Michelle loaned us a few Korean movies after returning from her trip in Bali and Hong Kong. Today I managed to squeezed in “Love, So Divine”.
It’s a romantic comedy about a young seminarian who’s studying to become a priest and met a girl during his training before the ordination. The relationship changed both of their lives (or else there’d be no reason for this film). While the plot and the acting were poorly executed, it reminded me of just how strong the presence of the Roman Catholic Church is in South Korea. This is the type of story only possible with South Korea as its backdrop among all other Asian countries (OK, maybe Philippines too). I have yet to meet a Korean who is not a Catholic! Despite Buddhism’s overpowering influence over Korea in the past couple thousands of years, it’s surprising and interesting to see how fast and strong the Roman Catholic Church took hold in South Korea in recent history. I wonder what the history is behind that.
A couple of days ago, I also watched “My Tutor Friend”. It’s another romantic comedy with character developments much like, probably the most famous Korean comedy feature, “My Sassy Girl“. But it didn’t quite reach the emotional and comical effects of “My Sassy Girl”. But then again, “My Sassy Girl” is now the golden standard to which all Korean romantic comedies are compared to.
This movie is about a rich high school boy (who’s flunked two grades) and his relationship with his tutor. And of course, something sparked somewhere in the story. This film has a kind of cartoony characteristics to it. The way the shots are framed and composed reminded me of manga. There were a few shots where I just laughed out loud for a few seconds. One scene at the end made me rewind a couple times because it was so funny in a cartoony way. The film is a nice chick flick, but it’s not something you’ll remember telling your friends about. “My Sassy Girl”, on the other hand, is just fricking awesome. I should watch that again.
