Sep
23
2006
Dasepo Naughty Girls
Posted by Ki
Movie : Dasepo Naughty Girls (Multicellular Girls) / Dasepo sonyo / 다세포소녀
Release Date : August 8, 2006
Country : South Korea
Director : Je-yong Lee
Starring : Kim Ok-Bin, Park Jin-Woo, Lee Kyeon
Runtime : 111 Minutes
Editor Rating : 7.5
Users Rating: 6.63 
(24 votes)
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Plot Synopsis : Museulmo High School, situated somewhere in South Korea, may or may not be your typical high school.
One of the students there is named “Poor Girl.” She walks around with a stuffed doll draped around her back, which she calls “Poverty.” As her name implies she is as poor as poor can get. She lives with her mother in a one room building. Her mom is chronically ill and is buried in debt. To help pay for her mother’s bills, as well as her own credit card bills and support her younger brother, she has turned to prostitution to support her family. Because of this, she carries a heavy burden of guilt and shame. So much so that she has attempted suicide and thinks about dying often. Her only friend seems to be her doll, “Poverty.” That is until she meets a new client.
The new client happens to be a crossdresser, that is looking for a young girl to “play” sisters with and become best friends with. Poor Girl is able to share some of her problems with her new found friend, the crossdresser. In the meantime, she dreams about dating her classmate “Anthony.”
Anthony comes from a rich background. His (adopted) parents were diplomats from Switzerland. He has everything a teenager can possibly wish for: good looks, expensive cars and expensive suits. Anthony goes through life enjoying his superficial ways…until he meets “Double Eye.”
“Double Eye” is the sibling of Anthony’s classmate “Cyclops.” Cyclops is a bit of the outcast at Museulmo High school. As his name indicates he has only one eye. His days at Museulmo High school is filled with loneliness from being the outcast and the object of their jokes. While waiting for his sister, Double Eye, at a restaurant, Cyclops is spotted by Anthony and his two friends. One of Anthony’s friends asks Cyclops, “Does your sister have a third eye?” Anthony and his friends laugh among themselves…until they see Cyclops’s sibling named “Double Eye.” Double Eye looks absolutely hot and his classmates are in shock. Anthony immediately falls in love with Double Eye. Unfortunately there is a secret with Double Eye…she is actually a he.
As the lives of these students progress at Museulmo there is another problem that soon starts to emerge. Students, who have never shown any interest in education, suddenly become emmersed in studying and preparing for their college entrance exams. They even give up….dating! It is up to these classmates to find out what is really going on at Museulmo High as well as prepare for their graduation.
Movie Review : I saw this movie on a weekday afternoon, during this past summer, in South Korea with the benefit of not having seen the movie trailers or advertisements. It seems Dasepo Naughty Girls was originally promoted as a teen sex comedy (something like Sex is Zero). In reality, this film is far different than movies in that genre. What Dasepo Naughty Girls is acutally about, is harder to to quantify. The movie is part satire, part comedy, part melodrama all set in a surreal comic-book like setting. I should first note that when I saw the film, there were, perhaps, 40 people in the theater watching the film. When the movie finished and the lights came on, there were only about 15 people left! I have never seen so many people walk out of a movie before. In retrospect, I think they may have expected another type of movie because of the advertisements, as well as one scene that drove out the people in masses - which will be explained later. With that stated, Dasepo Naught Girls is a unique film that has a lot of positives, as well as a few faults.
The film was based on a webcomic famous in Korea for its sexual content. I have never seen or read that webcomic so I’m not sure how faithful this movie stays to that. Some things that Dasepo Naughty Girls did well: a wacky but compelling script interspersed with very impressive cinematography (colors were as rich and bold as any comic book) and some unexpected Bollywood like musical sequences. The film also had sci-fi fantasy elements that appeared during the climax of the film that I didn’t care for (that was when most of the people in the theater walked out).
The story of this unusual high school was entertaining because of the unpredictable nature of the script. I had no idea where the film was going. The film opened up with a substitute teacher, announcing to his students that their regular Korean History teacher would not be teaching because he contracted a sexually transmitted disease. He also told the students that they should get checked out for STD’s as well. A girl blurted out that “I don’t sleep with Teachers.” The substitute teacher replied “Really? That’s good. because the teacher had syphilis.” Immediately afterwards, the girl gets up, slaps her boyfriend on the face, then jumps out of the classroom window (suicide). Then the boyfriend walks out of the classroom, muttering “I thought it was just a skin rash” and then a domino effect occurs. Another girl that he slept with walks out, then a boy that slept with her walks out and so forth until one-by-one everybody walks out of that classroom to get tested. That is…except for Cyclops. That scene was a blast in a weird, unexpected kind of way and from there, the movie took off on a wonderfully unpredictable path. An example of this would be the musical scenes. If you have ever been to a Karaoke room or sang along with a karaoke machine, then you know of those cheessy videos that accompanies the karaoke songs. In Daespo Naughty Girls, there were moments where the movie would break into a musical segment, with the characters dancing and acting in the cheesy manner of those karaoke videos and there would be lyrics that would scroll by at the bottom of the screen like those karaoke videos! I loved it.
The film also poked fun & critiqued quite a few hot topics in Korea. Some of which would be the lack of knowledge for Korean history, Korean media’s penchant to only show pretty faces, Anti-American sentiments, sexual identity issues, and so forth. Most were done in a subtle kind of way, rather than the brash manner of some other recent films like Hanbando or even the Host. An example of this would be in a scene where Poor Girl’s mother sat on a book by William Butler Years and then apologized to Poor Girl by saying “I didn’t mean to insult Ireland’s pride and all..don’t you have an American book?”
With so many weird things going on in the film, at times it was hard to figure out what exactly the movie was trying to accomplish. The scene that made the majority of people walk out of the theater was the scene near the end. A surreal battle occured at Museulmo High School between the students and the principle. Quite frankly the scene was was too long and too crude for my tastes. During this scene, a battle occured, which resulted in the girls shaking their legs to shoot these “virgin” rings out of their crotches to ward away a flying dragon. When that didn’t work, the guys did these gestures that mimic’d someone spanking their monkey and shot something at the flying dragon that successfully made the dragon fly away, kind of like in “Spirited Away”. Besides that wacky sequence I enjoyed every other moment of Daespo Naughty Girls.
If you think you wll enjoy a film that combines elements of The Wayward Cloud, Save The Green Planet and Take Care Of My Cat then check out Dasaepo Naughty Girls. Just don’t expect a typical Sex is Zero kind of sex comedy, this film has way more substance and a lot more unpredictability.
buy Dasepo Naughty Girls from YesAsia
Cast:
Ok-bin Kim - Poor Girl
Jin-woo Park - Anthony
Kyeon Lee - CyJi-Yeong Hong
Im Hye Jin - Poor Girl’s Mother
Byeol Kim - Bellflower
Eun-seong Lee - Two Eyes
Min-hyeok Lee - Anthony’s friend (pompadour)
Won-jong Lee - Big Razor Sis
Oh-jeong Nam - Vice-President Girl
Hye-won Park - Class Monitor
Geon Yu - Anthony’s friend - spiked hair
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2006 Movie Reviews, Korean Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Comments
5 Comments so far
iamsum1gr8 : thanks for pointing that out, I never noticed that. I’m itching to re-watch this one - and I still can’t believe the amount of people that walked out of the theatre during the eenuki part. oh well.
i thought that the movie was very bizarre. Just a clarification, the things the girls “fired” at the Eenuki, dragon, were the female sign ♀ and the things that the boys “fired” were the corresponding male sign, ♂.
I also didn’t care too much for the fantasy bit with the Eenuki at the end, but the rest of it was very good.
LoL! i loved this Movie! it was funny! and odd at the same time. But i never got to finish it! maybe i should!@ the trailer is much funnier than the real thing. thats what i think. LoL! xD
Annyong everybody! Welcome to Ugun’s Fanclub Blog =___=!
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I saw this movie (finally) after finding a copy with subtitles and it has to be one of the most strangest/bizarre/wacky/insane movies that I have ever seen. This movie is not for the faint of heart but if your tastes runs on the ecletic side I would say check it out. Totally unpredictable but I loved it.