Pilot - A Pretty Entertaining Comedy Film With Some Nice Performance of Jo Jung-suk

When this movie was promoted through various cinema social media, my wife was very excited since it starred her favorite South Korean star Jo Jung-suk. As there were so many new interesting films released last week, we had to juggle our schedule to ensure we were able to see most of them. And finally we got the chance to do so on Sunday in a double movie marathon weekend. OK, let's just get to it then.

Brief Story Line (spoiler warning)

Han Jung-woo (Jo Jung-suk - Exit, Hospital Playlist TV series etc) was a famous commercial airline pilot and was enjoying his popularity. Unfortunately due to some incident, he lost his job and had to start looking for a new one. Since he was blacklisted from major airlines and unable to be accepted anywhere, Jung-woo finally decided to do the unthinkable, that was to apply as a female pilot. 

Using the identity of his sister Han Jung-mi (Han Sung-hwa - Honey Sweet. Backstreet Rookie TV series etc), Jung-woo managed to be accepted by another airline where he met his junior, Captain Hyun-seok (Shin Seung-ho - Alchemy of Souls TV series, Double Patty etc) and became close with another pilot Seul-gi (Lee Ju-myoung - Twenty-Five, Twenty One TV series etc). As Jung-woo tried his best to maintain his cover, things definitely would not be so easy and there would be a lot of challenges he had to face.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Well as expected, this movie was filled with plenty of comedic scenes where the lead star Jo Jung-suk  frequently had to go through a lot of things to keep on disguising as a woman to maintain his job. The movie had an intriguing opening which made us curious and as the story progressed, we were given the simple reasoning behind his decision which seemed reasonable enough, even if the action was a bit extreme. Jo Jung-suk's appearance especially when he was posing as a woman was quite convincing which made it fun for us to see, especially my wife who adored him a lot.

The movie though did not solely focus on the behavior of Jung-suk but also had some drama which made it more interesting. It had a nice ending that I felt more realistic instead of taking the easy way out. The cast in general were OK to me and the support characters also provided more color, especially Sung-hwa who portrayed the younger sister and her relationship with the brother was a joy to watch. There were few funny moments involving Shin Seung-hoo as well. Aside from the names I mentioned above, there were also the appearance of Kim Ji-hyun (Solace. Tell Me That You Love Me TV series etc) and Oh Min-ae (Soulmate. Dr Romantic 3 TV series etc) as Jung-woo's wife and mother respectively, Seo Jae-hee (Reborn Rich TV series etc) as airline director Noh and several others including a cameo appearance of pretty well known actor.

For a comedy film, this one had a rather long duration of 111 minutes. Good thing though it did not feel draggy as the scenes were mostly relevant to the story. There was one moment during the party which was quite hilarious that reminded me of an old Indonesian comedy film, but my wife was more spot on as she thought it felt like that famous Mrs. Doubtfire movie (perhaps it was inspired by it?). I am sure you would know what I meant once you see it. On top of a nice enough story and the humor, I was surprised that it did not feel overly dramatic and no too emotional/touching moments. But it did not really matter as it was supposed to provide a happy feeling after watching it. 

This movie was directed by Kim Han-gyul (The Most Ordinary Romance etc) and written by Jo Yoo-jin. It was already released in South Korea by end of July and made it to the top 10 highest grossing in the country within few days time, which was a quite amazing feat. With the high popularity of Jo Jung-suk combined with interesting plot and few hilarious moments, no wonder it became a huge hit. Btw, in case you are wondering, the film did not have any mid or post end credit scenes.

Overall this was a pretty entertaining comedy film with some rather hilarious moments. It had a bit of drama and an ending that was quite satisfying for me. If you are major fan of Jo Jung-suk like my wife is, you would definitely enjoy him here as he provided many moments where you could laugh out loud and admired his convincing performance when he was posing as a female pilot. But even if you are not really his big fan, the movie was still enjoyable to see.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars