My Tutor Friend (Korean: 동갑내기 과외하기; RR: Donggabnaegi gwaoehagi; lit. "Tutoring a Student of the Same Age") is a 2003 South Korean romantic comedy film starring Kim Ha-neul and Kwon Sang-woo. Unglamorous Su-wan is a sophomore in college who gets hired to tutor rich troublemaker Ji-hoon, who is repeating his senior year of high school for the third time.
My Tutor Friend | |
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![]() My Tutor Friend poster (2003) | |
Hangul | |
Hanja | |
Revised Romanization | Donggabnaegi gwaoehagi |
McCune–Reischauer | Tonggapnaegi kwaoehagi |
Directed by | Kim Kyeong-hyeong |
Written by | Park Yeon-seon |
Based on | Su-wan-ee, My Tutor Friend by Choi Su-wan |
Produced by | Jang Young-gwon Lee Seo-yeol Heo Dae-yeong |
Starring | Kim Ha-neul Kwon Sang-woo |
Cinematography | Ji Kil-woong Na Seung-yong |
Edited by | Ko Im-pyo |
Music by | Lee Kyung-sub |
Distributed by | CJ Entertainment |
Release date |
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Running time | 110 minutes |
Country | South Korea |
Language | Korean |
Box office | US$17.7 million[1] |
Released on February 7, 2003, the film topped the box office for five consecutive weeks and sold 4,809,871 tickets, making it the third best selling Korean film of 2003.[2]
This was Kim Kyeong-hyeong's directorial debut. Park Yeon-seon's screenplay was based on a series of stories posted online in 2000 by a real-life English literature major named Choi Su-wan about her experiences in tutoring a high schooler of her same age.[3]
Plot
editThis movie is about Kim Ji-hoon (Kwon Sang-woo) and Choi Su-wan (Kim Ha-neul), both 21 years old. Su-wan is in her second year at university while Ji-hoon is still in the process of repeating his senior year of high school.
Su-wan's mother works in their family business, selling fried chicken. To help out, Su-wan earns money by tutoring other children, but often gets fired after hitting the students. Her mother has a rich friend with a son in need of a tutor. The friend, Kim Ji-hoon's mother, wants a tutor that will make her son study so that he can pass his high school graduation exams. The salary offered is enough to pay for an entire semester of Su-wan's college education.
Ji-hoon is always able to attract girls and draw attention through his love of fighting. He has recently transferred to Surim High School, and manages to offend Lee Jong-soo (Gong Yoo), "king" and best fighter there. Jong-soo's girlfriend, Yang Ho-kyung (Kim Ji-woo) also sets her eye on him. He continues to brawl at Surim, including beating up a member of the high school gang for stealing from his younger brother Se-hoon. Apart from studying, Ji-hoon is actually fairly well rounded. As a child, he was sent to America to study. Because of his parents' decision, the relationship between them and Ji-hoon is strained. Ji-hoon's father, Kim Bong-man threatens to send him back to the US if he continues to get into trouble with his fighting and bad grades. To avoid being sent back to America, Ji-hoon needs to get at least a 50% on the upcoming mid-term exams. The only problem is that his usual average mark is much lower than that.
Su-wan is persistent in tutoring Ji-hoon despite his rudeness to her, and eventually their relationship improves. At the end of the term, Ji-hoon receives a barely passing grade (50.1), but passing nonetheless. According to the terms of a bet they made, Su-wan must dance in front of a crowd during a college festival. While embarrassed and shy at first, she eventually really gets into dancing and the audience cheers her on. Ji-hoon realizes his growing feelings for Su-wan when he gets jealous and angry at seeing all the guys watching her running up to the stage.
Then Su-wan's boyfriend comes back home. While spying on the couple, Ji-hoon learns that Su-wan's boyfriend is breaking up with her. The next day, Ji-hoon shows up at his house and beats him up for hurting her. However, he finds out that the reason he was leaving Su-wan was because he was entering the priesthood. After the ordination, Ji-hoon lets Su-wan vent her feelings by hitting him for a while. Once she settles down, he decides to take her sky sailing. While in the air, Ji-hoon tells Su-wan that he likes her. Su-wan does not know how to respond and pretends that she couldn't hear him over the earpiece. Later on, they go to an amusement park. Just as Ji-hoon is about to give Su-wan a present, Su-wan runs into a female college friend, who's accompanied by her boyfriend. Su-wan had previously confided in the friend about her difficulties in tutoring Ji-hoon. Su-wan's friend initially thinks that Ji-hoon is her boyfriend, but Su-wan denies it, saying she would never go out with a high school student. This angers Ji-hoon and he throws her present into the fountain and leaves.
Eventually, all of Ji-hoon's fighting catches up with him. Ho-kyung and her clique, Jong-soo and his high school gang, and actual gang members confront him while holding Su-wan hostage. Ji-hoon and Su-wan manage to run away, but they eventually get cornered and Ji-hoon has to fight everyone on the beach. Once all of the other gang members are down, Ji-hoon faces the mafia's best fighter. Ji-hoon is at the man's mercy, but Su-wan saves Ji-hoon by kicking the man in the groin. Then Su-wan and Ji-hoon drive away on her chicken delivery scooter, with her wearing the necklace, Ji-hoon's earlier gift. At the end, Ji-hoon and Su-wan are now a couple, and she is tutoring his younger brother Se-hoon.
Cast
edit- Kim Ha-neul - Choi Su-wan
- A sophomore at college who comes from a modest, lower-middle-class family that owns a fried chicken restaurant. To cover her expenses, she works as a private tutor. She is hired to tutor Ji-hoon in order for him to complete his high school requirements and graduate.
- Kwon Sang-woo - Kim Ji-hoon
- A wealthy and troubled young man who is repeating his senior year of high school for the third time.
- Gong Yoo - Lee Jong-soo
- Formerly the "best fighter" at Surim High School, until Ji-hoon came along.
- Kim Ji-woo - Yang Ho-kyung
- The most popular girl at Surim, who transfers her affections from Jong-soo to Ji-hoon.
- Baek Il-seob - Kim Bong-man, Ji-hoon's father
- He sent his son to America as a child and now threatens to send him back there if he does not turn around his bad behavior and begin to get good grades.
- Kim Ja-ok - Su-wan's mother, who runs a fried chicken restaurant.
- Kim Hye-ok - Ji-hoon's mother
- Oh Seung-geun - Su-wan's father
- Seo Dong-won - Chang-hee, high school minion
- Park Hyo-jun - Hyeok-jae, high school minion
- Jung Woo - thug
- Lee Seung-won - Su-wan's first love who becomes a priest
- Uhm Seong-mo - Kim Se-hoon, Ji-hoon's younger brother
Source material
editIn 1999, Choi Su-wan was a 19-year-old college student majoring in English and Korean languages, when she agreed to tutor a rich delinquent her own age named Kim Ji-hoon. She wrote about her experiences in June 2000, posting on a community website in a series of twenty installments.[4] Titled Su-wan-ee, My Tutor Friend, it attracted a large number of page views, with each installment viewed by an average of 15,000 netizens. The series was then featured in www.puha.co.kr, a website specializing in web comics. Due to its popularity, it first appeared in print in the monthly issues of a local magazine, under the title He and I written by Shim Hye-jin. This was then published in one volume in 2001 by Daewon C.I. That same year, film company Corea Entertainment purchased the rights, and screenwriter Park Yeon-seon adapted it into a screenplay.
Critical reception
editComparisons were made to My Sassy Girl (2001), another successful romantic comedy about young people who came from different backgrounds, that was originally serialized on the Internet.[5] Though criticized for its over-long second half and using predictable rom-com tropes,[6] the film was praised for its witty dialogue and avoiding melodrama, and the chemistry and charismatic performances of its two lead actors.[7][8][9]
Spin-off
editA spin-off movie My Tutor Friend 2 was released in 2007. Though promoted as a sequel, the film contains completely different characters, and only follows the basic premise of a boy and girl of the same age that happen to meet as student and tutor, and later fall in love. In My Tutor Friend 2, a male college student (Park Ki-woong) teaches Korean to a Korean-Japanese exchange student (Lee Chung-ah).[10]
References
edit- ^ "Box office by Country: My Tutor Friend" Archived 2017-12-01 at the Wayback Machine. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
- ^ "The Best Selling Films of 2003" Archived 2010-07-28 at the Wayback Machine. Koreanfilm.org. Retrieved 2012-06-04.
- ^ "Is Good Omen a Hindrance For Gaining Popularity?". The Dong-a Ilbo. April 15, 2004. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2013-05-28.
- ^ Lee, Ho-jeong (February 27, 2003). "How I turned my life into a movie". Korea JoongAng Daily. Archived from the original on April 11, 2013. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
- ^ Law, Ryan. "My Tutor Friend". Koreanfilm.org. Archived from the original on 2010-07-28. Retrieved 2013-03-23.
- ^ "My Tutor Friend". Asian Cinema Drifter. Archived from the original on 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2013-03-24.
- ^ Leong, Anthony (2003). "My Tutor Friend Movie Review". Media Circus. Archived from the original on 2013-02-03. Retrieved 2013-03-24.
- ^ "My Tutor Friend (2004) Movie Review". Beyond Hollywood. February 6, 2004. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 2013-03-24.
- ^ "My Tutor Friend". Love HK Film. 2003. Archived from the original on 2024-07-28. Retrieved 2013-03-24.
- ^ "Good Sequels". The Dong-a Ilbo. 9 November 2006. Archived from the original on 2024-07-28. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
External links
edit- Official website (in Korean)
- My Tutor Friend at the Korean Movie Database (in Korean)
- My Tutor Friend at IMDb
- My Tutor Friend at HanCinema