Agent12358

As my family was watching this video, my father constantly asked me, "Is this a sequel to "My Tutor Friend"?". Sure, the main two characters are played by Kwon Sang-woo and Kim Ha-neul in both movies. And I honestly don't see the difference between the characters in both movies, maybe except the fact that Kwon Sang-woo's character is much dorkier in this movie.

But, this is not another "My Tutor Friend"! The movie is about two childhood friends Ji-hwan (played by KSW) and Dal-rae (played by KHN). Typical, typical set-up. Two are obviously meant for each other, but there's the too-perfect-to-be-true boyfriend in the way. Ji-hwan is a Jackie Chan wannabe with a job-drifting father. Dal-rae wants to be an actress- but she has to get over her tremendous stage fright first. The first half of the movie was a snoozer, filled with slapstick comedy, typical plot and countless cliché situations.

Then comes the second half of the movie, which really surprised me. This movie, literally translated, is called "Teen Girl Manga" or something close to it anyway. No way did I expect all that melodrama after a first half of cheap comedy. Though it was really out of place (in my opinion, at least) this part proves to be worth sitting through 50 minutes of comedy. I have never seen Kwon Sang Woo act better. It just blew me away because all of his acting before this seemed mediocre.

The scenes with those child actors are pretty good (the kid who plays Jihwan is that kid from "Annyeoung Hyeonga", right?) and the supporting cast is great. This movie is pretty hard to swallow, though, being that the best part is the last 20 minutes or so. Otherwise, the stars don't really get a chance to shine because everything in this movie is so cliché. Another romantic comedy with a sugary happy ending. Just like "My Tutor Friend", ain't it? (starting to notice this trend in Korean movies. Whatever happened to the really sad ones?)

The story is hardly any close to what the book has. The acting is pretty dull, not interesting at all. Even Pumblechook and Jaggars (who seemed to be put in as a comical figure then a shrewed one) bored me with their performance. The only character that stuck to the book was Miss Havisham. Michael York's performance is not a good one but the way Estella, Biddy and Joe are portrayed is hardly any better. Those three characters are completely against the characters in the book- they are much older then they should be.

For those of you who might want to watch this movie instead of the book for a class, don't even bother. The plot is so far off and you miss tons of important events. You're also probably going to have much better time reading the book then watching this movie. The movie is just as tedious and wordy as the book and the plot is way off.

This movie exceeded my expectations. It was the first work of Jun Ji-hyun and Cha Tae-Hyun that I saw and I was impressed. I've only seen Cha Tae-Hyun a handful of times and he did not make much of an impression. Jun Ji-hyun, however, gave me an idea of "a pretty girl who can't act" through all the commercials she did. HOWEVER, both the actors in this movie and the plot surprised me because they dared to be "sassy" The only thing I was really disappointed with was the ending. I heard that this was a REAL account of some guy who posted it on internet. I was disappointed to find that the ending didn't follow the truth. In that way, I guess, I can compare it to how disappointed I was with the revised ending of "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens. I always find that the original story is better- that not everything has to be a fantastic fairytale that ends with a happily ever after... or even a gloomy story that ends with someone dying...