Brief Story Line
Park Kang (Kwon Sang-woo - The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure, Curtain Call TV series etc) was a famous movie star who seemed to be having it all, from successful career to vast wealth. He had a manager Jo Yeon (Oh Jung-se - Fabricated City, It's Okay to not be Okay TV series etc) who was also his best friend and always supportive of Park despite being treated poorly. However Park was not really that happy and always longing for his simpler life in the past as theater player and having relationship with Soo-hyun (Lee Min-jung - Come Back Mister TV series, Love On-Air etc).
On the Christmas eve, something happened to Park where his life was somehow switched with his manager.
And so what would happen to Park? You can find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As I said above, we were intrigued in seeing this movie as the premise sounded interesting and seemed to promise lots of fun and laughter. And in a way, it did provide us some comedy obviously from the situation Park found himself in where he had to live a completely different kind of life. But as the story progressed, I found the film not having the hilarious type of comedy where we could laugh out loud continuously. Instead it felt more like a family drama with few emotional moments.
In the start of the movie, we could see that it was set during Christmas time. My wife who read more about the film told me that it previously had the original title of The Christmas Present. Looks like they were planning to make it as Christmas movie and I agreed with my wife that if it was released some time before the day, it would probably be more suitable as it would definitely lift the holiday spirit.
Now the plot of magically switching lives was definitely not the first time it was told in a movie and this certainly would not be the last. So my wife and I did not feel this to be a far stretched story and we were always curious of how it would conclude. This time, the conclusion was not something extraordinary but it was quite satisfying. And I think it was also due to the wonderful performance of the cast.
Kwon Sang-woo was really convincing in his role and it was really great to see his character evolving from beginning till the end. Oh Jung-se was also very good in portraying the manager, but the two people that made this movie a real joy was definitely Kim Jun (Hospital Playlist TV series etc) and Park So-yi (Pawn etc) as the twins Ro-ha and Ro-hee respectively. Kim Jun was also my wife's favorite child actor and she always enjoyed watching him act. Aside from those names, there were also the support characters of Park Kang's mother Nam-soon (Kim Mi-kyung - Kim Ji-young: Born 1982, Hi Bye, Mama! TV series etc) and his junior Woo-hee (Cha Hee) whom he always made fun of. The movie was directed and written by Ma Dae-yoon in what seemed to be his directorial debut.
Overall this was a pretty heartwarming movie that was nice enough for the Christmas holiday. It might not have the most original plot but the simplicity of the fantasy element was a plus point for me as it did not complicate the moral of the story. The lively performance of the cast who were so natural also made it more enjoyable. Although it was categorized as drama comedy, for me the drama felt stronger but it was not the sentimental kind. For a film that has duration of 112 minutes (without mid or post end credit scene), I thought it was sufficient and did not feel too long. So, if you are interested in seeing movie with such attributes, you could give this a try as it is still playing in some cinemas in Indonesia.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment