3.0, Korea

Love is a Crazy Thing

2005 / Oh Seok-geun > Mismarketed as a romantic comedy, Love is a Crazy Thing follows the journey of a downtrodden woman with an incompetent husband (whose face we never see), two young sons and a stackload of debt into the wonderful world of Korean “karaoke.” Oh does a good job in not getting carried away with sex industry cliches, balancing properly the woman’s inner emotions with her outside influences. Played impeccably by Jeon Mi-seon, there’s a subtle radiance that grows on her throughout the film. It successfully builds multiple layers around her character and then peels them away. Moreover, the script grounds itself in reality until the climax, so the plausibility of the storyline is not questioned until it needs to be. By the end, there is little doubt that the title of the film, unlike its marketing, was indeed on the spot.

Standard