Windstruck (Korea, 2004)

Chick-flick à la Korean, where the female lead is strong and independent, certes, but only within certain limits. With KWAK Jae-young as its director (also director of Il Mare, which later became the Sandra Bullock-Keanu Reeves vehicle The Lake House), Windstruck is a thematic prequel/sequel of sorts to My Sassy Girl (which Antonin reviewed here). Jun Ji-hyun reprises her role as a tough girl with a heart of gold who chaperones and falls in love with a weaker-willed yet so pure male lead (here a competent Jang Hyuk). Substitute police officer (for Jun Ji-Hyun) and physics teacher (for Jang Hyuk) for (middle class to wealthy) college students, substract the noodle-vomiting scenes, and you have My Sassy Girl. My Sassy Girl is even referenced in the last scene with a cameo by Cha Tae-hyun oh-so-saving Jun Ji-hyun from being run over by a train (the opening scene of MSG). And Bach is replaced by Erik Satie and X-Japan.

Much sweetness during the first half the movie that will make you smile, we see the relationship between Jang Hyuk and Jun Ji-Hyun grow until the tragic moment when Jang tries to help Jun on her job, to dramatic consequences. The roles from MSG are then reversed. While Cha Tae-hyun had to grow to make up for Jun Ji-hyun's absence, Jun Ji-Hyun is promoted to a crime-fighting unit of the police as the movie becomes an action movie with prerequisite Michael Bay explosion and gunfights days after Jang Hyuk's death (now that's cold). The movie also takes a strangely magical-realist turn as Jang Hyuk is reincarnated as the wind (what?).

But where the movie sins most is in its reliance on traditional Korean role models. The relationship between Jang Hyuk and Jun Ji-hyun is safe and totally asexual. When the former tries to kiss her during a trip, he ends up kissing burning embers. And Jun Ji-hyun, despite her toughness, is completely codependent on Jang Hyuk. So much so that she has to be guided by the disembodied voice of her deceased boyfriend to start a new life with her MSG costar.

Yeah, I'll take the noodle-vomiting scenes.