This frothy romantic comedy from Korea begins with Kyun-woo (Cha Tae-hyeon), a ne'er-do-well college student, meeting a very drunk girl (Jeon Ji-hyeon) on a subway platform. After he helps her onto the train, she promptly vomits on another passenger's head (twice) and then passes out. Since everyone else in the train car assumes that she's his girlfriend, he carries her to a hotel room to sleep it off. Another series of mishaps brings a police raid while he's in the shower, and thus begins a wild roller coaster rise of a relationship. The rest of the move has her putting him through a battery of often humiliating tests to prove his love. Near the end a revelation about her past briefly drives them apart, but a twist of fate brings them together for a happy ending. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
My Sassy Girl is the highest-grossing romantic comedy in the history of the Korean film industry. A classic boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl-back story buoyed by two engaging young stars, it hits all the right comedic notes while tweaking the formula just enough to give an old genre new life. Most of the humor stems from Kyun-woo's (Cha Tae-hyeon) near-constant state of confusion as he submits to the succession of trials that his willful and enigmatic girlfriend (Jeon Ji-hyeon) puts him through. These include convincing him to wear her pink high heels in public and a game which consists mostly of her slapping him across the face over and over again. Even his attempt at a birthday surprise for her (on her orders) goes so wildly awry that it ends up becoming a hostage situation. After coasting on screwball levity for most of its length, the film takes an odd turn for the morose during its last half hour. This slows things down considerably, but it's the film's only significant fault. In classic romance fashion, the lovers are reunited in the end thanks to a nifty plot twist. ~ Tom Vick, All Movie Guide