Korean Romantic Comedy - Mr. Handyman

The other night I decided to go home after work and make dinner, so I popped in one of my many as-yet-unwatched DVDs in to watch... I have at least 10 more movies to go, mostly Korean comedies that I bought a long time ago but haven't gotten around to watching.


This one was called 'Mr. Handyman' in English (and the super long title '어디선가 누군가에 무슨일이 생기면 틀림없이 나타난다 홍반장' in Korean). Its a relatively standard romantic comedy formula: after some comedic episodes and some akward moments, the guy and girl get together at the end (of course)... but at least the premise is a little bit unique. Mr. Handyman is told more from the perspective of the female character - played by Eom Jeong-hwa. She plays a single 30 year old dentist from Seoul who loses her job and ends up moving to a rural town to set up her own denal clinic. By necessity she meets Kim Ka-Yeon's character, the local handyman for the town. He's the jack-of-all-trades that does everything, construction work, real estate, filling in for people when they're sick at the super market, bar, etc.

It takes some time for the short tempered, upwardly mobile, big city girl to realize, but eventually she falls for laid back small town guy who's going no where. I'll avoid giving too many details away, but they build up the romantic tension and throw a few twists and turns into the story... The movie is well done even if its a bit flat (maybe I'm too used to the raunchy Korean sex comedies or the action comedy ones...)

I'll give it a 6/10 - Probably a good date movie (especially if you're an underemployed country guy with a heart of gold and you're chasing some big city girl who's out of your league).