Someone Special (2004)

Thanks for the memories!

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I really wanted to like this movie. There are a lot of things, at first, to bring a smile to your face, from the movie-in-movie spoof to the lovable stalker turns girlfriend side plot. I was also completely overjoyed by the fact that the director used dry, almost English humor (as opposed to the slapstick of 'Sex is Zero' or cutesy of 'Peppermint Candy') to bring the story and the characters together.Unfortunately, watching the second half of this movie is a serious labor of love. The Lead actor is at best wooden, with one ex-girlfriend serving as his emotional anchor. No spoilers - his new squeeze, a waitress at a fancy coffee shop/bar seems to insinuate herself into his life because of self pity? Gimme a beak... Since Bae Doon-na made Hollywood, everybody wants to capture her charm and natural naivete to sell badly written movies. Disney, back off and let Korean cinema do what it does better than Hollywood - sell movies with real heart and soul. While this movie started strong, it eventually sold out and became the poster child for what NOT to do. I'll give the director another shot, but ultimately this is a 6...

Someone Special is a South Korean romantic comedy film about a struggling baseball player and a fan with a long-time crush on him.It stars Lee Na-Young, Jeong Jae-Young and Jang Young-Nam.It was directed by Jang Jin.Dong Chiseong, a star baseball pitcher in high school and college, hurts his shoulder, and is replaced as an outfielder. What is worse, he experiences a constant nose-bleeding and hears from the doctor that he is only given three months to live due to a malignant tumor in his lung. Deeply depressed, he goes to a bar to drink away his sorrows until he falls asleep. A pretty bartender Han Iyeon, finds him passed out and picks him up and carries him in a box. One day, as Chiseong heads home, he hears a familiar story on a radio program about someone named the "Writing Princess" who described how she once carried a man in a box to a hotel room. It turns out that Iyeon's chance encounter with the struggling player at the bar was far from accidental. She apparently has lived close to Chiseong and monitored him closely over the past 10 years, suffering from an unrequited love.Someone Special has been highly anticipated for no other reason that it is director's long-awaited follow-up movie. And the first person he took in mind to realize this project was the inimitable actress and model Lee Na-young. The unique on screen situations that Jang Jin can create combined with Lee Na-young's unexpected and outlandish acting have made expectations for this film soar.Also, telling his down to earth romance with some good drops of humor to balance parts that at times are endangered to shift into sentimental over-drive, it offers the viewers a seldom seen cinematic surprise.

As much as I love Korean cinema, I tend to get bit selective when it comes to melodramatic romance films, mainly because I rarely find myself in the mood for some extreme tear dropping. But once in a while I get an itch to watch a good K romance drama without the flashy action or over the top comedy and when I heard that this film was directed by Jin Jang I was more so interested since I enjoyed both Guns & Talks and Ditto and also knew or hoped that it wouldn't be a typical genre piece.First thing I noticed from the start of the film was that just as sentimentality was about to overtake the screen, Jang would quickly sneak in humorous imagination sequences or have his characters simply swallow their words to lighten up the mood, instead of delivering long compelling lines. At the moment I took that as his trick to slowly digress into full fledged gloominess, but to my relief that wasn't meant to be.I think the casting of these actors was done perfectly as both Jae-yeong Jeong, who shows his strength as a veteran actor and Na-yeong Lee, equally shone through with their natural and effortless delivery. Since Jae-yeong's character is facing an illness, his somewhat average looks helped him to convey his inner sadness better than most actors ever do in these type of situations. Na-yeong keeps herself confined although her character has a lot on her mind and heart, which essentially enriches the moments when she shyly smiles or tries to comfort Jae-yeong, all at the same time without becoming over bearing or needy.Still, I had my reservations about how the ending would take its final shape with this hocus-pocus of a sensitive story, but in the end I couldn't have asked for a better way of providing a closure. Jin Jang was able to smartly craft the oldest tale in the history of cinematic romances with a refreshing twist. This film might be even more enjoyable with the second viewing, especially if the first time around you didn't get the hint on what Jang was aiming for. My only complaint is about the music, which I felt was a bit too typical for a film that was heading toward the abstract, but perhaps it was added intentionally to surprise the audience even further.I wish more romantic comedies were like this, completely drag free and without the sappy fluff, but I guess good things come in small doses and that's just another reason why I'd recommend this film so enthusiastically.

I am not quite sure if this film is available in the states. However, I understand that the video version is available in parts of Asia. The subtitles on the DVD release are competent for the most part, although the nuanced dialogue and cultural expressions from a few scenes leave something to be desired in the translation. Despite the studio-chosen English title, Aneun Yeoja, the original title literally translated is "A Girl I Know." As for the movie itself, the story is fresh and interesting, and Jang's feel for comic pacing is impeccable. One can't help but feel drawn to the main characters as the tightly wrought storyline continues to unfold on the screen. Watching this film has made me an avid fan of the filmmaker, and I have actively sought out Jang's work since. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is tired of the same old Hollywood-produced, cookie-cutter romantic comedy.