Mi-Ja is a 32 years old spinster. She lives with her grandmother and her grandmother’s two sisters. There’s also a widowed uncle that lives in their home as well his never before married son.

Mija’s chance for success finally arrives when she is hired as a voice-over artist for a Japanese horror movie that is being re-released in Korea. While working as a dubbing artist, she quickly falls in love with Ji-Hyun, the notoriously mean producer that is overseeing their project.

While Ji-Hyun doesn’t give the slightest hint that he is even remotely interested in her, Mija still feels that there is a special type of chemistry that exists between them. Because of this, Mija decides to follow her instincts to find true love, even if it means making a total embarrassment out of herself. Making things more difficult for Mija is the fact that her former boyfriend and his new girlfriend also work at the same studio.

From the beginning dream sequence in Old Miss Diary, which parodied the opening scene in “Welcome To DongMakgol,” the oddball nature of this Korean romantic comedy was set. Certainly the novelty of seeing a Korean actress on the big screen that was over 30, a slob, jobless, still single and living with her grandparents, set the stage for a fun and quirky movie. At times the predicaments that Mija found herself in would make me laugh out loud or other times cover my eyes simply out of embarrassment for her. The best moments would have been when these reactions would occur simultaneously.

An added bonus in “Old Miss Diary” would be the three grandmothers that lived with Mija. They were simply a trip to watch! They spoke to each other in a manner as crude as any drunken soldier in a soju bar, yet they shared this close bond that could only exist between family members. While watching the older ladies interact, the film brought up some poignant moments that I have never really thought of before. Although the three ladies were elderly there were other grandmothers in their neighborhood that were even older. Thus, the three grandmothers spoke to the older grandmothers in a respectful tone that younger people would use when speaking to elderly persons. The grandmothers would often express these matter of fact thoughts, like how they often felt that they were just waiting for the next person in their group to die, that were quite profound for a younger person to hear. The grandmothers even had their own social cliques among the elderly that were similar to the cliques that people in their 20’s have. I found all these aspects to be quite poignant and interspersed well within the comedic scenes detailing the adventures of their daughter, Mija.

Old Miss Diary is like a breath of fresh air when it comes to movies in the familiar K romance/comedy genre. The main actress, Ji-Won Ye, actually looks like a real person you would see in Korea (o.k. she has never had her eyelids fixed, so she’s unusual in that aspect), but she certainly doesn’t look like any of the more common waifish live anime figurines you will seen in so many of these movies. The story itself is quirky, very charming and the techniques used by the director did not follow any set rules, thus providing for a thoroughly unpredictable movie going experience.