Nov

11

2008

Baby & Me

Posted by luna6

Baby & Me
Movie: Baby & Me
Release Date: August 13, 2008
Country: South Korea
Director: Jin-yeong Kim
Starring: Geun-seok Jang, Byeol Kim
Runtime: 96 Min
Editor Rating: 4.5
Users Rating: 7.93 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars (15 votes)

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“Baby & Me” seems like a can’t miss movie. The movie stars one of the most popular young actors in Korea today, Geun-seok Jang, and features a story that revolves around a young teen suddenly thrust into fatherhood. At minimum, “Baby & Me” should elicit plenty of smiles and, possibly, a whole lot of laughs right? Sadly, it just ain’t so.

Joon-soo (Geun-seok Jang) is a rebellious high school kid, popular with the girls, but an absolute nightmare for his parents and teachers. Joon-soo soon drives his parents batty enough that they decide to up and leave their house. When Joon-soo finds out that his parents are AWOL he does what any party animal would do, he calls his friends over for a house party.

That afternoon, Joon-soo prepares for the party by going to the grocery store and buying drinks & food . While at the grocery store, he briefly leaves his shopping cart unattended to check out the liquor selection. When he comes back to his shopping cart, he’s stunned to find a baby in his cart. Even more confounding, after waiting for hours at the store, nobody comes forward to claim the baby. And to top everything off, theres a note on the baby which claims Joon-soo is the father!

At first, Joon-soo devises varies ways to abandon the child, but every time is spoiled by an unexpected event. When his teacher calls to warn him that he will be expelled if he misses another day, Joon-soo decides to bring the baby to school. This causes further scandal for Joon-soo and eventually leads to his suspension. Through all this, Joon-soo finds himself slowly becoming attached to the baby.

Like a lot of Korean films these days, you’re treated to a decent first 30 minutes or so and than pure drudgery. With “Baby & Me” the laughs never come about, the storyline is fraught with illogical actions, and the movie makes a disappointing turn into pure drama territory towards the end of the film. Gun-seok Jang does his part to provide for a likable lead, but everything else about the movie is second-rate at best.

One of the many misguided choices made by the filmmakers was to use an adult voice-over to illustrate the baby’s thoughts (ala 3 Men and a Baby). This came off as a cheap trick to make the movie cuter than necessary and never came close to being funny. Certain scenes also seemed seriously misguided. When Joon-soo smeared the baby’s soiled diapers on another student’s textbook (for complaining about the noise), it wreaked of poor taste and out of whack judgment on the main character’s part. There’s also many scenes with Byeol Kim telling off teachers in an intended cute manner, but came across as a self-centered brat. If all this isn’t bad enough, there’s plenty of moments with flawed logic. The biggest offense occurred during the movie’s climax. Geun-seok Jang ran through the security checkpoint at the Incheon Airport to find a couple leaving the country. Eventually he did find the couple, while being chased by airport security. The problem? He had no idea which gate they were at!

2008 is turning out to be one of the weakest years for Korean films in terms of quality and commercial success. “Baby & Me” seems to follow this disappointing pattern by turning in another unsatisfactory effort. If you want a taste of a really good Korean comedy featuring a main character always running around with a baby strapped to their back than check out “Saving My Hubby.” “Baby & Me” is for only die-hard Geun-seok Jang fans.

P.S. For non-Koreans that watch “Baby & Me,” they may wonder to themselves where exactly Geon-seok Jang’s parents are staying at. If you’re one of them, the answer is “Jim Jil Bang” aka Korean sauna. There are plenty of Jim Jil Bangs in Korea and they cost around $20 bucks for a one day stay (you can sleep in there all night if you wish).


Buy Baby & Me from YesAsia


Cast:
Geun-seok Jang - Joon-soo
Byeol Kim - Byeol Kim
Mason Mun - Woo-ram Han (baby)
Myeong-su Park - voice of Woo-ram
Jeong-nan Kim - Ms. Cho (Joon-soo’s Teacher)
Byeong-ok Kim - Joon-soo’s father
Hyeon-suk Park - Joon-soo’s mother
Gyu-su Jeong - Byeol’s father
Jeong-hee Jang - Byeol’s mother
Jae-han Choi - Jun-seong
Se-hong Jeon
Kwang-rok Oh - older man trying to abandon his baby
Mun-shik Lee - Subway attendant (standing by locker)





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2008 Movie Reviews, Korean Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |

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4 Comments so far

  1. 4 khristian Says: December 17, 2008

    average but some actors portrayed their roles well… cute baby

  2. 3 R Says: November 27, 2008

    I agree it was very disappointing.. I must confess I started watching this only for the sake of JGS.. Unfortunately his face isn’t enough to save this movie.. I at least thought it might have cheap humor to make us laugh, that didn’t happen either. I hated the ending.. [spoiler] How is it possible for him to run through all the airport security find the white couple who’s adopting the baby. I really hate this Korean Drama/Movie cliche. They almost always meet at the last minute front of the boarding door at the airport. I would not recommend this movie to my friends.

  3. 2 PrincelyLuna Says: November 15, 2008

    i soooooo agree with ur review on this movie. i thought Jang Gun Seok is a decent actor but in this movie his acting really sucks. the only pleasure i derived from this movie is watching the cute baby!

  4. 1 gijawannabe Says: November 14, 2008

    thx for the review.. ^_^