Monday, February 3, 2020

Secret Zoo - Fun Idea but Lacking the Hilarious Comedy which could Make This a Fantastic Movie

This was a movie we saw by chance and not really planned as we only knew it from the movie's schedule in the CGV website yesterday. It seemed to be an early screening of sort as it was shown only in several studios. The movie was supposed to have its wide release on 5 February 2020, so we were glad to be able to see it earlier. Anyway, I'll just go the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Kang Tae-soo (Ahn Jae-hong - Fabricated City, Reply 1988 etc) was working as a temp staff in a well known law firm. When one day he got a special assignment to hold the position of zoo director in one of the asset owned by one of the firm's client, Tae-soo took it up as he believed it would enhance his career development.


Tae-soo would have to make sure the zoo which was having huge financial problem to be saved in 3 months time. As he did not have clue on how to run a zoo, Tae-soo had to get the help from the previous zoo director Seo (Park Young-kyu - Attack the Gas Station, Break Out etc), the vet Han So Won (Kang So-ra - Doctor Stranger TV series etc), and the rest of the zoo staff Gun-wook (Kim Sung-oh - Unstoppable etc) and Hae-kyung (Jeon Yeo-been - After My Death etc).

As time running out, could Tae-soo and his new found friends able to save the zoo? Find them all in this drama comedy.

End of Brief Story Line

I saw the trailer to this movie only once before in a tweet from the cinema's social media account. But I did not pay too much attention to it, except that it seemed like interesting comedy movie. So when I saw the film yesterday, I did not know what to expect apart from hoping it would be a hilarious one. However, as I continued watching, the early part to me was not really promising. It was really unclear what the movie was trying to achieve, and for me personally, the comedy was really lacking.

Not until almost half hour that I finally got to understand how the story would develop, and from that moment it was quite fun and interesting. As the story progressed, I found that there were some comedy involved but strangely though, I did not feel it to be so hilarious. Yes there were few moments where we could laugh but it was not the kind where it was totally funny (aside from 1 audience in the studio who seemed to enjoy it a lot and could not stop herself from laughing).

As a movie which was categorized as comedy, I thought this one was more suitable to be put under drama comedy genre because it was not a full blown comedy from start to finish, plus there was some drama involved although not the melodramatic kind. At times I could feel the director wanted to show a bit of drama among the main cast, but to be honest I could not really get the personal attachment with them. It was like I did not have the feeling of really rooting for any one in particular. Usually there would be at least 1 character that I really like, but I did not find one in here as all of them were OK but there was none that totally impressed me. Even my wife who is easily touched did not seem to have any such moment in here.

The idea of the movie was actually pretty interesting, especially on the creativity done to save the zoo. Some of the best humor in here were definitely from those parts. The plot was simple and exciting enough once we get to the zoo part (just need to be patient to go through the first half hour). The thing that impressed me and my wife the most in here was actually the costume department. I think they did a really fantastic job. Plus there was one scene towards the end that involved Black Nose character (you would know once you see the movie) which I thought was truly awesome. Even though the story development was a bit predictable (my wife and I could see where the movie was headed), the conclusion itself was actually pretty smart to my opinion. It was quite simple but satisfying for us. Oh one more thing that my wife and I liked was the beautiful scenery of South Korea during the autumn season.

Overall this one was generally OK as a drama comedy movie with 118 minutes duration (including closing credits which did not have any mid or post end credit scenes). It was not totally hilarious from start to finish and could not compare to the movie Extreme Job, despite this film was promoted as having the same producers. If you are looking for a drama with a bit of comedy and interesting idea, then you could give this a try. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars 

No comments:

Post a Comment