TechoCrunch

Korean Movies, compared to the other films that I’ve seen, have a very different feel to it. Every director who makes a Korean film has his own personal touch to the film. Alot of  Korean movies are quite unique. I can say so, cause those movies have something that they wanna convey, something that is heart warming, something that makes you go on laughing your head off or makes you go,”….<whimper>….”. Anyway, here is my personal list of Top Five Korean Movies-

• My Sassy Girl(2001)- I’ve been seeing this movie on and on and on, and i never get tired of it. I went online and did some research on it and it seems to be quite a popular movie. An all time favorite too. It’s based on a true story, and has been a great hit in South Korea. It’s a story about a college student, Gyeon- woo, who just isn’t doing too well in his love life until he comes across this girl, who is never named throughout the movie.

Gyewon is on the way back home and at the train station, he sees this drunk girl standing precariously at the edge at the platform as the train was coming. He manages to save her at the right moment. Throughout the journey, he can’t help but get amused by watching her swaying. Though he’s a little attracted to her, he’s disgusted ’cause she was drunk.

Now why i like ‘My Sassy Girl’ so much? It’s because of the unpredictability of the movie, the way the two of them acted was so touching, yet funny. There are only two main characters, and they managed to make it as funny and as adorably heartwarming as possible. Definitely a must see.

• The Classic(2003): Now, this movie,’ The Classic’, is made using a series of flashbacks, telling the parallel love stories of a mother and her daughter. The movie starts in the present time, where the daughter is cleaning up the house and she comes across a box of letters and a few photos that belonged to her mother. The story then flows into the past from a picture of a boy. The movie switches between the present and the past, showing both the love stories side by side.

It has a unique mix of humor, love, jealousy and friendship. The music for the movie is also quite heart warming, and at certain points, quite tears wrenching. Another must see.

• Windstruck(2004): This movie is about a female police officer, Kyung- jin Yeo, who is from the Seoul Police Department. The movie slowly starts with her chasing a purse thief. But at the end of the chase, she captures Myung-woo Go, a physics teacher at an all girls school, who was actually chasing after the thief. Later on, she is then given the job to patrol a dangerous district, where she almost tries to single-handedly take down two dangerous rival gangs. They kinda helped when the two gangs start firing at each other. The first half of the film, told from Myung-woo’s point of view, shows the couple’s growing attraction and love for each other, which ends with a trip to the countryside where Myung-woo tells Kyung-jin that if he were to ever to die, he wanted to come back to earth as the wind.

The movie, then takes a turn into the fantasy genre in its second half, when Myung-woo is accidentally shot and killed by another officer, although the situation is such that Kyung-jin thinks that it was her shot that killed him. Kyung-jin falls into a suicidal depression over his death and attempts to kill herself several times, finally almost succeeding when she throws herself off a building, only to be saved when a giant balloon floats under her. Finally, it winds up like in the American film, Ghost with Myung-woo and Kyung-jin communicating and sharing one final gesture of love before he moves on to the afterlife.

• My Tutor Friend(2003): My Tutor Friend is a movie about Kim Ji-Hoon and Choi Su-Wan both 21 years old and studying at the university. Su-Wan is in her second year at university while Ji-Hoon is still in the process of repeating his third year of high school. Su-Wan’s mother works in their family business, selling fried chicken. To help out, Su-Wan earns money by tutoring other children, but often gets fired after hitting the students .Her mother has a rich friend with a son in need of a tutor. The friend, Kim Ji-Hoon’s mother, wants a tutor that will make her son study so that he can pass his exams. This salary is able to pay for an entire semester (half of a school year) of Su-Wan’s college education. Ji-Hoon is always able to attract the girls and draw attention through his love of fighting.

As a child, Ji-Hoon was sent to America to study abroad. Due to this decision of his parents, the relationship between Ji-Hoon and his parents is strained. Ji-Hoon’s Father, Kim Bong-Man threatens to send him back to the USA if he continues to get into trouble with fighting and bad grades. To avoid being sent back to America, Ji-Hoon needs to get at least a 50% on the upcoming mid-term exams. The only problem is that his usual average mark was much lower than that. Will he make it? It’s comedy from beginning to end and it’s definitely a movie worth watching.

• 100 Days with Mr. Arrogant(2004): This movie is hilarious. Trust me, I’ve seen this over and over and it never fails to crack me up. It’s about a high school student, Ha-Young, who after dumping her boyfriend just before their 100 day anniversary, meets a college guy named Hyung-Joon when she accidentally kicks a can that hits him in the face and causes him to scratch his Lexus. He demands her to pay him $3000 on the spot. She escapes(so fast, she’s literally a blur…well…sort of)leaving her wallet behind.Soon, Hyung-Joon stalks her, demanding money to pay for his car. Since she is a poor high school student, Hyung-Joon writes up a “Enslavement Agreement” for Ha-Young in order to pay for the damage to his car. Ha-Young is thrown into a horrible, nightmarish slave life for 100 days, cleaning his house, running his errands, doing his homework and cleaning his car.By accident she finds out that the damage to Hyung-Joon’s car only costs $10! She then takes her revenge. However, before she knows it Hyung-Joon shows up at her house as her new tutor! He once again takes advantage of her, but soon Ha-Young finds herself falling head over heels for Hyung-Joon. But what happens when he drops out of her life just when she needs him most?

Well, this is my list of my personal favorite movies, which i would seriously suggest watching. Each movie that i have just listed out are unique in it’s own way, each with it’s own twists and turns, a huge amount of laughter and lastly, a bit of tears. Watch and have fun!!

uday