Starline Reviews

My Tutor Friend is a Korean movie starring Kim Ha Neul and Kwon Sang Woo.  It was made in 2003 and is 110 minutes long.  For 2003, it was the 3rd best selling movie in Korea.

Main Cast:

Kwon Sang Woo as Kim Ji Hoon
Kim Ha Neul as Choi Su Wan
Baek Il Seob as Ji Hoon’s father
Kim Ji Woo as Ho Kyeong
Gong Yoo as Jong Soo

Synopsis: The story is based from the real life Korean tutor, Choi Soo-Wan, with her own real life student. Choi Su-Wan (Ha-Nuel Kim) and Ji-Hoon Kim (Sang-Woo Kwone) are both 21 years old, born in March 1982. Su-Wan is a University Year 2 girl, while Ji-Hoon studies his 3rd year of High School studies in the Surim High School. Su-Wan’s father had just lose his job, and mother still works in her family business (frying chickens and sell to earn a living). Su-Wan, who demands money for her semester, had to find job because her father is jobless. Su-Wan’s mother knows Ji-Hoon’s mother, and introduced Su-Wan to Ji-Hoon’s mother. Su-Wan tutors Ji-Hoon, for 3 months, to make Ji-Hoon to sit 2 hrs. The salary is enough for Su-Wan’s Semster. Except studying, Ji-Hoon is almost all-rounded. Especially fighting in Surim High School and offended “Lee Jong-Seo”, the leader of the triad group in Surim. His girlfriend, Yang Ho-Gyung, admired Ji-Hoon. The fighting in the pool makes Ji-Hoon’s father, Kim Bong-Man, compelled to send Ji-Hoon to USA, as how he had done to Ji-Hoon’s young life, send Ji-Hoon to USA to study abroad. To avoid being sent, Ji-Hoon has to gain, in the upcoming mid-term exam, 50.0 average. Could Ji-Hoon make it?

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Tutor_Friend)

Review: This movie is ridiculously popular.  It’s almost like Full House, everyone likes it and everyone has seen it.  Usually I end up hating those type of movies or dramas, but this one wasn’t like that.  Both actors are fairly popular and I stumbled upon this when I was in almost a “Kwon Sang Woo stage”.  I had seen Stairway to Heaven, which was more over the top mushy-gushy type drama.  But this is definitely a turn around from that, this is a funnier role for him.

So basically Kwon Sang Woo’s character, Ji Hoon, has failed a couple of grades and needs to get back up there and Choi Su Wan is hired to help him, and hilarity ensues!!!  This movie was really funny, but there was also some romance and fighting scenes mixed into it.  Some of the fighting scenes were pretty hilarious.  Gong Yoo at one point towards the end punches this guy right in the ass and I almost fell off my chair laughing because I really was not expecting it…lol…

Gong Yoo was hilarious.  I didn’t realize he was in this movie and then I had to watch it again because I totally had forgotten what happened.  So I did and it definitely made me laugh anytime Gong Yoo came on because he was kind of wimpy and whiny and trying to equate that with his role in Coffee Prince is just impossible.

I think my favorite scene out of a whole bunch is where Su Wan and Ji Hoon are sitting down with his parents and they are telling him to go abroad, and he tells them if he promises to get higher than a 50% on his next test.  So Su Wan really kinda wants him to leave and she tries convincing them to let him go abroad and Ji Hoon turns to her and tells her to literally “shut the f*** up”!!  And then in English he continues his speech and is like “You don’t know me?” “I know what I’m doing.”  It definitely surprised me and made me laugh.

So, the romance between Ji Hoon and Su Wan was kind of weird.  Not many dramas or movies have the guy falling in love with the girl first.  Maybe its just the way she acts but I really didn’t see much feeling from Kim Ha Neul until the last part of the movie.  It was really apparent in Ji Hoon even leading up to the ending, which is definitely a little unusual, but it was enjoyable.

And by the way, it says that this is a true story?  I didn’t hear that until today, so if someone could verify that for me, that would be pretty cool.  I mean, wikipedia might say that, but it’s not always true!!!

This movie is so great, I would recommend it to anyone.  Definitely a must-see.  Romance/comedy/high-school gang fighting…quite a combo.  Also, there was a sequel that was released, but it really didn’t have anything to do with the first one.  It is a completely different story line with completely different characters.  The only thing that is even remotely the same is the idea of tutoring someone.  Okay, so here are the links, and enjoy!

MySoju-http://www.mysoju.com/my-tutor-friend/
YouTube-http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=95966DBE8CA9ACF7