Movie Review: "Please Teach Me English" (2003)

One Very Funny Movie. Sure, its formulaic. It does not profess to be anything more than a funny movie about something that Filipinos and Koreans share other than eating dog--BROKEN ENGLISH!

Moon-Su: "Are you Cold?"(much funnier when spoken with a Korean accent)
Young-ju: "No Cold"

I am proud to say that I was once, an English tutor to Korean teenagers. I can say that I (and tutors like me) APPRECIATE the jokes more than the typical pinoy. But that's not to say that its not a treat for everyone else. It's the little things that make it funny like the exclusion of the last vowel syllable when they pronounce a word---like--Cathy. It would be pronounced (Cass--). And the use of body language with simple questions when asked to answer a simple question in English instead of actually talking.

The movie itself is surprisingly fast paced and like any typical Korean movie, its pretty long. But the laughs keep on rolling as English is murdered llike jews in Schindler's List.
My favorite part is, of course, Lee Na-Young, the dorky yet lovable bida Young-ju or "Candy". I'm a sucker for dorky, nerdy chicks. If you look under her glasses, she's actually pretty hot! But the movie utilizes her charm as more of a potential beauty hiding beneath really unstylish glasses. Her main concern is that she is being treated as plain or in her words "normal".

Young-ju:(Shouting out the window in the middle of the night) "I AM NOT NORMAAAAAL!!!"

Jang Hyeok plays Moon-Su, cocky self-proclaimed playboy who enters the same tutoring center where Young-ju is forcibly enrolled in by her employer for not being able to answer a foreigner's question and plea for help. Moon-Su has his eyes set on Cathy (Cass--) played by Aussie hottie Angela Kelly and thinks proposing to a girl in English is sexy. He also wants to learn so he can talk to his natural born sister, who lived in the states when she was sent out for adoption and does not know Korean.
The movie turns into a serendipitous trip for both characters where they find something more in their continuous association more than the correct translation of "Simbap" in English.

This should give you two hours of fun and continuous giggling at the eccentricities of Koreans and their steadfast desire to learn the most inconsitent of languages.

Shooter: "What's your favorite Movie??"
Young-Ju:"..."
Shooter: "I will repeat, What's your favorite movie...M-O-V-I-E. Movie!"
Young-Ju: "uhhh....AH! MOOBIE?!...uh, JIRO-JIRO, SEBAN!! (flashes v-sign in her excitement)"
Shooter: "007....you mean James Bond!?"
Young-Ju; "Yes!!"
Shooter: "WHY"
Young-Ju:"..........."

Rocketboy's Rating: **** (4 out of 5)