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Story
An old granny got a chance to go back to her teenage. Isnt that everyones dream. ohhh. Yess. she is back to her prime age and she can live in her glorified days. will she make same choices like her past. or will she do something different. this is actual premise of the story.
comedy springs from the encounters she has with her family. they were just so hilarious. although she is in youth, she is still old grandma inside. the generation gap within herself becomes so significant that you cant help but laugh out. also comedy felt meaningful. There are scenes that are thought provoking.
Acting
Na moon Hee churned out great performance. she has little screen space, but she was soul for entire movie. she did brilliant, soul stirring job. her eyes expressed varied emotions like pain, disappointment, contentment, proudness and what not. character she played Oh Mal soon is so dear to me, i am so glad that this movie introduced to her.
Oh Mal Soon is none other than my grandmother. Their personalities are very similar and match like 80 percent. she lost her husband when she hit age 30. she had one daughter and son. her son is my father, born with physical disability. however she is not poor, but had to raise her physically disabled son alone. and to heighten suffering, she lost her daughter to cancer at age of 40. she took the responsibility to raise her daughter's kids too. with no bread winner in her family, she managed to live decent life with inheritance she had . She never cared about herself. she do not mind wearing same old saree in all occasions. She loves cooking and sharing it with others. she values food more than dressing herself
she is strong, independent woman even at her old age. she never depended on her son. she badmouths everyone and also gets in to fight. she died this dec 2015 due to heartattack. my last memory of her is painful
she was in hospital ICU fighting for her last breath. And then she asked me to make a healthy snack for my father that would help in healing backbone issues.
oh i deviated myself from reviewing. so what i want to say is, i got connected to her character from the start.
shim eun kyeong is talented actress. she was really good in doing halmoni type antics. she was cute, lovely, caring and did a great job. my favourite scene is her talk with his son at climax. i wont spoil it. it was so special
And the ending came. BAM.......aigoo. i was crying and laughing at the same time. ha ha. . i didnot expect this from this movie at all. i thought i will laugh well, close my laptop and get back to sleep.but i am taken aback by the surprise,it had.
Music:
is really good. it has good classical stuff which were made lively and catchy. i am humming myself with her. especially white butterfly and raindrop songs. these songs do not have any language barrier. anyone should be able to enjoy them.
i already rewatched it. XD
DISCLAIMER:
although this movie has good comedy, it may not be everyones cup of tea. her grandma antics sometimes can be awkward and causes second hand embarassment. so i suggest to watch trailer beforehand and then decide.
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A Fun, Touching, and Beautiful Exploration of Life, Family, and Love
This beautiful movie takes a fun premise and expands it into something so much greater. Embedded in a plot full of hilarious situations and slapstick dialogue is a touching tale of a life long-lived, a family well-built, and difficulties hard-overcome. Without much more than a few brief flashes to the past and the incredibly emotional and soulful singing of our protagonist, a tragic but full life shines through the incredible acting of the lead actor, culminating in a story to relive her youth once more how she always dreamed it, all of it perfectly encapsulated in the final song "One More Time." Every plot line, character, and dream is perfectly set up without the viewer's notice, only to come back later on in the movie and hit you in the gut with emotions: sometimes overwhelming joy, and sometimes painfully beautiful tragedy.At it's most basic, the movie delivers what the premise suggests: a fun comedy of an old grandmother in a young woman's body. The premise is well explored and delivers every moment you'd want from it. But on a deeper level, the movie finds great meaning and purpose in the transformation. Throughout the beginning, the protagonist's talents at singing when she was young is often reiterated, along with the occasional mention of her long forgotten dream of being a singer. When she suddenly regains her youth, not only is it meaningful on a physical and story level, it is meaningful to the protagonist herself, as she is given a chance to finally fulfill her dream after always doing what's best for her family.
Family is an incredibly important theme throughout the movie. Be it conflict or accord, arguments or appreciations, everyone is deeply connected in an important and visible way. This is beautifully portrayed in well-written and well-delivered dialogue. No conflict is accidental, no tension goes unexplored, and the deeper you delve into the family's true relationships, the more love you find woven into it. Amongst the love is tragedy: things taken from those who deserved so much better, sacrifices made in service of loved-ones. The bond between parent and child is so strong and striking it brought tears to my eyes. These moments are earned, buried beneath the everyday commotion until extraordinary circumstances unearth them, and that makes them all the more powerful.
Love, romantic love, is also deeply explored in the movie. Nothing is quite so simple as to have a "main lead" and second lead" or even a "villain," because every character's relationship and personality is so much more nuanced. An supposed enemy might, under different light, appear to be an intimate friend, and relationship decades old may hover directly on the border of love and unbreakable friendship. What is true love? What is just physical attraction? How do you know which is which? Perhaps these questions are unanswerable but we can still weave through them, finding their intricacies and changing with the situation. It's unlike any other romance you might encounter.
At the core of this movie- and what makes it so profoundly impactful- is soul. Feeling. Interactions are built on years of history, relationships on decades of connection. The acting perfectly displays the soul of each character, their past and their present shining through their words. Most incredible in the main lead's actor, who is perfectly convincing in the mannerisms of her actions and words, and who manages to layer every song she performs with so much emotion it stops you in your tracks. Every song that's performed carries great emotion and meaning, layered with the past and the personality of every character (but especially the main lead). I cannot express how perfectly the music in this movie accompanies, elevates, and reinforces the themes and stories and- most importantly- the soul. And it only gets better with every re-watch.
This is a movie with incredible depth where you least expect it. And by that I mean everywhere. Just as my rating suggests, it's a perfect story with perfect acting, perfect music, and perfect soul. The deeper you go, the more feeling and emotion you find, and for that it will always hold a place in my heart. I highly recommend this movie (which is now one of my all-time favorite movies), and implore you to watch it immediately.
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Amusing and entertaining movie to watch
Halmeoni was annoying at first but after a slight lens adjustment, perspective towards her changed. That is what the director wanted me to know when I was watching this film, and it was successfully done.The introduction of Mal-soon halmeoni was rather unpleasant. She is shown as someone who is rude, crass, and even arrogant. Later on, her daughter-in-law is not able to tolerate her attitude and was admitted to the hospital. Halmeoni realized that maybe she is a burden to her family and wanted to escape it. This is the reality that is currently faced by our elderly. I actually liked the transition of the first scene which defined ageism by the halmeoni's professor son then towards the scene with halmeoni and her family situation, then went to a point that she may be sent to a home for the aged. Because of that, she wants to be given another chance at life which was granted...with a twist that she returned to a 20 year old lady physically but mentally still her.
Now that she has returned to a youthful appearance (she changed her name to Doo-ri), she is now able to pursue her lifelong dream, which is to become a singer. Comedic scenes were abundant here and all did not fail to make me laugh out loud. Her feisty grandmother stature was ever present despite being in a 20-year old body, which made the comedy pleasing to watch, but what I liked here is that she is now able to minimize her previous crass character and somewhat evolve into a new character that is more understanding of her actions in the others' perspective without losing her unique character. Also, her being in a band with her grandson was not only hilarious, but the songs were just great and the lyrics and message were also fitting with the story. I actually thought the actress that played Doo-ri wasn't the real singer of the songs here, and was surprised and pleased when I found it out later on. She has a nice voice.
She is (almost) able to rekindle her romantic side as she developed feelings to the charming Seung-woo PD. I actually liked how she was able to reexperience romantic love, especially with after what she went through with life. Despite with a sad ending at that part, I still felt content with them both.
What I also found great in this movie, and personally, its highlight, is that it was able to explore more on the backstory as to why Mal-soon halmeoni became who she was. It was mainly to support her newborn son as she was now a single mother after the death of her husband that she had to create a stern, firm, and most importantly, a feisty person, in order for her and her baby to survive. I still find it wrong though how she did it, as seen on one scene. Yet to the unfamiliar person, she may be shown as someone who is rude, crass, and even arrogant, as I mentioned earlier. With that in mind, this is the reason why her neighbor and friend (and former servant), Mr. Park has struck with her all these years. I loved how the pacing of the movie slowly emphasize this side of her to me, the viewer, and at the end, I was able to understand our halmeoni, in an understanding as same as Mr. Park. I also admire that their "romance" was left open, and the final scene was just funny.
Plot wise, this movie is light in terms of emotion and predictable. But it did not fail to entertain me and bring comedy, it was just funny, especially on the "younger" Mal-soon/Doo-ri scenes. The music was delightful to hear, and the pacing as mentioned, was properly executed. There were some parts that I felt was conveniently ended (e.g., her relationship with her daughter-in-law, although to be fair, it has a time skip to a year later). I also wanted it to explore more on the "ageism" issue, as what was shown on the first scene, since it was fitting for our halmeoni, but somehow, they forgot to address said issue. Still, an amusing and entertaining movie to watch.
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Adorable film!
I absolutely loved this movie. It was so much fun and so cute. Na Moon Hee is such a great actress. Seeing her in the role of grandmother and feeling like a burden to her family, yet so in love with all of them wanting nothing but the best for them, was nearly heartbreaking to me. But this movie is a comedy and it is really packed wit laughs. You'll get a couple hours of fun for sure.I have to type 500 characters and I have no idea how many I have so far so I'm just going to type more but not related to the movie since I said all that needs to be said in that first paragraph.
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This review may contain spoilers
Not everyone gets a second chance at life...
I really enjoyed this movie. It has some of my favorite veteran actors in it. I found it heart-warming and heart-breaking at the same time. I'm so glad was a movie and not a series, the length was perfect.I know the Granny was not supposed to be likeable, but she annoyed the heck out of me. Once she became her younger self, but still retained the same attitudes, it was really funny to watch. I loved the grandson, he seemed to be the only one that cared for Granny.
I would have loved to have seen the family's reaction when she reverted back to her usual self after the blood transfusion, but, for me, that was the only thing that was missing.
The young version of the Granny had the voice, attitude and mannerisms down perfectly. I loved how they modeled her after Audrey Hepburn, her hairstyles and her fashion. And can we talk about the music? The songs were just beautiful.
And I'm sorry, you simply can't go wrong with a cameo by Kim Soo Hyun!
This was a very fun movie, which made me wonder about what choices I would have made in her situation. I'm so glad I finally watched this.
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Beautiful acting from the two female leads, they complement each other so well. Love the bum tapping “good job” scene of the band! Laugh, cry, laugh...my kind of drama!
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Ms. Granny represents the reality of old age. They think that becoming old is becoming useless, that they become less important to their family and societies, that whatever dreams they had left for themselves is no chance to achieve. Sad but this is the inevitable reality of life.
So when Oh Mal-Soon had the second chance to become 20 again, what do you think she’ll gain? In this movie, I truly enjoyed her journey; the passion, her dream, the humor, the new love, and even her music.
Truly, you will never get bored of the plot along with the characters. Actually, it exceeded my expectation. By the end of the film, you will realize what is more important in your life and you can decide about it.
Recommended to all kinds!
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PROS
- Even though you've seen similar concepts in other films, this one has a unique and meaningful approach
- The movie is mostly fun and light-hearted and also has some touching, sentimental moments
- The comedic elements are so well done and the old lady is a total savage most of the time
- Shim Eun-Kyung is such a charming actress; her intentionally awkward character shines so brightly
- The old people are delightfully funny
CONS
- Get ready for tears (this really isn't a bad thing, but it should be considered, since most of the film is so hilarious and light-hearted)
- Although well-executed, there is an overly-dramatized, cliched moment with the writing near the ending
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Well, here's another awesome movie that hard to NOT recommend. Shi, Eun-kyung is one of my favorite actresses and every time I see her in a movie, it ends up in my "favorites list."
This was such a comforting film for me, as I've been missing my grandma a lot lately. We would have loved seeing this together.
9/10
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This review may contain spoilers
I can consider this a Comfort movie.
Before I even started the movie, I check reviews strangely often than I should. However, Being swayed by positive reviews and the rating (obviously lol), I decided to just watch regardless.To start off.. The actress who played Oh Doo-ri/ Oh Mal-soon in her 20's really swept me off my feet with her acting (given years in the field ). Shim Eun-kyung really amazed me, she played such a heartwarming, witty, and very beautiful character.
Na Moon-hee as Mal-soon, though she was there in the beginning and near-ending of the movie, she was indeed my absolute favorite gammy — from her comeback and boldness to her bluntness (completely unfiltered) and caring nature (though it's definitely not in a way we could handle it.) Absolutely made me fall in love with her character.
But the overall cast has really mended the movie so beautifully. I had my fair share of laughter and a tad bit of crying from both laughter and genuine sadness, the hilarity and warmth the movie brought really gave me the comfort I needed, regardless of how my day is.
The OST is amazing honestly, I live for the vocals.
I'd definitely rewatch it a million times, if I were given a chance.
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