This is a movie very much of its time. The camera work, the editing, the type of storyline, the type of humor, they are all hallmarks of the period this movie comes from. It's filmed in a slice-of-life way (despite not being a slice-of-life story) with what another MyDramaList reviewer referred to as a series of vignettes that all connect together. I think that's an accurate summation and a good thing to know going in. There is an over-arching storyline with a beginning, middle, and end, but it doesn't feel quite the same as most mainstream movies today. This style of filmmaking isn't something that was done in all Korean movies made at the time, of course, but it was a somewhat common form of storytelling from what I can tell. Initially, I found it a bit confusing, but I got the hang of it about halfway through, and now that I've finished the movie, I think I like the directing/editing decision.

The one thing that really hampers this movie is some of the humor. The male lead is a rich, sexist, jerk in the beginning. This isn't a new trope, and it's not one that bothers me if the male lead grows as a person and sees the error of his previous behavior. But the way the filmmakers chose to portray him in the first half of the drama involved a number of inappropriate jokes/scenes that I found tasteless and unnecessary. For example, the male lead arrives for his new job and immediately a fantasy plays in his head of a bunch of teen girls (although the actresses look like they might be in their early 20's) coming out of classrooms and running past him in skimpy gym uniforms, all the while laughing and giggling with their long hair flowing behind them. I was not amused.

If you take out the crude jokes though, this movie does work surprisingly well. Like I said, it's filmed in a sort-of vignette sort of way that I came to enjoy, and the male lead actually becomes quite likable by the second half of the story. The catalyst for his character growth happens about halfway through. Something terrible happens to one of his students, and he really pulls through for her in a way you don't expect. From there, he continues to improve, and by the end, he's become a decent guy. The crude humor also goes away in the second half, for which I was very grateful.

I don't know that I will ever watch this movie again because of aforementioned crude humor, but it was funny when it wasn't crude.