[K-FILM REVIEWS] 연애술사 (Love in Magic)

I Vision Entertainment - 08/03/2005
연애술사 (Love In Magic)
2005 - 2 Disc
Director: 천세환 (Cheon Se-Hwan)
Cast: 박진희 (Park Jin-Hee), 연정훈 (Yeon Jung-Hoon), 하 하 (Ha Ha), 조미령 (Jo Mi-Ryung)

FILM: 5.5
I always liked Park Jin-Hee, from her film debut in 여고괴담 (Whispering Corridors) to the hilarious -- and excellent -- 간첩 리철진 (The Spy), but always felt she's been wasted, or at least that her choices haven't been as good as what she deserves. Although things might have changed in 러브토크 (Love Talk), I'm not sure this is the kind of film she needs to improve things. Sure, it's a silly, mildly entertaining date movie, but it won't raise eyebrows in Chungmuro, if not for the fact it did OK at the box office. Yeon Jung-Hoon has raised to what could be called stardom because of a few lucky coincidences, most recently marrying one of the national sweethearts, the lovely Han Ga-In. He's not a particularly good actor, but he's not horrible either. It's just that he feels like another million TV Drama actors who put just enough effort to help the film wrap up, but don't really make any impact on the big screen, when it's time to show charisma. He became a good surrogate David Copperfield for this film, and I bet it won't take too much imagination for the ladies to think of him as a successful playboy. But it just ends there, there's no spark, it just feels like Yeon Jung-Hoon working hard to play his character, not a character deeply immersed into the film's storyline. But what irks me, more than the clear lack of experience first time Director shows, is the fact this film was marketed as a sort of 색즉시공 (Sex is Zero). They're similar to a degree, starting with comedy and ending with social critique, before the compulsory happy ending. But 'Love in Magic' can't even hope of being as funny as the 2002 comedy was, particularly because Im Chang-Jung knows how to make a fool of himself unlike Yeon, and Ha Ha (yeah, that's his stage name...) is not even on the same league as Choi Sung-Gook (who appears for a few seconds at the end of the film). Also, the social critique is taken care of in an intentionally hilarious way, wrapping up the serious stuff in five minutes, lest the teenagers might get bored. Even the sexiness is pretty much absent, with a mere few hints, highlighting how much the audience tastes in Chungmuro are changing. The Trailer of the film, showing the 몰카 (Hidden Camera) video and pretending Park Jin-Hee was going to reveal a lot more than people imagined, caused a stir in the Media, with people trying to find how 'shocking' this thing really was. Well, it's shocking... shockingly predictable, that is. But I guess it did its job, since the film did better than expected. I'll just say if you expect another erotic comedy, you'll be disappointed, but I didn't really expect that, knowing how these films usually work. Problem is, when you remove the utopia the sex comedy generates on horny teenagers, you should at least be left with a pleasant effort, but this film is mostly dull, with only a few decent touches (the magic show is quite good). For fans of Park Jin-Hee and Yeon Jung-Hoon only.

VIDEO: 7
A pretty decent job, with natural skin tones and satisfactory black levels, but there's some minor compression artifacts. Some anti-aliasing problems.
AUDIO: 7
Clear dialogue, decent soundtrack, but not much surround activity.
SUBTITLES: 7
On one hand, there's no major spelling and grammar mistakes, and the timing is good. But it takes too many liberties in the translation, killing some of the comedy. Good job, nonetheless.
EXTRA FEATURES: 7
There's a decent audio commentary with Director, DP, Lighting director and Yeon (who leaves 20 Minutes before the end. Is he THAT busy?). Mostly fun, but also feels a little forced and self-congratulatory, like some R1 commentaries. There's also a very nice 45 Minutes Making Of featurette, which you'll mostly be able to enjoy even without the subs (although there's a few interviews). Closing the supplements, the usual 6-7 Minutes production/premiere and storyboards featurettes, and some EPK stuff.
VALUE FOR MONEY: 6.5
This can be a decent date movie: you laugh a little, things get serious for a moment, then it's back to breezy comedy. Tries a lot to be sexy, but generally fails. Presentation is generally good, with decent extras, but you can find a lot of better Korean films if you like the genre.
OVERALL: 6.50