Netflix billed their new Korean film, Sweet and Sour, as a rom-com with a twist. Faced with real-world opportunities and challenges, a couple endures the highs and lows of trying to make a long-distance relationship survive. So we meet our main characters, Da-Eun and Hyeok.
They're in a hospital, and Da-Eun is a nurse while Hyeok is a patient. There's a slight chemistry that we see, and it begins to blossom into just some mild flirting and what could even be construed as a friendship.
Hyeok is an engineering student who's just been offered a job, which he's really thrilled about. We watch their friendship grow, and eventually it becomes a relationship. And then there's a small time jump that's shown, and we see Hyeok at an engineering firm.
He's not high up on the totem pole, but he has given larger projects to begin to work on. One of his team's projects is a new bridge, and he's just working tirelessly, and he barely leaves the office. And while he's doing that, he's got this growing friendship with one of his co-workers, Bo-Young.
And it's innocent, but we do see how this could cause issues with his relationship with Da-Eun. There's a decent amount of comedy in this, and a lot of it is more situational than flat-out jokes. Although some humor does come from the dialogue, but it works best when it's paired with actions.
I really began to like Hyeok at the beginning of the movie. He's sweet and attentive, and he's also slightly chubby, and he's picked on by the other patients in the hospital where he's recovering, so that instantly helps to make him sympathetic. Da-Eun is cute and really nice.
She's a little quirky, but we can see how she has a good heart, and is doing her best to survive the long working hours. As the story moves along, and we watch Hyeok at the engineering firm, we see his behaviors become different. He feels like he loses patience more easily, and is slowly becoming an unhappy person despite the errors that he tries to put on.
This could be because his job is really far away from where Da-Eun lives, so traveling back and forth takes a physical toll. And good gravy, the traffic that's shown and that he has to deal with, it is insane. It's so packed that at times he sees people sleeping in their cars because there's just no movement happening.
So this isn't your typical romantic comedy. Usually with them, there might be a small amount of conflict to create some tension, which then makes the romance all the more powerful.
In this, there's quite a lot of tension, and the story veers into territory where it feels like it's going more into the pure drama genre with heavier feelings and outcomes than it does with a lighthearted romantic comedy. With that drama that's introduced, it really does add a weight to the story too. I think if you know this going in, it can help the enjoyment.
If you go in thinking it's just a straight rom-com, and then get this heavier feel to the story, it could lessen the enjoyment. There's also a slight melancholy that surrounds the way the story is told. It does add to the conflict and the tension, but that does also work against the romantic comedy aspect of the story.
I do think, though, this helps to reinforce the title of the movie. We're getting both sweet and sour feelings as we watch. And I found myself really invested in the story.
I could see where character progressions were headed, and that tension kept me engaged because I cared about the players.
Yeah, some of it was predictable, but that's like most rom-coms. Actors do a good job of capturing their characters, and they build out people who we can root for or against, just depending on those behaviors.
And I definitely found myself liking some and certainly despising others. I do like the story progression that goes on. It might be slightly dragged out because we really get the gist of what's going on, and we don't necessarily need some of the scenes to be carried out as long as they were. The mood or emotion has been established, so when some scenes would continue to play out, all that was really doing was just adding time.
As I said earlier at the very beginning that there is a twist to this movie. Now, don't worry, I'm not going to tell you what it is, but I can see how it might turn some off.
At first, I was a little caught off guard by it, but then I ended up liking what they did. So the movie is about 100 minutes long, and I do think it could have been trimmed by at least 5 to 10 minutes over the course of the story. Even still, I didn't get bored with what I was watching.
So at the end of it, is this worth watching? I do think it is. There is a cute story here with some enjoyable characters. The acting is done well, and the story effectively builds out the character and the story tension, and that worked to engage me.
I enjoyed the cleverness of the twist the story takes, and despite the melancholy that's present at parts, I still left with a smile on my face. I rate the movie 7.5 out of 10.
Thank you for reading. See you next time, bye.
Posted Using INLEO
This guy looks like the one that acted vincenzo, that movie is epic.