“Like A Virgin” starts off as a cutesy high school comedy film. You have Dong-Gu, our main protagonist in the film, working in a shipyard in the early morning and carrying more than his share of sacks so he won’t be late to school. He arrives at school but of course is late again. Luckily his best friend had set his books opened on his desk and Dong-Gu walks into the room pretending that he just came from the bathroom. He is a chubby kid, that talks in a slightly effeminate voice and loves Madonna, but doesn’t really look anything like a female. After class he hangs out with his best friend, and tries on red silk dresses, while thinking to himself that he may resemble Maggie Cheung.

When Dong-Gu gets home in the evening, we are introduced to his home life. Which is about as bleak and depressing as you could possibly imagine. His father is an alcoholic and abusive towards Dong-Gu and his brother. Dong-Gu’s mother recently left their home to start a new life.

Dong-Gu also has a crush on his Japanese language teacher. The scene is setup in a humorous dream sequence, but sad in a way, because whatever hopes he possibly has cannot come to fruition.

Shortly afterwards, Dong-Gu gets introduced to the quirky wrestling teacher at his high school. The wrestling teacher quickly realizes that Dong-Gu has the type of body that would excel at the Korean wrestling sport known as Ssireum. When Dong-Gu finds out that there is a wrestling tournament coming up, with a sizable cash prize for the winner, Dong-Gu decides that this may be the way to pay for the sex change operation that he has always wanted.

From there it is basically fasten your seat-belt and prepare for a rush of different emotions. There are some absolutely hilarious scenes (especially between Dong-Gu and his wrestling teammates) to some heartbreaking moments (Dong-Gu discussing the difficulties he will likely face after his surgery with his mom) and finally some root for the underdog moments in the wrestling tournament. The final wrestling match is setup like the Korean film “Crying Fist” where both opponents are good guys and you don’t want to see either person lose. There’s an even better scene during the closing credits, so I would suggest you stick around for that as well.

The supporting cast, in particular his wrestling teammates, were all very good and the soundtrack was reminiscent of one of my all time favorite soundtracks…Take Care Of My Cat.

I didn’t know much about “Like A Virgin” prior to seeing the film, but I did leave the theatre with a huge smile on my face and feeling a bit lucky that I lucked into seeing this gem of a movie. I would guess that if you watch this film you may get the same feeling.