k-critique

This post-graduation chick flick caught my attention with the cast, especially since I am a YG maniac and just graduated university.

Synopsis/Characters 
Starring Park Han Byul, Yoo In Na, Cha Ye Ryun and Yoon Eun Hye, this movie is about the story of 4 girls in their 20’s, right after they graduate from university. Facing many different and new challenges for the first time, they each have to go through their own obstacles - love, family, friends and of course, their first job. Their strong friendship helped each other through those hardships and served as a support network. 

Park Han Byul plays Yoon Hye Ji
Yoon Hye Ji is a loud, crazy, fun, brave, adventurous but sweet girl. Also one of those girls worth envying as she has it all - looks, body and most importantly, luck. She doesn’t have any goals in life, and just spends her days living life to the fullest - which often to her, means clubbing and alcohol. One day she was randomly scouted by a manager of a large entertainment company while dancing at a club. From then on, she began her life as an actress/model. At first, she was just living and enjoying life as a celebrity…however, she slowly starts to become serious for the first time in her life as she actually tries to put an effort into acting after being continuously yelled at by the director. 

Yoon Eun Hye plays Lee Yoo Min
Lee Yoo Min is a lazy student, but a talented writer. After graduation, she struggles with finding herself. She breaks up with her boyfriend because she felt that she deserved more than a man who just wants her for sex and can’t give her anything - security, materialism. Through relations, she lands a job at a media company as a broadcasting writer. However, she could not care less about the job as her boss always uses her to run personal errands and doesn’t really care about developing her potential as a writer. At this time, her party animal friend, Hye Ji, introduces her to a rich male friend of hers and sets them up on a date. Almost immediately, the guy falls for Yoo Min and they start dating. She experiences what it’s like to be dating the upper class with a boyfriend who can give her much more. At work, Yoo Min runs into an old highschool junior who has always adored her. She supports and encourages Yoo Min in her job, and is also a hardworking individual herself, except lacks in luck. Yoo Min finds her a bit annoying but everything changes when an unfortunate incident happens. To complicate things further, Yoo Min runs into some issues with her own boyfriend after accidentally sleeping together.

Cha Ye Ryun plays Choi Su Jin
Choi Su Jin is a very smart girl and does well in school. However, she is a person with high dignity and doesn’t want to lose face in front of her friends. Her true interest lies in acting, but she pretends it doesn’t mean anything to her. Su Jin’s father’s business went bankrupt and she needs to find a job quick. To save face, she refuses to tell her friends about her financial situation, worried that they might try to adjust everything to make her feel comfortable. Therefore, she forges a psychology degree in order to work as a psychology tutor for a student. Nevertheless, she still keeps attending many movie auditions whenever possible. Unfortunately, she lacks luck and is not very talented, resulting in many rejections. Things heat up when she finds out that her friend Hye Ji, who doesn’t work hard at all, got into the entertainment business by luck and became popular quickly with even a chance to act in a movie. Unable to fight back the jealousy, her friendship with Hye Ji was affected and the two frequently got into fights. 

Yoo In Na plays Min Hee
Out of the 4 friends, Min Hee has the richest parents; wealth was never a concern for her. Min Hee has a bubbly, cute, optimistic and friendly personality, but it vanishes for a bit while she is forced to deal with her parents’ divorce. She wants to study fashion abroad, and leave Korea before her parents get divorced. However she is stuck having to pass an English test before she is qualified for an international school. Feeling awkward, she has no choice but to take an English class with a bunch of highschoolers. One of them (played by U-Kiss’ Dong Ho), developed a crush on Min Hee and helped tutor her so she could pass the course. Although this was hardly displayed in the movie, the two did share a few cute and funny scenes toward the end of the movie.

Favorite quotations:

Yoon Hye Ji (played by Park Han Byul) says to Yoo Min, “A woman’s real eye length is wherever her eyeliner ends, and a man’s height includes his insoles.”

Yoo Min (played by Yoon Eun Hye) narrates a part near the end:“Resigned from the company and am freelancing. The TV dramas completely turned me down today for the 10th time. Furthermore, I don’t know how many more downfalls there are to come. But 25 years of age, is sufficient to dream and a perfect time to start new things. Also here now, I am the center of my life.”

Interesting Facts:

• I don’t know why this movie is called “My Black Mini Dress”, because there were very very few depictions of it throughout the entire film. From what I got from the film, it was depicted a total of 3 times.

1. The movie started off with a graduation ceremony, in which Min Hee wonders why graduation robes have to be ‘black’. Su Jin, the wise character, answers that it is because black signifies an important ending of a phase of our lives.

2. Still near the beginning of the movie, Yoo Min goes shopping for an outfit for her blind date with Hye Ji. When she sets her eyes on a black mini dress, Hye Ji, the fashion/dating expert, comments that a black mini dress is a perfect piece of clothing because you can wear it practically anywhere - from weddings to funerals.

3.  At the very end of the movie, it seems that there is a flashback…to when the 4 girls first met each other at a welcoming orientation for new students. All 4 girls happened to sit together at the auditorium. Coincidentally, all 4 of them also happen to be wearing the exact same black mini dress and they begin to laugh, which concludes the movie. 

Therefore, a possible reason why this movie is called My Black Mini Dress is because the dress represents the ending of many important phases in their life; i.e. the end of a relationship, the end of their academic career, even the end of someone’s life. This black mini dress also represents the friendship of the girls, as the black mini dress is suitable to wear for any important occasion (i.e. clubbing, blind dates, etc.); symbolizing the support the girls have for each other no matter what the situation may be. The fact that is is a mini dress, and not just any other piece of clothing like a shirt, pants, etc. is most likely because it showcases their youth and femininity the best, as well as the sexy and romantic charms of a girl in her early 20’s. 

• In “My Black Mini Dress”, Park Han Byul’s character gets scouted to be a CF model for Levi’s jeans. She had to film a fake CF for the purpose of the movie, but the effects were like that of a real CF because everyone in Korea became very interested in the Levi’s jeans she was wearing.

Thoughts:
I have never saw Park Han Byul act, and I’ve gotta say, she acted very well in this. The casting was great because her character was very believable when played by her. Although her character isn’t that hard to portray, but she knew the perfect amount of exaggeration to put into certain scenes. There were also a couple scenes where she had more emotional parts during fights with Su Jin, and I thought her acting was very natural. She’s more than a pretty face. Oh wait, scrap what I said in the beginning. I did watch her act very briefly, as she was featured in SE7EN’s MV - I’m Going Crazy. But that wasn’t enough to judge her acting yet. A full movie is enough to judge, at least for now.

Yoo In Na’s acting was good in this too, but she didn’t have many parts compared to the other 3 main characters. Also, her character wasn’t a difficult character to play. There were no surprises here, she didn’t ‘wow’ me. I think it’s because all I’ve ever seen Yoo In Na act in, are all roles like this - girly, cute, bubbly roles. I would love to see her act in something that’s complete opposite of that…something out of her comfort zone.

As for Yoon Eun Hye and Cha Ye Ryun, both were also great actresses, especially Yoon Eun Hye. Her role was the heaviest out of the 4 main characters but I felt she did a good job. Switching from lazy, messy to motivated and refined in front of her boyfriend and other upper class people. As well as being worried, emotional over the baby, the death of her friend, etc. I loved Cha Ye Ryun’s character as Su Jin. Her character was so smart, elegant, classy, but at the same time has slight breakdown moments due to her audition failure and jealousy. Her subtleness in expressing certain emotions in order to save face in front of her friends was great.

Conclusion
Overall, this was a pretty typical chick flick. Like other graduation or friendship based movies, this had all the necessities - family, love, friendship, job issues. But this movie was more character-based rather than plot-based. There was very little romance touched upon and I would’ve liked it if the movie included other work related issues other than only revolving around the entertainment business. And there was way too much emphasis on Yoon Eun Hye’s character, leaving practically nothing relevant to talk about of the other main characters. If you’re a fresh graduate like me, I would recommend you watch this because you can relate to it, especially the part about ‘rejections’ (and in this economy too…). If not, then this movie isn’t really worth your time unless you like the cast, or you’re just looking for something fun, light and relaxing.  

Message of the movie?
Don’t be afraid of failure or rejections! As a new graduate, this is the perfect time to start new things and experience life. It’s okay to make mistakes. Just be sure to stay close to your own support network, your friends. No matter where life takes all of you, keep in touch!