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Two civil workers at the local district office find love but in distinctly different directions. 30 year-old Yun-woo Kim (Ji-tae Yu) moves into a new apartment complex. Yun-wook then comes across a charming 18 year-old high school student named Soo-young Han (Yeon-hee Lee) who lives one floor above. One morning, 18 year-old Soo-young forgets to wear her necktie to school and spots her new neighbor Yun-woo on the subway. She asks if she could borrow his necktie and the beginnings of an awkward relationship begins.
Meanwhile, Yun-woo’s co-worker at the district office named Sook Kang (Kang-in) also finds himself smitten with a new romantic interest. Sook Kang is only 22 years old, but he falls for a mysterious older lady who snaps photos of passerbys in the subway. The women’s name is Ha-kyung Kwon (Jeong-an Chae), a 29 year old lady slowly recovering from a prior relationship that ended in heartbreak. Sook Kang takes the initiative to ask her out for dinner and she accepts.
I can think of gazillion recent Korean films that covers relationships in a “modern” setting, but carries all the tact of say “Sex in the City” carried to the next level. “Hello Schoolgirl,” on the other hand, takes the opposite approach and features characters that all carry a mixture of nativity & sweetness. When covering the iffy storyline of a 30 year-old man’s infatuation with a 18 year-old high school girl this approach works. The attraction the couple has seems genuine and none of the creepiness that could arise from such a situation arises. Similar to the 2002 film “Bus, jeong ryu-jang” (Bus Stop), the couple’s most intimate moments involves holding hands.
Ji-tae Yu’s performance seemed to carry over from his 2006 film “Traces of Love” (Gaeulro) where he carried a forced sense of nativity that at times resembled a retarded adult. If you can get past this stiffness there’s still an attractive persona found underneath. His much younger counterpart Yeon-hee Lee does much better and exudes all the vitality of a girl on the cusp adulthood. Kang In provides for the most comical moments in the movie and his romantic counterpart, played by Jeong-an Chae, brightens the screen with her (airbrushed) grace.
There’s not much preachiness to be found in “Hello Schoolgirl.” The film simply tells the story of two couples that happen to fall in love with people from different age groups. The movie’s theme seems to say that within limits love really knows no boundaries. As trite as that may seem, when you watch “Hello Schoolgirl” you’ll likely find yourself rooting for all of the characters in the film. |
