My Sassy Girl

My Sassy Girl
Theatrical poster
Hangul	엽기적인 그녀
Hanja	獵奇的인 그女
Revised Romanization	Yeopgijeogin Geunyeo
McCune–Reischauer	Yǒpkijǒgin Kǔnyǒ
Directed by	Kwak Jae-yong
Produced by	Shin Chul
Written by	Kim Ho-sik Kwak Jae-yong
Starring	Cha Tae-hyun Jun Ji-hyun
Music by	Hyeong-seok Kim
Cinematography	Kim Sung-bok
Edited by	Kim Sang-bum
Production company	ShinCine Communications IM Pictures
Release dates	July 27, 2001 (2001-07-27)
Running time	123 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean

My Sassy Girl (Korean: 엽기적인 그녀; literally, That Bizarre Girl) is a 2001 South Korean romantic comedy film directed by Kwak Jae-yong.

The film was extremely successful in South Korea and was the highest grossing Korean comedy of all time.^[1] When My Sassy Girl was released throughout East Asia, it became a mega blockbuster hit in the entire region, from Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, as well as Southeast Asia and parts of South Asia, to the point where it was drawing comparisons to Titanic.^[2]

An American remake, starring Jesse Bradford and Elisha Cuthbert, and directed by Yann Samuell was released in 2008.^[3] A Japanese drama adaptation with Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and actress Rena Tanaka as the leads started broadcasting in April 2008.^[4] A sequel, My New Sassy Girl, which will be produced as a collaborative work between Korea and China was released in China on 22 April 2016 and in South Korea on 12 May 2016.^[5][6] and upcoming television series ^[7][8]

Plot

Part one

The film tells the love story of a male engineering college student, Gyeon-woo, and "the Girl" (who is never named in the movie). Gyeon-woo just cannot seem to catch a romantic break. One day, at dinner, Gyeon-woo is interrupted by a call from his mother, telling him to visit his aunt and meet a potential date. At the train station on his way to his aunt's, he observes a drunk girl, standing precariously close to the edge of the train platform as the train approaches; he pulls her to safety just in time. Inside the train, Gyeon-woo cannot help but stare at the girl who is his "type" but repulsed by her drunkenness. Finally, she throws up on a passenger and faints but not before she calls Gyeon-woo "honey". The passenger aggressively chides Gyeon-woo and tells him to take care of his "girlfriend". Gyeon-woo, completely flustered, carries her all the way to the nearest hotel. Thus begins his comically ill-fated relationship with the Girl. They meet each other again after Gyeon-woo gets locked up in jail over a misunderstanding, and over soju the Girl cries, admits to breaking up with her boyfriend the day before and gets thoroughly drunk, resulting in a second trip to the same hotel.

After this second overnight stay at the hotel, she begins to become a more active part of his life. She visits Gyeon-woo in school and pulls him out of class, telling the teacher that Gyeon-woo is the father of her soon-to-be-aborted baby. The Girl's mood swings wildly from joyful to downright violent, but Gyeon-woo puts up with it and lets her abuse him for her amusement.

She is an aspiring scriptwriter and throughout the movie gives Gyeon-woo three different screenplays from different genres. The first is an action movie—The Demolition Terminator—which switches gender roles, symbolically having the Girl save her helpless lover (Gyeon-woo). The second is a wild perversion of a Korean short story—Sonagi—in which the Girl, having died, asks that her lover be buried along with her—even though he's still alive. The last is a wuxia/samurai movie spoof full of genre clichés and anachronisms. All three feature the same common thread: the Girl is from the future.

Despite all the horrible things Gyeon-woo endures, he is determined to help cure the girl's pain. He decides to surprise her on her birthday and takes her on a nighttime trip to an amusement park which ends up quite differently from how he planned: the pair encounter an AWOL soldier who holds them hostage and rants about his misery after being jilted. Gyeon-woo convinces him to release her, and she in turn convinces the soldier to free Gyeon-woo and go on with his life and pursue another love.

Part two

The Girl and Gyeon-woo's relationship takes a turn for the better and he sends her home and meets her father, who is a habitual drinker. Her parents do not take to Gyeon-woo and on leaving, he overhears an impassioned argument between the girl and her mother over her relationship with him. He does not hear from her for quite some time and his life without her begins.

One day however, the Girl calls him and tells him to bring her a rose during class to commemorate their 100th-day anniversary. He does this, leading to a touching and romantic scene where he arrives in disguise into a packed auditorium and watches her play the melody of George Winston's variations on Pachelbel's Canon in D on a piano onstage. The classmates applaud in approval at his romantic gesture. As the night unfolds he is confronted at her house by her parents again, with her father demanding the two to break up.

The Girl does not contact him again and Gyeon-woo naturally thinks they have broken up, until one day when she calls Gyeon-woo to meet her for dinner with a blind date. The Girl introduces Gyeon-woo to the date and, while she leaves for the washroom afterwards, Gyeon-woo candidly offers advice on how to ensure her happiness by asking her potential suitor to follow ten rules: preventing her from overdrinking and giving in to her at every circumstance, even if it means enduring the occasional "violence". It is at this point that she realizes how well Gyeon-woo understands her. She abruptly leaves her date and searches for Gyeon-woo at the subway station.

Once reunited the two realize they are at a turning point in their relationship, but, for some unspeakable reason, the Girl decides it is time for them to part. As a gesture to their happy times the two write letters to each other and bury them in a "time capsule" under a particular tree on a mountain in the countryside. They agree to meet again at the tree after two years to read the letters together. After burying the "time capsule" they go their separate ways.

Overtime

During the two-year span, Gyeon-woo works hard to improve himself, writing My Sassy Girl movie script after he details their love affair on the Internet. When the agreed upon date arrives, he travels to the mountain but the Girl does not show up. Eventually, he opens the time capsule and reads her letter and learns the root of her angst and behavior: Gyeon-woo reminds her of her previous boyfriend who, rather than breaking up with her, actually died before she met Gyeon-woo. All through the time the Girl and Gyeon-woo were seeing each other she had been seeing her dead boyfriend's mother, who wants to introduce her to a nice young man.

A year after Gyeon-woo visits the tree, the Girl finally arrives. Sitting under the tree is an old man. During their conversation the old man reveals the secret of the tree, that it is not the same tree; the original tree had been struck and killed by lightning a year before and a similar tree had been planted by a young man so that his special someone would not be sad. After the girl reads his letter, she tries to call Gyeon-woo repeatedly, but is unable to contact him.

At lunch with her deceased boyfriend's mother after a year later, the mother introduces her nephew—who turns out to be Gyeon-woo, whom she has been trying to introduce to the Girl for years. The mother, who is Gyeon-woo's aunt, tells the Girl to go out with him, hoping that he could make life easier for her. She tells Gyeon-woo that the Girl can give advice to him about his impending trip to England, to which he replies, "I don't have to go anymore."

Cast

• Cha Tae-hyun as Gyeon-woo
• Jun Ji-hyun as The Girl
• Kim In-moon as Gyeon-woo's father
• Song Ok-sook as Gyeon-woo's mother
• Han Jin-hee as The Girl's father
• Yang Geum-seok as Gyeon-woo's aunt

Reception

My Sassy Girl was the second highest selling Korean film in 2001 (behind the film Friend) and at the time, was the highest grossing Korean comedy film of all time.^[1] 4,852,845 tickets were sold nationwide and 1,765,100 in Seoul over its 10 weeks in the cinemas.^[1]

Koreanfilm.org praised Jun Ji-hyun's portrayal of the character, calling her the "undisputed star" and stating "it could not have succeeded anywhere near as well without her".^[1]

Awards and nominations

Soundtrack

The soundtrack album for My Sassy Girl features a variation on Pachelbel's Canon in D) and a soundtrack of twenty-one pieces. The Korean song entitled "I Believe" by Shin Seung Hun (신승훈) is the theme song of this film. The song has been translated to different Asian languages such as Japanese, Chinese and Filipino.

Alternate versions

There are two scenes within the movie that have different soundtracks from each varying version, notably the EDKO and Starmax distributions.

• During the scene where Gyeon-woo (as villain) fights the heroine in the Girl's second movie script, the soundtrack to Ashes of Time by Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai can be heard, whereas in the Hong Kong-EDKO release the score has been replaced with a Korean track.
• During the scene where Gyeon-woo exchanges shoes with the Girl, the song "My Girl" by The Temptations can be heard, whereas in the EDKO release the scene has been rescored with a Korean pop-track.

Remakes

American film

This American remake of the film is set in New York City's Central Park and Upper East Side. Director Yann Samuell states "It's a fable about destiny, in the end." whilst Jesse Bradford who plays the lead protagonist summarized the movie as "a romantic comedy about how they pull each other to a more healthy place by virtue of their relationship."^[3]

Japanese drama

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and actress Rena Tanaka are the lead characters in the Japanese drama of the same name which started broadcasting in April 2008.^[4]

Bollywood film

An uncredited Bollywood version called Ugly Aur Pagli starring Ranvir Shorey and Mallika Sherawat was released on August 1, 2008. The movie is directed by Sachin Khot.

Chinese film

A Chinese version named My Sassy Girl 2 (我的野蠻女友2) directed by Joe Ma stars Lynn Hung and Leon Jay Williams was released on 2010.

Tollywood film

A Telugu remake of the film was made starring Bharat and Videesha. It was titled Maa Iddhari Madhya.^[10]

Nepali film

A Nepali version titled Sano Sansar was released on 12 September 2008 and became very popular amongst teenagers in the country.

Sequel

A sequel, My New Sassy Girl, was released in South Korea on February 12, 2015. It was a South Korean-Chinese co-production.^[6][11]

Mentions

As "My Sissy Girl" on vol. 235, page 13 of the manga Rave Master

See also

• Train Man

References

External links

• My Sassy Girl at the Internet Movie Database
• My Sassy Girl at the Korean Movie Database
• The original internet serial from which the movie was based, by Kim Ho-sik (Korean)
• Review at koreanfilm.org
• Overview at All Movie