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"DANCE WITH THE WIND"
I think I have a new favorite Korean comedy. It's partly for personal reasons that I liked this movie so much, but even still, this is really well-executed, well-acted, and well-structured entertainment. It's SO nice to see a film like this after having all those stupid, trashy comedies last year.
The film is centered around ballroom/latin dancing, but is quite different from SHALL WE DANCE, which people will initially compare it to. Debut actress Park Sol-mi (from the TV drama ALL-IN) plays an investigator who goes "undercover" to expose a notorious dancer/swindler played by Lee Sung-jae. In Korea, ballroom dancing has had a really negative image up until recent years, with most people viewing "cabaret" dancing as a means for married housewives to be seduced and swindled by younger men. This film plays off the tension between this negative image of dancing and the idea that people may take up dancing just because they love to dance.
The leads and the supporting actors (including Kim Soo-ro in a hilarious role) do a great job, and they look absolutely fantastic. I'm really impressed that they were able to learn to dance so well in such a short time (the leads have been training like crazy for the past six months).
The director is Park Jeong-woo, who wrote the screenplay for ATTACK THE GAS STATION, LAST PRESENT, KICK THE MOON, JAIL BREAKERS, BREAK OUT, and more. This is his first directorial debut, and it obviously won't be his last.
I used to be into latin/ballroom dancing in graduate school in a big way, so that may partly explain why I liked this movie so much. Still, I feel confident in predicting that this is going to be a really big hit, and that it will work as well for international audiences as it does for Korean ones. It opens on April 9.
--Darcy
[koreanfilm.org] |
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