darylmaya

This starts as a seemingly offbeat romantic comedy. A part-time nurse, overworked and barely eking a living. A chubby and nerdy engineer who has caught hepatitis and is hospital ridden. Both do not seem to have any close supportive family or relatives. Their weird circumstances seem to bring them close together. They also seem to help each other out become a better person, and bear through it all. All seems to be going good, until a far away and demanding job in Seoul and a long commute start to undermine their relationship.

But does it? Their is more to this rom-com than meets the eye. It definitely has a great and unexpected twist at the end that makes it more than worth watching.

The acting, script, directing, and editing are top notch. A beauty.

And while only two/four main actors seem involved in this movie, the overall cast is outstanding. Very senior and well known actors are placed in random small positions that add to the quirkiness and heft of the movie.

NC17

It is supposedly a thriller -gory at times- and an action movie but to me it is more of a black comedy.. a trip with an ?ambiguous art house movie ending all in one coherent package! What an achievement.

A cop desperate to find a vicious drug lord gets help from an underling .. or is it the other way around? Fast paced with elements that seemed to repeat with slower but no less thrilling parts set in beautiful scenery. The photography is stupendous and the music is quite good. Most importantly though, lot of the acting is amazing and quite credible however outlandish the behavior required is.

Reviewers are too hang up on the original movie that inspired this remake - ignore them. Every movie borrows more or less from others but the whole package is quite original.

Imagine a cross of Friends, Three Men and a Baby, American Pie and Airplane, that somehow manages to maintain continuity and have heart. It sounds hard to believe but you have to watch to see.

This story first seems to be a romantic comedy and throughout gives a light hearted treatment of 4 men working in a French pastry boutique and the relationships between them.

The main character Jin-hyeok is a rich and seemingly spoiled heir who decides to throw away a conventional career path and opens a French pastry shop in an old antique store.

His side kick Seun-woo is the best French baker in Korea, trained by a French master chef, and a super popular flaming gay and seemingly carefree guy.

Joining the crew is a young delivery boy Gi-beom who is crazy about the pastry that is turned out by Seun-woo, and Soo-young.

Throughout, we are exposed to these beautiful French pastry, to make us and those that are actually eating them melt with desire.

Surprisingly, the store owner and boss Jin-hyeok actually gets physically ill every time he eats cakes. Surprisingly Seun-woo does not first recognize Jin-hyeok who reminds him that he had a crush on him in high school, confessed and got rejected by the manly acting Jin-Hyeok.

Little by little we learn more about each man's past. Each has had a traumatic past that still interferes with their lives and none seem to be able to break free from it. Through their interactions however, their developing friendships and increasing fondness for each other the 4 are eventually able to overcome their trauma and start to heal. This process is also helped by the a seemingly side plot: the pursuit and eventual capture of a serial child killer and likely molester who attracts kids by offering them cake.

The whole is given a cartoonish treatment, which seems befitting of the comic book origin of the story and helps incorporate the dark elements of the 4 men's pasts while maintaining the light tone of the movie.

The execution is not flawless but overall it is still a very good movie. It is well worthy of watching and will appeal to a broad audience although it is often dubbed as a gay romantic comedy complete with a single men on men french kiss.

**Spoiler alert from here on**

Many reviewers seem to think that the dark pasts and subplots are poorly integrated distractions but they are clearly crucial elements to telling the story that is meant to be told.

Jin-hyeok's inability to eat cake without getting sick dates back to his childhood when he was kidnapped and disappeared for two month. He was eventually found but could not remember that dark time albeit we know that he was fed cake by the kidnapper, who was possibly a child molester.

Sean-Woo's seemingly carefree life is in fact his own way of emulating what he believes was the lose behavior of his mother, who in his mind deserved punishment for her actions. ..

And if you watch carefully you will discover how the trauma of each men affects them and how eventually they all are healed..

The movie ends with the last of the two men overcoming their traumas. Jin-Hyeok is being hugged by a man without needing to freak out about it, and Seun-woo is finally able to address and talk to women.

Enjoy the movie.

My 10 year old had a wonderful time watching and noted that this was a LOT better than Finding Dory which is in theaters also at this time. This is a slow and charming tale for those kids that are not too spoiled by fast paced and/or action orientated movies. It also has no love undertones, no violence, no bad language which is a rare happening in movies so in that sense I find it is the ideal movie for a kid.

So how about older kids? This movie is not a comedy by any means but it has lots of subtle humor, wit, and at times attempts at action comedy. Enough to entertain the little ones and adults who like this type of humor. It also has a lot of heart. The story is at time too naive and a little choppy for older movie critics but still worth watching. The animation is magnificent and in and of itself makes the movie worth watching.

For the word lovers, this movie has a giant that scrambles his words, adds or substitutes syllables which will keep you guessing as to what the words are. The scrambling is amusing and reminiscent of the French writer Pef and the Motored style books.