Sungnyangpali sonyeoui jaerim

In my experiences Korean films tend to be just as strange and baffling as their pop music is. And this film is certainly the crowning achievement of that. Loosely adapting the Hans Christian Andersen children's tale The Little Match Girl, it tells about Ju (Hyun-sung Kim), a Chinese restaurant delivery guy, who dreams about becoming a pro-gamer like his friend Lee (Jin-pyo Kim). But, we often dreams about things we really shouldn't, as Ju finds out when he shows kindness to a lonely beggar girl selling lighters and gets pulled into a strange video game where the goal is to act out the events of the original tale… while also dodging other players who all want to kill you.

It's weird, it's nonsensical, it's utterly bizarre. And like it almost always is with these types of films, either you love or you hate it. Personally I love it, to an extent. I still require a semblance of order when it comes to storytelling and the flow of the plot, and this particular movie is barely acceptable in that regard. Especially the start of the second act is very hard to follow, style over substance more than anything else, and it takes you a while to get back on track.

The characters are also not very captivating. They're mostly in the story to pull off stunts and highly choreographed fight scenes, and while all of them are gimmicky, that is to say you can easily tell them apart from one another, they're not people in the real sense of the word. They're cardboard characters. Ju has probably the most character out of all of them, but even he doesn't really evolve all that much throughout the film. Mostly he's there to act as the audience surrogate.

But, if you're going to watch this film, you're going to watch it for the visuals, the craziness. And for that it's a very good film. It's always moving, always doing something. Sure, the special effects are not as great as they could have been, had they had an A-list budget, but they're good enough to support the story and only really start to show their cheapness during the final climax when the crazy visuals ramp up.

And that's the movie in a nutshell. It's more style than anything, but the style itself is very pleasing, and you certainly won't be bored. Is it for anyone? Absolutely not. But if I have aroused your curiosity, then I definitely recommend giving it a chance.

What kind of movie is this? Ummm.. well it's... weird. It's VERY weird actually... It's like someone wanted to make mixture of Fallen Angels, Nowhere to Hide, Avalon, Matrix, Unreal Tournament, Rainbow Six and... Little Matchgirl!

I have to say that I liked this movie. It was beautiful, strange and full of humor and spectacular action. The actors were good and the effects were mostly brilliant.

I'm not going to tell you anything about the plot, because... it's so strange, twisted and complicated and you don't really need to know it before you see the movie.

I think that the weirdest thing in this movie is that they used NYLON BEAT'S song in the movie! It was quite surrealistic to watch a South-Korean movie and listen to a FINNISH popmusic! I have to say that I HATE Nylon Beat, but somewhy their music worked in this movie... and actually all music in this movie was quite good.

I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes to watch original an different movies..... this definitely is a DIFFERENT movie...

the film purports to "parody" THE MATRIX, but instead how can you "parody" a movie if you spend just as much on the exact same special effects and pretty much re-did whole scenes and scenarios from the movie you're supposedly "making fun off?" if only the filmmakers/producers had taken the time to write a decent, original script and then shoot the movie as a straight drama instead of trying to "wink" at us, MATCH GIRL would have had the makings of a terrific sci-fi actioner. instead, it's just lame, not terribly bright (even though it tries very hard to be so), and its attempts at cleverness and breaking the 4th wall is rather understated and weak.

so, to all of you "hip" filmmakers out there, the lesson is this: if you got the budget for it, don't waste your money copying other movies and calling it a "parody". just make your own movie.

RESURRECTION OF THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL is an oddball of a movie. It's half satire, half parody, and sometimes plain silliness. The director is an Indie favorite, but for some reason he was given a lot of money and told to make a movie out of it. Well he did, utilizing every single cent, but the problem is that he didn't have his heart in it. As a result, MATCH GIRL is visually competent and even terrific, but narratively speaking, it's a total mess.

There are some good ideas here, such as the mocking of Hollywood films driven by special effects. And yet the movie never really makes you laugh. There are no chuckles to be had, and if anything the film just feels incredibly half-hearted on just about everything it attempts. Again, there just doesn't seem to have any focus to the picture, or any actual WILLINGNESS to make a good movie.

For what it is, MATCH GIRL certainly looks nice. It's just not worth talking about that's all.

4 out of 10

(go to www.nixflix.com for a more detailed review of this movie or reviews of other foreign films)

This is not a follow-up of Kaurismäki's MATCH GIRL - although director Jang Sun-woo is an ironic and sometimes cynical artist. His unpredictability led to the documentary-styled LIES in 1999, a sadomasochistic story that is unconventionally introduced by one actor's explanation about why he chose to participate in the movie. THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL took almost four years to be completed and has those moments, too, where we are reminded that we are 'only' watching a movie. Fantasy film fans usually don't like this breaking-up of the narrative. That might be the reason for a box-office failure of the film in Korea so far. It's budget is one of the highest in the history of Korean film (10 m USD) and justified by all the spectacular stunts and shoot-outs and digital references that seem to say laconically: What's all that fuzz about MATRIX? As we know from former movies of Jang Sun-woo (like A PETAL) he never forgets to comment on social topics. The story is about a guy who needs to log into a virtual game to get rich through fighting other players and saving the poor and starving MATCH GIRL (a figure known from Andersen's tales). Whether you feel computer games are ridiculous after the movie or you reflect about unjustified possession ratios in your society, the movie with its choice of different though on first sight unhappy endings might leave you puzzled - exactly the way it is done. "Techno-Taoist" was this approach to the SF-genre called, and surely those who expect martial arts and BULLETS IN THE HEAD-action will be as pleased as those who look for another playful and wise Jang Sun-woo flick. Be advised not to leave the movie during the end credits. It should be 124 minutes long ...