mrrcott Crush and Blush 2008Directed by Lee Kyoung-miRight near the beginning of Crush and Blush, the main character Mi-seok stands digging a deep hole in a schoolyard. I thought that it was a punishment used in South Korean schools, but if not it could be a visual metaphor for someone digging themselves deeper into a figurative hole. That's what happens to Mi-seok in this film, as she digs herself deeper and deeper into a very messy situation. Crush and Blush is a wonderful comedy directed by Lee Kyoung-mi, and shown in London for the 11th Korean Film festival. After the blood spattered, male-dominated journey into hell that was Asura, it was a relief to enjoy the company of a slightly awkward but very likable teacher who has a crush on one of the staff, the same teacher who taught her when she was a pupil at the school several years earlier. Lee Mi-seok has an embarrassing facial disorder which causes her to blush whenever she is nervous or tells a lie. She teaches Russian at Girls' high school but is forced to change to English in favour of a more attractive and younger teacher who is having an affair with her colleague Jong Cheol. Things become even more complicated when Mi-sook teams up with his daughter who wants to stop her parents divorcing. Soon they are using the science lab to send online messages as Jong-cheol to Lee You-ri. As this goes on they start to form a friendship with each other that is touching and sweet.I've seen several Korean comedies and sometimes the humour is lost in translation: for example, characters acting in self-consciously zany, wacky or plain stupid ways that are never psychologically believable. But although the comedy in Crush and Blush is awkward, sometimes painfully so, it's believable because the characters are acting in ways they think of as normal, however bizarre their actions appeared to us. There is a lovely cameo from Jae-woo Bae as a Dermatologist who must listen to Mi-seok's laundry list of romantic problems: "If I don't call him for a reason, how will he know I'm not calling him for a reason?" It was easy to relate to what Mi-seok was feeling as she tried to hide her feelings for Jong- cheol whilst preventing any more closeness developing between the other teacher. The relationship between the teacher and pupil was touching and tender. I can count on one hand the number of good films about female friendships. But watching them conspire to break up the affair was superb, inspired and witty stuff.I thought about the role of teaching too. In some ways the adult Miseok is less mature than the younger school girl who comes up with the hilarious messages to send to Joeng-cheol. These messages get very graphic (although there is no sex in this film) and it seems as though the girl has a far deeper knowledge of sexual experiences than Mi-seok.There was some cruel humour too which you often find in Korean films. For example, characters are called 'losers' and poor Mi-seok is labeled as 'reds' by her pupils for her hot-flushes. It seems that bullying in Korean schools is endemic. And there is the perception that Miseok is seen as being unattractive because she is not physically perfect in every way, especially when seen next to the conventionally beautiful Yoo-ri.As a comedy, it was great. It also went deeper and was a great character study. Lee Kyoung-mi has recently directed The Truth Beneath, which opened the London Korean Film Festival. It would be fascinating to watch both films side by side.

reallyevilboy If you've seen any of my other reviews you'll know I love South Korean Movies.This is one of those little odd movies that hides away, waiting you to find it and watch it and love it.The acting was really top notch, especially the main character and the daughter. Their interaction together makes the movie. As always it's the small little things that are added as though making a movie is a matter of art as apposed to fame and money.This is a quaint, odd ball, black comedy that warms your heart when the movie is done. It's great and well worth the watch.

dbborroughs Hyo-jin Kong plays Yang Mi-Sook, a teacher who blushes easily. She has held a crush on the man who was her teacher ten years earlier in high school and has become a teacher and joined the faculty of the school she went to to try and win him. Of course it doesn't matter that he's married (to a belly dance instructor) and has a daughter who's a student in the school. Things become complicated when the object of her affection looks to be heading for a divorce and is interested in another teacher. She then teams up with object of her affections daughter, who doesn't want her parents divorce to get what she wants, but just like her being reassigned from teaching Russian to teaching English, a language she doesn't know, things just don't really go the way she wants them to.Funny film of a misfit trying to force her way through the world is better than I thought it was going to be. Written up in several reviews as a comedy of uncomfortable humor I thought this was going to be straight humiliation humor, but its not. There is a good deal of that type of humor, as well a jokes that just seem wrong, but at the same time the humor seems not to have as mean an edge as many recent American films of a similar type. I think the film isn't as mean because there is something about the characters that makes them click with you. Everyone seems to be a misfit or an outcast of some form and the humor arises out of the characters and their behavior and not from some artificial need to torment them. I didn't think I was going to laugh, I thought I was going to cringe, but for the most part I found myself laughing with the characters and not at them. I never really cringed, except at the points where it really was deserved.Hyo-jin Kong has won some awards for this role, and she is quite good, but I wouldn't say that she's quite as stellar as the awards would suggest. My problem is that more than once she seems to be a beautiful actress who is getting ugly for a role. Don't get me wrong she still steals the movie and holds center stage, its just that I always felt that she was prettier and better than the material was suggesting she is.Definitely worth a look. This is a funny movie that supplies the laughs and is worth tracking down.(I have to say that the film contains some hysterical exchanges including one on the subject of "what exactly would you do with him if you actually won my husband?")

sitenoise This is a thoughtful Korean comedy, slightly risqué, that wins with wit, good acting, and a good (award winning) screenplay filled with surprises. (Park Chan-wook's got a co-write credit.) A number of times it will set you up to dare it to go somewhere, then it will go there and you'll applaud the way it's handled, delicately. There is mildly adult humor in the presence of a child so delicacy is warranted. Props to young actress Woo Seo for taking it all in stride, reminding us that kids are usually hip to the things adults think they should be protected from. Hyo-jin Kong, as the frumpy high school teacher who blushes easily, is surprisingly accomplished in her comic timing, often acting in a meta-aware fashion to her surroundings. The director seems aware of all the cheap ways to make us laugh but instead of utilizing them he steps back and winks at them. This is smart and funny ... not a goof-ball comedy even though it plays like one on the surface.