| This is Soul Guardian director Kwang-chun Park's third and most recent film entitled She's On Duty, which follows our heroine as she goes through various comedic encounters when she's forced to go undercover in a High School to get close to the daughter of a criminal. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews on the flick, but mostly going towards the positive side on the quirky comedy aspect. I personally think a lot of the mainstream South Korean cinema is brilliant in terms of mixing action and comedy together. This movie is another example. Although the comedy could have been slightly better in parts, since it doesn't take itself seriously even the failed jokes seem to somehow work.
As stated above, our main character is a female detective, who, after foiling up a recent bust in hopes of catching a criminal, is forced to go undercover and pose as a High School student in order to be-friend the daughter of the criminal that they could have caught sooner. This obviously isn't the most original plot, but regardless it still works thanks to the interesting characters and situations that we encounter throughout the film.
The movie also had a couple engaging sub-plots, such as when the "toughest" girl in school is beat up by the detective, so there are a few instances where she attempts to get revenge, like when she gets some weirdo and his cronies to fight her. We've also got a very small romantic sub-plot involving another new student whom the detective falls for, but what his real intentions for also be-friending the criminal's daughter is up for question. There's also a sub-plot involving a concerned teacher played by Sang-Myeon Park of My Wife is a Gangster-fame (he played the husband).
The movie isn't all about the comedy either, as it does have a handful of scenes involving a lot of people gettin' their asses handed to'em by our leads. In the end the movie is another solid addition to South Korea's continuous number of successful action-comedies.
On another note, does anyone else think the circled Korean guy on the left looks like Terrence Howard from Hustle and Flow? Maybe it's just me. 7/10 |
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