Choihui mancheon

Wow, I may even be the only person to review this movie for a long time, so I better write an intelligent review.

In many ways this is a standard Korean movie. It has gangsters, wacky characters, crazy beautiful girl, a guy that girl couldn't possibly love and something tragic (the 3 main characters want to commit suicide).

The problems start when Dr So-ju's wife dies during an operation he is performing on her. He goes to jail for this (no explanation needed, those who suffer must be further punished in a Korean movie).

On his release he meets Jae-Rim a beautiful girl with money problems, a mysterious incurable disease and the desire to kill herself. I should also mention she looks a lot like the Doctor's now dead wife.

That would be enough, but Gon-Bong is a gangster who during a gang rumble (please note, South Korea has an incredibly low crime rate, so I am not sure where they get all these gangster plot lines from, maybe from watching Hong Kong movies) he accidentally stabs the boss of the rival gang. This means that gang will now kill everyone is his gang and eventually him. So he must kill himself to save his gang. But he is afraid of dying.

Throw these 3 together and you get the usual Korean social comedy. If you have never watched a Korean comedy before this movie is a good one to start with, because for once there is no really sad ending. If you love Korean comedies here is a another one for you. If you hate Korean comedies then avoid like the plague.

A quick note on the Korean film industry. While Korean movies don't get much attention in Western countries, Korean movies and television are doing very well in Asia and Korean is one of the few countries in the world where locally made films do better than foreign imports. If you have never seen Korean movies, now is the time to start, but avoid any of the big budget terribles (The Tube springs to mind) and look for the more humble creations.