Description

College lecturer Dae-woo may be a pretty smart guy, but in the romance department, he’s helpless. He hides his fear of the opposite gender, and timidity in general, behind a thin façade of cynicism and superiority, listing off the reasons that he can’t be bothered with women. But love comes for everyone, and Dae-woo’s developing a serious crush on Mina, who lives in the same building as he does. Literally shoved into asking her out on a date, Dae-woo is stunned when she accepts, and soon finds himself tumbling head over heels into love for the first time in his life. Their future together looks bright – so bright that Dae-woo is blinded to all the clues that something’s not quite on the level with Mina. Her claims of intellectual and artistic knowledge don’t seem to hold up to scrutiny, and she shows up to meet Dae-woo covered in mud, for some odd reason. Then there’s the ex-boyfriend, whom Dae-woo sees as a rival, who seems to disappear from one day to the next. And what about the giant kimchi fridge in Mina’s living room – with no kimchi in it? Dae-woo’s going to have to wise up to Mina’s mysterious ways, before he ends up in that fridge himself!

A definite oddball in the romantic-comedy genre, Son Jae-Gon’s My Scary Girl is everything a rom-com should be – witty, wise and powerfully perceptive about the risks and rewards, trials and tribulations involved in finding (and keeping) someone to love. Thing is, Son’s thrown something extra into the mix – murder! There’s no mystery to Mina’s bloody secret, and Son has a lot of fun breaking down the practical considerations and complications of killing and then covering up one’s traces. He has even more fun, however, keeping the awkward Dae-woo in the dark, when the obvious is almost right in front of him. Juggling the themes of love, laughter and gruesome death is Son’s specialty - his debut feature, The Man Who Saw Too Much, mixed up Hitchcockian chills and slapstick fun, earning a lot of attention at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival in 2000, while his screenplay for 2002’s Funny Movie ushered in the Korean parody-film genre.

—Rupert Bottenberg

Website

http://www.mina-daewoo.co.kr/

Credits

Director: Son Jae-Gon
Screenplay: Son Jae-Gon
Cast: Choi Kang-Hee, Park Yong-Woo, Jo Eun-Ji
Producers: Yun Seok-jun
Distributor: CJ Entertainment