How Sad is Sad Movie?

If it's so sad, why is everyone smiling?

MJ says:

I had high hopes for our flagship movie pick. Sad Movie appeared on several best sad Korean tearjerker lists and we thought that it would be a more than appropriate first entry in our homage to heart-wrenching and tissue-depleting Korean dramas.

On the surface, Sad Movie appeared to have all the requisite elements needed for a successful cry-fest, times four. Sensory disability? Check. Terminal illness? Check. Premature death? Check. Ill-fated love? Check, check, check, and check.

AND, it stars my all-time favorite leading man (next to my husband, that is, ahem), Jung Woo-sung, or "Chul Soo" of the A Moment to Remember. Sure, I didn't recognize him at first, clean-shaven and fifteen pounds heavier than when he played the gruff yet super-sexy architect -- but I would almost blame that on the frustrating streaming video quality we first suffered through on dramacrazy.net, before finally finding a watchable version on youtube.

So what was the problem?

I think the movie was too ambitious in its scope, and most of the characters and plot lines were too underdeveloped to make me really care about them. 

Don't get me wrong: I watched this film twice and weeped substantially on both occasions; the second time even more so, in anticipation for those climactic scenes. The two story lines most interesting to me that of the mother and son, and of course, the firefighter and his girlfriend.  When the little boy ran into his mother's hospital room only to see her writhing violently in agony, I became teary-eyed. When Su-jeong bawls as she watches a video of her deceased boyfriend sign "I love you forever" before being swallowed in flames, I blew through half a dozen Kleenex Plus Lotion. 

But I couldn't bring myself to care for the demise of the relationship between Jung Ha-suk and his Debbie Downer of a girlfriend. I can't fault his entrepreneurial spirit, but as a boyfriend he seemed awfully childish, annoying, and oblivious. His girlfriend is right to cut off ties if she didn't love him anymore, for whatever reason, but her low-energy/slow-death manner of delivery was equally aggravating. 

I also couldn't jive with Su-eun's story. Maybe if we had watched a DVD-quality rip then I would be able to comprehend the severity of her burn scar, and likewise her painful timidity, but it looked like she barely had a blemish on her. Not to mention the fact that she's got a very nice figure (though my husband claims she has a "duck's ass", I think she just works out a lot), a pretty face, and a wonderful personality by all accounts. (Okay, I know it might sound hypocritical when I say that I want to lock myself in the apartment whenever one of those monster zits on my nose, but no one is really looking for me to do a spread in Elle Korea with a Calvin Klein model.) 

So you mean to tell me this hot chick can't get a date?

To close… is Sad Movie a moment to remember? Not really. But I'll watch it over America's trite feel-good equivalent Valentine's Day any day.

Tissue Rating: 2.5 out of 5 tissues




KEN Ø says:



Sadly, Sad Movie just wasn’t very sad. It wasn’t for a lack of trying though. Four sad stories are packed into this one movie: Dying mother and son, firefighter and girlfriend, deaf sister of firefighter’s girlfriend who was rescued from a fire from said firefighter but now has a scar (really a blemish) on her left cheek trying to get with cute artist boy and finally unemployed guy turned self-employed guy and his Debbie-downer grocery checker girlfriend.


The stories try and weave together, but only manage to bump into each other and get in each other’s way. Individually, two or three of the storylines could have been really interesting and really sad though. The mother and son story had a lot of sadness potential. On its own it actually could have been an entire sad movie. Also, the deaf sister with the blemish had a charming story that ended oddly not sadly. If that storyline were developed more it too could have been a major tear jerker.


Four stories for the price of one turned out to be a case of more is less.


0 tissues.



Lyn says:

4 short sad stories rolled into one movie, does not in itself make the movie a Sad Movie.

For fans of Korean dramas, we all know that there can be no happy ending for any of the characters in the movie. The question then is – how much we would feel for the characters as they undergo their trials and inevitable loss?

The movie contained 4 different angles of relationships, to ensure that the audience relates to the characters of the movie in one level or there other. Thus we have: the mother and son, the blissful couple, the struggling couple, and finally the couple that didn’t quite make it.

In general, I don’t think the watchers of drama movies look for complicated plot lines or even several plots in this case, but rather a display of intense emotions as the story unravels.

Out of the 4 stories however, there were 2 stories that were practically flat-lined from start to end. Undeniably all of the characters circumstances' were very unfortunate, however, I felt as if there was a lack of connection between the audience and the characters in the stories of the struggling couple and the couple that didn’t quite make it.

What could’ve been – if all the stories were developed just as much as the mother and son and the blissful couple, must be the biggest regret of the movie-makers and audience alike.

Tissue rating: 2 out of 5 tissues