My Tutor Friend

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My Tutor Friend

Poster to My Tutor Friend (2003)
Directed by Kim Kyeong-hyeong
Produced by Jeong Yeong-kwon
Written by Choi Soo-Wan
Starring Kim Ha-Neul
Kwon Sang-woo
Music by Choi Soo-Wan
Lee Kyeong-seob
Choi Soo-Wan
Cinematography Ji Gil-woong
Editing by Ko Im-Pyo
Distributed by CJ Entertainment
Release date(s) January 30, 2003
Running time 110 minutes
Country South Korea
Language Korean
Korean name
Hangul 동갑내기 과외하기

My Tutor Friend (동갑내기 과외하기 - Donggabnaegi gwawoehagi) is a 2003 South Korean film released on January 30, 2003. It is about a touching story of two completely different students from two completely different worlds. One is a rich male repeating his third year of high school and the other a poor girl in her second year of university struggling to make ends meet.

The movie was directed by Kim Kyeong-hyeong. Based on a short online story, this movie was said to be a sequel to My Sassy Girl (2001). This movie was also Kim Hyeong-Kyeong’s debut as a director.

Contents

[edit] Plot

This movie is about the lives of Kim Ji-Hoon (Kwon Sang-Woo) and Choi Su-Wan (Kim Ha-Neul), both 21 years old. Su-Wan is in her second year at university while Ji-Hoon is still in the process of repeating his third year of high school. Su-Wan’s mother works in their family business, selling fried chicken. To help out, Su-Wan earns money by tutoring other children, but often gets fired after hitting the students. Her mother has a rich friend with a son in need of a tutor. The friend, Kim Ji-Hoon’s mother, wants a tutor that will make her son study so that he can pass his exams. This salary is able to pay for an entire semester (half of a school year) of Su-Wan’s college education. Ji-Hoon is always able to attract the girls and draw attention through his love of fighting. He fought at his new high school, Surim High School and managed to offend Jong-Seo Lee, the leader of the triad group at Surim. He was able to attract his girlfriend, Ho-Gyung Yan, through his fighting. He had problems with everyone. Including the entire gang at his high school, he beat up a member of another gang after they took things from his little brother. Besides studying, Ji-Hoon is actually fairly well rounded. As a child, Ji-Hoon was sent to America to study abroad. Due to this decision of his parents, the relationship between Ji-Hoon and his parents is strained. Ji-Hoon’s Father, Kim Bong-Man is threatening to send him back to the USA if he continues to get into trouble with fighting and bad grades. To avoid being sent back to America, Ji-Hoon needs to get at least a 50% on the upcoming mid-term exams. The only problem is that his usual average mark was much lower than that. Will he make it?

Yes, he manages to do it. At the end of the term, he barely ends up with a passing grade (50.1), but passing nonetheless. As a result from a bet that the two, Ji-Hoon and Su-Wan, Su-Wan must dance in front of a crowd during a festival that was taking place. While embarrassed and shy at first, she eventually gets really into dancing and so does the audience. Ji-Hoon is starting to really like Su-Wan at this point and is angry when he sees all of the guys watching her and running up to the stage. Near this point is also when Su-Wan’s boyfriend comes back home. When spying on the couple, Ji-Hoon learns that Su-Wan’s boyfriend is breaking up with her. The next day, Ji-Hoon shows up at his house and beats him up for leaving her. Later, however, he finds out that the reason that he was leaving Su-Wan was because he was becoming a priest. After the service, Ji-Hoon lets Su-Wan beat him up for a little bit. Once she settles down, he decides to take her sky sailing. This is when Ji-Hoon decides to tell Su-Wan that he likes her. Su-Wan does not know how to respond and pretends she cannot hear him. Later on, they go to an amusement park. Just when Ji-Hoon is about to give Su-Wan a present, Su-Wan sees her close friend at the park with her boyfriend. This is the friend that Su-Wan previously confided in about dealing with this student. Originally, Su-Wan’s friend thought that Ji-Hoon was her boyfriend, but Su-Wan, however, says that she would never go out with him. This makes Ji-Hoon mad and he throws her present into the fountain and leaves.

Eventually, all of Ji-Hoon’s fighting catches up with him. Near the end of the movie, Ji-Hoon has to deal with all of the problems that have been building up. First, his girlfriend is mad and is making him choose between her and Su-Wan. Once he chooses Su-Wan, he isn’t finished. He still needs to deal with the high school gang and the real gang members. Ji-Hoon and Su-Wan manage to run away for a little bit, but they get cornered and Ji-Hoon has to fight everyone on the beach. Once all of the other gang members are down, Ji-Hoon still has to deal with the best fighter of all. Ji-Hoon is at the man’s mercy, but Su-Wan is able to save Ji-Hoon.

[edit] Cast

  • Kwon Sang-woo - Kim Ji-hoon - is a troubled and wealthy third year high school student who was hired a tutor to help him complete his high school requirements.
  • Kim Ha-neul - Choi Su-wan - comes from a modest lower class family. She is a second year college student that is hired to tutor Ji-hoon in order for him to complete his high school requirements.
  • Baek Il-seob - Ji-hoon’s father - his father sent Ji-hoon to America as a child and now threatens to send him back there if he does not turn around his bad behavior and begin to get good grades.
  • Kim Ji-woo - Ho-Kyeong - Ji hoon’s girlfriend who is attracted to him because of the fights he gets into.
  • Gong Yoo - Jong-Soo - Ji hoon’s nemesis who he is constantly feuding with during the movie.

[edit] Production

This film was written by Jo Jung-hun, Ahn Eun-a, and Choi Won and was produced by Baek Jong-Jin through Prime Entertainment. This film was the third best selling Korean film of 2003 and was able to attract over 5 million movie goers.

[edit] Reviews

This movie was able to top off the box office for five weeks straight. People immediately loved the movie which was similar to My Sassy Girl that was released in 2001. While this film may not be an example of a classic in Korean cinema, it is very engaging and has a definite Korean charm. It definitely leans towards being a romantic comedy along with some action which keeps the movie exciting. Unlike its predecessor, this movie was meant to be light-hearted fun. People enjoy the two attractive lead characters and their chemistry. Ha-Neul Kim is said to be quirky and sweet while Sang-Woo Kwon is very rebellious and is attractive. He has great fighting skills and is a great actor.

Besides the immediate fans, there have also been some negative reviews. The second half of the film has been said to seem forced and longer than the first half. Many reviews also simply compare this film to the average teenage high school film, with no plot and no real talent. Because of that, the film drags on and seems longer than it really is. One thing that may have contributed to this problem was the unnecessary fight scenes that were just too lengthy. When watching a romantic comedy, people expect to see more romance and comedy with less action. The comedy as well proved to be problematic for some viewers. They believed that there were brief moments of humor, but, overall, there weren’t the laugh-out-loud moments that were expected.

While this film fits many of the stereotypes for a typical high school film, there are also their differences. For example, the plot isn’t very well structured and focuses on many things that you don’t expect for it to. The intended purpose for this film was probably for it to be different. The lack of a central focus achieves that goal, but we are left confused as to whether that was a good or bad thing. Lacking focus also brings in comments of how this film does not flow very well. Instead of all flowing together, there is first a big distinction between the first and second halves of the film. Besides that split, there are still even more. The entire film seems to consist of different skits and parts, as opposed to all flowing together. While each part is entertaining in itself, it’s confusing to try and figure out the reasoning for the parts.

With all of the problems and even all of the good things, the audience must first be sure to recognize the nature of the film and the overall effect it was most likely meant to have. When creating this film, the directors and producers were probably not attempting to create a major drama or even a revolutionary film. Instead, it is a light film with humorous parts, romance, and a little bit of action. There weren’t major plans for this film, just that it would hopefully entertain its audience. Since it was mostly able to achieve its goal, the film was an overall success.

[edit] Production Credits

  • Lee Kang-Beok - Executive Producer
  • Kim Dong-Ju - Casting
  • Go Im-Pyo - Editor
  • Lee Seung-Cheol - Sound/Sound Designer
  • Lee Seo-Yeol - Executive Producer
  • Oh Sang-man - Art Director
  • Jeong Hong-Gyun - Executive Producer
  • Kim Hyeong-Kyeong - Screenwriter, Director
  • Mun Dong-Shik - First Assistant Director
  • Park Yeon-Seon - Screenwriter
  • Ha Seung-Nam - Special Effects
  • Ji Gil-Ung - Cinematographer
  • 101 VFX - Digital Effects
  • Lee Gyeong-Seob - Composer (Music Score)
  • H Studio - Digital Effects
  • Kim Hyeon-Ok - Production Designer
  • Kim Jin-Woo - Costume Designer
  • Jeong Uk-Chang - Sound/Sound Designer
  • Shin Jae-Myeong - Martial Arts Instructor/Coordinator

[edit] External links

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