Ummm, where to start this...the beginning. I had no expectations about this movie whatsoever. First I'm not an EXO-L, second Chan Yeol is who exactly? A member of EXO. Okay and??? Am I supposed to be impressed by that? No. Moving on...he's a rapper, the main rapper and a singer. Okay but he's not rapping or singing in the movie so do I care? Nope, not one bit. He's an actor. Well, I can see that otherwise he wouldn't be the lead performer in this movie, it would be somebody else. He could have been the second male lead. What if he was? He's a member of EXO, so unless there was a bigger name heading the project that would be unlikely to happen. Kai and Sehun are much better actors. Whatever...for arguments sake, let’s focus on this movie. Fine. Fine, so???? The movie, yeah... as I was saying I didn’t have any expectations therefore I was not disappointed. I was entertained. I laughed, I giggled, I smiled. Overall I had a good time watching it. It’s a summery comedy, light, breezy, cute, obnoxious, good.
The plot was nothing special but it was something many would probably have imagined through fan fic and maybe dabbed at it either through reading or writing. A famous, illustrious idol actor hits the spades with his anti-fan. Throughout the course of a few movie minutes audiences are awarded a walk down memory lane with a Full House esque theme minus Rain and Song Hye-kyo. Antagonists become lovey dovey and spades turn into hearts. Very touching yet very predictable. Points for the originality of the idea, nil. Points for reinventing and modernizing the idea 10 out of 7. To make it a 10, the blend would actually have to be fluid with less over the top annoying I’ve seen better than this moments before in another movie/drama. The movie is in fact based on a manhwa of the same name.
The performances were okay. Maybe I’m biased as I can’t stop comparing Chan Yeol’s character to Chan Yeol in EXO next door. They seem the same which is not the ideal thing as this would mean he has a long long long way to go as actor. Branching into a male lead role might have been fine if he was an experienced thespian. As he’s not he might benefit from developing his craft by undertaking smaller roles and gaining acting experience before venturing into a production he might have gotten an offer to for being an EXO member and the group’s popularity in China. Yuan Shan Shan’s performance was equally bland however I found it to be slightly better than Chan Yeol. She is an experienced actress compared to him but her performance was for the most part utterly annoying and loud. The rebel I hate you act is good when it’s properly done and that means subtly done at times otherwise it’s too much and at times it felt too much. Saying this I liked it more than I did Full House and that’s saying a lot.
The soundtrack, I didn’t pay attention to it apart from the Tango. I liked that scene with the piano. It was filmed beautifully. Apart from that every song was forgotten. Chan Yeol and Shan Shan did sing a song for the movie called ‘I Hate You’ however meh.
The re-watch value is 50/50. It depends on the day, it depends on the mood. I liked the movie. I had fun watching it and I’d recommend it, that’s all and EXO are really talented entertainers and they dance, wow how they dance!
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