instead of Roaring Currents, I strongly recommend War of the Arrows, the director's previous film - it's much tighter and better plotted, and the suspense is incredible.
Roaring Currents has great action sequences and is truly epic but a little lacking in some ways.
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soprection
April 27, 2015 at 8:38 AM
I tried watching My Sassy Girl a few months ago because it's so acclaimed and I could NOT get into it. I thought the girl in question was awful and couldn't really understand why this guy would want to be around her. I didn't think it was funny at all, although I rarely find Korean comedies funny. I think the humour just doesn't translate well for me.
I definitely second Sunny and Speedy Scandal though. Both beautiful, heartwarming movies. I also quite liked Dancing Queen, although it turned out to be more serious than I expected.
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karecity
April 26, 2015 at 1:19 AM
In addition to those recommended by Nemo, I also recommend The Man from Nowhere (for action by Won Bin), The Crucible/Silenced, Bleak Night, Masquerade, Secret Sunshine (won Jeon Do Yeon the Best Actress at Cannes), Elegant Lies...and I could go on & on.
K Movies tend to have alot more serious fare though.
Sunny is a MUST WATCH!
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Twocents
April 26, 2015 at 4:24 AM
The Crucible is by far the hardest movie to finish watching it personally because it's so dark, twisted and I'm completely speechless to know and to realize that it was made based on a true story.
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pogo - sailing HMS Queen of Tears and HMS Sailboat Lovely Runner🍉
April 26, 2015 at 4:48 AM
The Man From Nowhere is pretty close to flawless, if not actually so.
Korean action/thriller movies, when they are good, are REALLY good. (same with The Chaser)
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Cocoboo
April 26, 2015 at 10:01 AM
The Man From Nowhere is the only movie I've seen that was good and overall satisfying. ^^
I just couldn't connect w/ Bleak Night.
I will check out the others though. I'm up for anything except gore/horror. x3
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16 NKDig
April 25, 2015 at 9:29 PM
Is it possible for people in the USA to watch the movie - Today's Love? Pay to watch online somewhere? Thanks!
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Gidget
April 26, 2015 at 12:15 PM
I have a tangential question.
Starting with my bias of always wanting the artists and producers of media to get paid for their work, I have yet to find a good sites that'll let me purchase Korean entertainment products (ones that haven't been picked up for distribution in the U.S.).
For instance when there's a song I like in a drama, I'll run it through SoundHound to try to identify it. But SoundHound basically only catalogues music that's available trough ITunes. So if it's not there I'll dig a little more and can usually find the name/artist. But then usually can't find a place to purchase the song. I'm sure it's out there but there's a language barrier. Good example of this is the Ali's song from Angry Mom.
Admittedly I don't spend hours looking, because it seems like a futile waste of time.
So where can foreigners go to buy soundtrack music? Also, what site has the most extensive library of films that are available for paid streaming?
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soprection
April 27, 2015 at 8:40 AM
Have you tried buying music on Mnet? They have an English version of their site.
Also you might have better luck searching for music with Shazam.
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17 pogo - sailing HMS Queen of Tears and HMS Sailboat Lovely Runner🍉
April 25, 2015 at 9:34 PM
I always thought of Moon Chae-won as an actress who was better at serious dramatic roles than romcom, but this movie made me revise that impression. She's winsome and adorable and everything you want in a romcom heroine.
Shame the movie is such a bore, though. I went into it with high expectations because Lee Seung-gi, but like you guys I just stopped halfway because not even for Moon Chae-won's sake can I sit through something so DUMB.
(can she please pick another War of the Arrows-esque movie if she's got to do one next, she was fantastic in that)
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nate
April 25, 2015 at 9:44 PM
yeah..i want something like war of arrows too but she said on her interview that at first she don't want to accept this movie but her friend suggest that it better to take a romcom genre before she turns 30..
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pogo - sailing HMS Queen of Tears and HMS Sailboat Lovely Runner🍉
April 25, 2015 at 9:55 PM
well, I suppose it wasn't a complete waste since it proved she can do well as a romcom lead and she was easily the best thing about it.....but next time I hope to god she picks a better movie.
(also, why is 30 a cutoff for romcoms, Gong Hyo-jin is several years older than her and still the queen of romcoms)
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nate
April 25, 2015 at 10:17 PM
it's not about cutoff or whatsoever,her friend mean that if she will not try a romcom genre right now she might end up working with younger actors later on but actually i see nothing wrong with that..
And yes she was fantastic in the Movie..I actually didn't expect that she will be that good in romcom considering it was her first time to lead in romcom genre and the character she portrayed was very difficult too..So i also think that her effort was not put into waste and the movie was quite successful afterall especially it was competing with Ode to My Father..
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nate
April 25, 2015 at 10:19 PM
Hopefully The Mood of That Day is a better one..
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alua
April 26, 2015 at 2:15 AM
Mentioning Gong Hyo-jin, "Love Fiction" actually is a pretty good rom-com.
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pogo - sailing HMS Queen of Tears and HMS Sailboat Lovely Runner🍉
April 26, 2015 at 5:00 AM
Love Fiction was great because it actually takes the whole 'perfect woman' idealisation and basically tells us the hero is an ass for both putting her on a pedestal and then being unable to deal with her coming off it.
Kind of like the opposite of Architecture 101, that way (never quite saw the appeal of that movie).
18 Dramafed1782
April 25, 2015 at 9:46 PM
Same here JB. It takes me a great deal of patience to sit through a movie when I can already foretell how is it gonna end. There are very few movies which has kept my attention like JSA, Bleak Night and some of the old romantics like The Classic.
Maybe dramas are the better storytellers (which the big 3 are currently struggling with).
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19 pogo - sailing HMS Queen of Tears and HMS Sailboat Lovely Runner🍉
April 25, 2015 at 9:53 PM
and I do think we're kind of unfairly down on Korean movies here - at their best, like any good movie, they tell a complete story and form a world that would in no way be improved by the 16-hour drama treatment.
In no world would I want, say, War of the Arrows, or The Chaser, or Sisters on the Road, or even My Sassy Girl, to be spun out into dramas.
Good movies just work better in the two-hour format, I mean look at My Girlfriend Is An Agent vs the execrable drama that was based on it (coughlevel7civilservantcough)
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20 kV
April 25, 2015 at 10:05 PM
While I do love some Korean movies, most of their plots tend to be all over the place like it's having an identity crisis. That's why I prefer dramas because stories are more fleshed out and complete.
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pogo - sailing HMS Queen of Tears and HMS Sailboat Lovely Runner🍉
April 25, 2015 at 10:15 PM
idk, judging all Korean movies by the worst of the poor selection available to us is kind of like thinking all Korean dramas are like Boys over Flowers and Dr Stranger.
And so many dramas have dropped a supposedly-crucial plot thread midway, never to be heard from again. (I see you, Gu Family Book....what happened to all talk of the book?). Or failed to flesh out characters and relationships - the 30-50 episoder dramas manage to do it because they have time to focus on supporting characters, but the shorter ones tend to focus on the OTP to the exclusion of all else.
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alua
April 26, 2015 at 1:27 AM
+1000
I think Korea has a distinct cinema production which is very worthwhile exploring. It has (like many countries, including the US) plenty of terrible films that are not worth anyone's time, but the stuff that is good, is very, very good.
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21 Daehoney
April 25, 2015 at 10:24 PM
While it's a bit hard to find good Korean rom-coms, there are many good Korean thriller/melodrama/anything about war, especially in early 2000s. A Bittersweet Life is a great gangster movie, Lover's Concerto is heart-wrenching though it took me so long to finish it, A Moment to Remember keeps my crying everytime I rewatch it (Jung Woo Sung oh Jung Woo Sung), I find Introduction to Architecture decent but likeable, and Miracle in Cell No.7 is one of the best.
And there are good rom-coms too. Miss Granny and My PS Partner are hilarious, I like Hello Ghost though it's boring until around the last 15 minutes, and though I didn't really like My Sassy Girl, I admit it's a good movie.
In Korea, anything with Song Kang-Ho or Hwang Jung-Min is usually good, though I haven't seen much of them.
Now I want to watch Ode To My Father bad-bad-badly! It airs here in my country but not in my city!
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kanz
April 26, 2015 at 3:01 AM
I agree with you and your movie recommendations.
I personally think Korean movies are better in thriller/action/melodrama genre than romcoms.
For melo: I love A Moment to Remember, Lover's Concerto (Cha Tae Hyun!), Sad Movie, Love Me Not, Miracle in Cell no.7, and Sympathy for Mr.Vengeance
For thriller/mystery: The Client and Confession of A Murderer are good.
For romcom: maybe only Miss Granny that I could say really funny or good (though I rarely watch romcom movie)
For sageuk: Face Reader is decent, Hwang Jin Yi, The King's Face (Lee Jun Ki!)
I have long list of Korean movies yet to watch and yet they keep coming to us! Lol.. Same with you, anything with Song Kang Ho or Hwang Jung Min is worth watching, so does anything with Ha Jung Woo, Ryu Seung Ryong and Kim Myung Min
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Daehoney
April 26, 2015 at 3:43 AM
Lover's Concerto is so tragic I'd consider it a tragedy. It's really a good movie.
Jung Woo-Sung in A Moment To Remember makes me turn my back at pretty actors who only have decent acting capability LOL. After seeing his performance, I realize actors don't have to be handsome to be so.freaking.hot.
Now that I think of it, the lack of good rom-coms in Korea these days may be because it's made to draw audiences by casting 'pretty'/'it'/'popular' actors even without good script. I've not seen Twenty but many people say it doesn't live up to the expectation, like Love Today. Not every actor can pull of a Shim Eun-Kyung without good script.
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22 toni
April 25, 2015 at 10:37 PM
Love stories about bestfriends are really my cup of tea (hence, I'm a fan of Reply 1997 and In Time With You) but I just didn't like this. Even though I'm a huge fan of both Lee Seung-gi and Moon Chae-won and I agree that they did well as their characters, their characters are annoying. Though I got myself to finish it, it didn't satisfy me at any minute. I'd rather that they didn't end up together tbh.
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23 Noelle
April 25, 2015 at 10:39 PM
I have a problem with korean movies. Maybe I'm just watching crappy ones... They are never consistent. They begin strong but then, pfft.
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liz
April 26, 2015 at 1:41 AM
?
Watch the silenced, Hongju, girl at my door
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24 pinny
April 25, 2015 at 10:55 PM
I've stopped watching romcom movies altogether because with every one I just think 'what? How shallow are they that they fall in love in just 2 hours? They need to take 16 hours at least!'
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DBChen
April 26, 2015 at 1:02 PM
LOL
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25 Aigoooo
April 25, 2015 at 11:54 PM
I dunno.. movies seem so... abruptly short. I have fully sunk into the tv drama mindset where there is a lot of character development involved (for the most part). The time constraint for movies really stand out once you've become a drama watching veteran. Most of the time, I just feel unsatisfied because it ended too quickly.
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26 cheekbones
April 26, 2015 at 12:00 AM
So, what movies did you watch recently that you didn't stop half way, jb ? :)
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27 Wakekke
April 26, 2015 at 1:32 AM
I was really disappointed about this movie when I watch this, it is just so predictable that made the story boring.
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28 liz
April 26, 2015 at 1:39 AM
The movie seemed cute and fun but it turned to be sooo boring.
The leads looked good but I didn't seem much chemistry, and the editing of this movie is just weird. Some scenes and songs came too fast or with weird song choice.
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29 Jazzelm
April 26, 2015 at 1:59 AM
There are only two k-films I have ever gotten through fully and understood the point of the angst...Sunny and Speed Scandal. Everything else I just cringe at some of the plotlines or don't understand the point of the problem OR how they resolved it. I thought I was the only one like that though. Its a shame that I will never love the films as much as the dramas hehe
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30 anabear
April 26, 2015 at 2:54 AM
javabeans, do you like watching "The Girl Who Sees Smells"? Isn't it as boring?
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31 coby
April 26, 2015 at 2:58 AM
haha! I remember Healer yawned while they watched that movie.
I too have a growing list of to-watch Korean movies only to give way to LSG's movie and was so disappointed.
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fab
April 26, 2015 at 3:22 AM
Hahaha. But Young-shin was laughing through the whole thing, that's good acting I guess. :p
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kanz
April 26, 2015 at 3:22 AM
Hahaha.. But then again Healer never interested in that sort of show.. He watches animal documentary at home! LOL
Okay, so this post and the comments convince me I don't need to download and watch this movie. Not a big fan of LSG or romcom genre, MCW is great actress but I can wait till she doing a drama.
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R
April 26, 2015 at 8:05 AM
LOL yeah u'r right !! I remember that as well :p
Btw, I really like Moon Chae Won and miss her in drama...
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R
April 26, 2015 at 8:08 AM
I wonder if it's written in the script by Song Ji Na that he yawned or it's JCW'ad-lib ^^ (since he likes to do it a lot)?
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32 fab
April 26, 2015 at 3:19 AM
I think Korean thrillers/dramas/melos/horrors are better than most of Hollywood's. But romcoms tend to be generic and predictable, but there are definitely really good ones out there. The genre (romantic) drama is mostly good. The last one I watched was Why Did You Come To My House- a whole mouthful, but with Park Hee-sun and Kang Hye-jeong!
I always finish movies I start it's dramas that I often have a hard time finishing.
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33 yoadrian
April 26, 2015 at 5:34 AM
It takes me months to finish one drama. I'll finish four episodes and then stop. Just like that.
I don't know, perhaps distractions are everywhere?
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34 DBChen
April 26, 2015 at 7:17 AM
I like romances, and one reason I like shows more than movies is the amount of time available to develop relationships.
Recently I watched Hellcats/I Love Trouble and just couldn't care about the engagement that fell apart because we didn't really see how that relationship developed to begin with. They had one blind date, one drunken one-night stand that she initiated (I have no problem with that), then all of a sudden he loves her, he proposes, she says okay. What?
There wasn't enough time in a movie to develop 1 relationship, let alone three for each of the 3 main characters, so all of them felt unsatisfactory.
Well, I did like the younger daughter's story but it was a budding romance between friends so they had some kind of relationship already.
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35 Khule WY
April 26, 2015 at 7:34 AM
I liked this movie, not loved, love is for Miss granny, MCW was a riot, worth watching but I didn't like the amusement park thing,too forced.
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DD
April 27, 2015 at 1:45 AM
reminded me of that bit in the notebook where RG was forcing RM to say yes to dating him lol completely unrelated but somehow had that feel!
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36 Khule WY
April 26, 2015 at 7:37 AM
And late Autumn was also good,The Thieves,Secretly Greatly, The huntress and did I also say Miss granny hehe but dramas are better than movies too me.
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37 nasalhazel
April 26, 2015 at 8:03 AM
I really liked Penny Pinchers. But considering I like the format of a TV series over films, I rarely ever just "watch a movie," US or Korean. The last movie I saw in a theater was the second X Files, and the last US movie I watched was Veronica Mars -- both based on TV shows. Pretty clear where my bias lies. That said, I liked Today's Love just fine, probably because I had no expectations of it other than LSG is cute.
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38 faranak
April 26, 2015 at 8:47 AM
I didnt like love today too,it was boring somehow ,the acting was good but i couldnt feel the chemistry as much as i thought and expected to feel,the storyline was weak too!i love rom coms movies but this one was one of the lowest one i think,i was moving it forward every 5mins!! In this category i watched my ps partner and that was awesome!i couldnt get my eyes of the screen so much good ,even runway cup was more entertainig that love today,anyway if i wanna say about 2last movies i've just watched are pirotres(which was fun and action )and coin artists(kim woobin rocked it!!!)these two were so good and werent waste of the time! Wich when i watched love today had the feeling of:why did i waste my gigs and time on this movie??
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39 Thandy
April 26, 2015 at 10:11 AM
I was so annoyed when I finished watching this movie , it felt like I wasted my time. I had expected something more because the trailer had looked good. It was beyond boring.
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40 namedx
April 26, 2015 at 10:22 AM
Last film I watched was Rough Cut - which I watched for Ji Sub. It was an okay film, but not stand out memorable. Ah I did check out The Crucible too but it's too dark and embedded in reality for me to comment on.
Pity really, as the films I tend to recommend and most remember are the ones of yesteryears, like Sassy Girl, Il Mare, Tutor Friend and so on. It's as if the current market of films have nothing to offer. Or, it could be that I used to watch less dramas back then, leaving room for me to appreciate the films.
Now, I'm just spoilt by the episodic developments you get with dramas, where everything builds up to a gradual reveal. You get time to bond with the characters, the plot delves in a lot deeper, scenes allow for natural progression, and the payoffs are great too. When I tune into watch a film now, I find there's always something lacking; the genre shifts unexpectedly, or scenes come to an abrupt end, not mentioning character shenanigans which leave you scratching your head - Covertly, Grandly springs to mind.
But, I'm always open to a good recommendation!
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41 f
April 26, 2015 at 11:25 AM
Seung Gi turned down a lot of offers because he said he was being careful to pick his first movie role and he ended up with this? Come on...
It seems like someone needs to give advice to Seung gi when picking his projects. A brand name of a writer or director doesn't guarantee success. Same thing with Gu Family Book, which was penned by a famous scriptwriter.
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DD
April 27, 2015 at 1:43 AM
He isn't the best actor, his charm is in his "intentional" wannabe charming persona...I think he was simply playing himself here...as he does in almost all his other roles.
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42 jomo143
April 26, 2015 at 12:56 PM
Nobody puts Bok-dongie aside! But if you do,I will take him.
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43 kimchikay
April 26, 2015 at 4:31 PM
Funny, I randomly put this one while I was running on the treadmill. I hate to get off my treadmill for literally anything until I'm not done.
I got off to turn off this movie -_-
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Dummy
April 27, 2015 at 8:57 AM
So? I got off my threadmill to turn off many of the supposedly good movies like thieves, sea fog too....
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44 masovee
April 26, 2015 at 5:25 PM
I didn't like this movie :(. It was so draggy and boring. I wanted to watching something light and fun and it didn't give me much of that. I found Seung Gi's character to be increasingly annoying and by the end I was wondering why they were together.... Moon Chae Won was charming though.
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45 goldeng
April 26, 2015 at 9:04 PM
I wanna watch this movie but idk... ive been deceived with many k.movies like with Secretly, Greatly, Obsession... I wanted to kick someone! The most recent movie I watched was Plan Man and it was cute, the pairing was cute and the OST was great! i thought it was going to be a full on comedy but then they inserted the "angst" and it became absurd for a second! same thing happened with Secretly, Greatly...
Id like more movies like Wolf Boy -made me fall in love with Joong Ki!- and Miss Granny, those were amazing!
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DD
April 27, 2015 at 1:39 AM
It isn't that bad, the story is all over the place...You'll find solace in the leads' little world..The rest of the characters, not so much. I'd give it a try if you're a fan of either, or of the genre...I watched it a couple of times as I'm MCW fangirl (while skipping some scenes)...She was awesome as the whiny bratty diva...LSG was a good doormat friend/wannabe lover...See it as a pass time and for the hot kiss :D
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Luv_KimRaeWon
April 27, 2015 at 9:05 AM
is Secretly, Greatly not good? i had such high expectations for it. It has been at the top of my 'to-watch' list since forever. Should i knock it off?
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Cocoboo
April 27, 2015 at 10:46 AM
I don't think Secretly, Greatly was that great. It was ok. It's not a comedy. The posters and the beginning were funny, but it got intense and dramatic in the second half. It may seem abrupt, but then again, I had to remember these guys were spies on an important military mission.
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fab
April 28, 2015 at 4:27 AM
Yeah the movie had two parts, which in some way makes sense, the directing could have been far better though to make it more cohesive. Anyway I loved it, because I got to see it in the cinema!!
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46 HANI
April 27, 2015 at 1:32 AM
I take that you didn't like that movie that much which, thank you cause you spare me :)
Rom-com is not exactly the genre I choose when deciding what kmovie to watch. The last rom-com i watch is very ordinary couple which just ok-ish and that rating largely due to my love for Lee Minki & Kim Minhee tho.
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DD
April 27, 2015 at 1:40 AM
Ordinary couple was a rom-com? lol I didn't know..It was a slice of life, very sad and depressing if you ask me, but a great film with great leads...Loved it!
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47 DD
April 27, 2015 at 1:50 AM
Miss Granny was equally as boring as this, so was my love my bride...And don't even get me started on that other MinAh teahouse film ugh!
At least this one had a few cute and funny moments to make up for the rest of it's craptastic-ness lol
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48 Chandler
April 27, 2015 at 7:52 AM
There is one Korean rom-com movie that I adore called Perfect Match with Shin Eun-kyung and Jung Jun-ho. After I first watched it, I went on trying to find more I loved and I never really did. I've been wondering why I love it so much...
And I think you just totally pointed out why. There was no romantic angst whatsoever. And I think most people would have thought this movie wasn't romantic enough, but I actually loved how...simple it was. It was almost more romantic because the movie let the interactions between the leads speak for themselves. The scenes weren't crafted in order to get my emotions in a certain place for the couple I was watching, but instead used to deepen my interest in the characters themselves. There's just something organic about it, I can't even explain it. Anyway, it's pretty much my favorite rom-com ever for some reason and I'm constantly trying to figure out why...
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Chandler
April 27, 2015 at 10:29 AM
Other than this, I rarely watch Korean movies. Though there are many on my list and I did finally watch Silenced with Gong Yoo (which has been on my list since Big failed me) just the other day. And damn. It...was definitely an affecting film. But also really really hard to watch. Wonderful performances, especially by the children. Breaks my heart that it was based on a true story.
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49 Luv_KimRaeWon
April 27, 2015 at 9:02 AM
I like the rom-com genre but most of the films in that genre(in any language) have promising trailers and disappointing(to varying degrees) movies. I was really looking fwd to Today's Love, so the meh- response here is dampening.
Off topic, but watched the Hollywood classic 'how to steal a million'(without any expectations) and thoroughly enjoyed it.
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50 Tannik
April 27, 2015 at 4:34 PM
I agree with some of you that said Ko do best in darker shade of movies, their psycho thrillers are the best! Even better than Hollywood, I must say. OLD BOY was one classical piece, and Park Chang Wook is one of the most respected film director to day. It's part of the vengeance trilogy and one of the best movie series that Korea ever had.
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