Old Miss Diary: The Movie (2006) Movie Review

“Old Miss Diary: The Movie” sees the graduation of a popular Korean sitcom to the big screen, a risky move which often sees concepts that worked well in small doses flounder when played out at feature length. Thankfully, that proves not to be the case here, mainly since the film features not only the same characters as the television series, but also the same writers and directors, all of whom help to recapture the same offbeat mixture of humour and romance which won over fans in the first place.

The plot revolves around Mi Ja (actress Ye Ji Won, recently in “So Cute”), a down on her luck thirty-something woman whose life is going nowhere fast, and who seems doomed to live out her days as a lonely old maid. Things start to look up when she finally manages to land some work as a voice-dubbing actress, which brings her back into contact not only with a former crush, but a possible longshot love prospect in the form of handsome young producer Ji Hyun Woo (Ji Hyun Woo, also in the television series “Over the Rainbow”). This makes for all manner of complications, as does the odd behaviour of her three grandmothers, who seem to be making a late bid for romance themselves.

“Old Miss Diary” is pretty different for a Korean romantic comedy, mainly due to the fact that instead of a dizzy youngster who looks like she has just stepped out of a cosmetics advert in the lead, it also features a thirty-two year old woman who is unemployed, lives with her grandparents, and who is introduced to viewers via depictions of some less than savoury personal habits, including the plucking of underarm hair to pass time and projectile vomiting in the street after drinking too much. Although such behaviour may not sound particularly ladylike, Mi Ja is a far more believable and human character than those that usually populates such films, and it is precisely the gambit of her not being a two dimensional beauty queen which interests the viewer and makes her an appealing underdog figure who it is hard not to root for.

The film’s romantic elements are handled with a surprising subtlety and realism, with the road to love being a long and rocky one, peppered with painful mishaps, most of which stem from Mi Ja’s all too believable insecurities rather than comical misunderstandings. It certainly helps that beneath his mock-cool exterior, Ji Hyun is quite blatantly a social misfit in his own right, and though the viewer never learns much about him beyond a few hints of his inner turmoil, the two do seem to be a good match, and their relationship develops in a convincing fashion. It goes without saying that the film takes the inevitable dive into melodrama towards the end, with some tragedy and shock revelations thrown in for good measure, though there are at least mercifully few tears or cheap tugs at the heartstrings.

The film’s greatest strength is that it is consistently funny throughout, and is so without undermining the central story or degenerating into nonsense. The jokes are a good mix, from the neurotic meandering of Mi Ja’s voiceover and her tendency to drift into weird visions, to a healthy amount of broad physical slapstick, most of which involves her falling over or generally making an ass of herself. There are a number of amusing film references, from the opening scene which parodies the recent Korean blockbuster “Welcome to Dongmakgol”, to the Asian horror gags resulting from Mi Ja’s work dubbing what seems to be a “Ringu” knock-off, providing the voice for a familiar looking ghost called ‘Sadako’.

Director Kim Seok Yoon keeps the film appropriately lively, with plenty of imaginative visual touches usually related to Mi Ja’s flights of fantasy and the wacky behaviour of the old folks. The proceedings move along at a pleasingly energetic pace, never dwelling too much on the more downbeat aspects of the story or pausing for unnecessary reflection. The film does betray its sitcom origins in that the plot is episodic, especially in terms of scenes featuring the grandmothers. Though amusing and interesting in their own right, as well as providing some surprisingly thoughtful ruminations on life and aging, these sequences are for the most part unconnected to the main narrative, and at times feel rather scattershot. Still, this is by no means a bad thing, as it does make for a bit of eccentricity and variety, and helps to further differentiate the film from others in the genre.

It is this kind of quirkiness which makes “Old Miss Diary” a genuine pleasure to watch, and which means that it is likely to be enjoyed even by viewers who are not fans of the form. With likeable characters, a strong story and a certain level of emotional depth, if perhaps not complexity, it offers a welcome change of pace for anyone exasperated by the fact that most Korean romantic comedies seem to revolve around fresh faced delinquents or hyperactive high school girls.

Seok-yun Kim (director) / Ji-seon Kim, Su-jin Kim, Yong-geun Lee, Hae-yeong Park (screenplay)
CAST: Ji-won Ye … Choi Mi-ja
Hyun-wu Ji
Dong-jik Jang
Hye-ok Kim
Ji-yeong Kim
Yeong-ok Kim
Hyeon-shik Lim