{Movie Poster: My Tutor
Friend}
My Tutor Friend is a 2003
South Korean romantic comedy film starring Kim Ha-neul and Kwon Sang-woo, two
very famous celebrities today. Ha-neul, as Su-wan in the movie, comes out as an
unglamorous girl who needs to tutor in order to pay for her college tuition. On
the other hand, Sang-woo, as Ji-hoon, is a troublemaker from a rich family who
will eventually gets tutored and tamed by Su-wan. The film toped the box office
for five consecutive weeks and made the third best selling Korean film of 2003.
Plot Summary:
Both Ji-hoon and Su-wan are 21
years old students. Su-wan is in her second year at university while Ji-hoon is
still in his last year at high school. Su-wan’s mother works in the family
business of selling friend chicken. And to help out, Su-wan earns money by
tutoring other children, but often gets fired after scolding the students of
their misbehaviors. While looking for other students to tutor, Su-wan comes
across a troublemaker who happens to be from an extremely wealthy family. The
mother of the troublemaker is willing to pay a big amount for her son to pass
the high school graduation exam.
{Ji-hoon's rich mother}
Su-wan finds out that Ji-hoon
is not only bad at studying, but also a huge fighter at school. He also treats
Su-wan rudely during the tutor by having bad mannerism and smoking. She wants
to quit, but she feels that this is the last chance she has to pay for her
college tuition. Withholding his attitude, she persists in trying to get
Ji-hoon to get over 50% on his midterm and eventually their relationship
improves. In the end, he receives 50.1% and barely passes. According to their
bet, Su-wan dances in front of a crowd during a college festival. Seeing Su-wan
dancing in embarrassment, Ji-hoon realizes that he has grown some feelings for
her. He also gets jealous that other boys are watching her.
{Ji-hoon smoking during the tutor}
{Su-wan dancing in front of a crowd at the college festival}
Confirmed that he wants to
tell her about his feelings, he takes her on a airplane. He says that he likes
her, but Su-wan feels awkward and pretends not to understand. Then, he takes
her to an amusement park. Just when he wants to give her a present he prepared,
the two run into Su-wan’s college friend. The college friend assumes that
Su-wan and Ji-hoon are a couple, but Su-wan responds by saying that she would
not date a high school student. This upsets Ji-hoon so much that he throws away
the present and heads back home.
{Su-wand and Ji-hoon drink at a street bar to vent out her "anger" of Ji-hoon treating her rudely}
The two do not talk for a
while, but Ji-hoon eventually meets Su-wan again when all the people he picked
on a fight with holds Su-wan as a hostage. Ji-hoon must face and fight against
a mop of gangsters. Ji-hoon does well for a while, but he is at the best
fighter’s mercy at the end. But Su-wan saves Ji-hoon by kicking the man in the
groin. While he is in pain, Su-wan and Ji-hoon drive away on her chicken
delivery scooter—Su-wan is driving and Ji-hoon is holding onto her waist in the
back.
At the end, the two are now a
couple, and the film ends by Su-wan tutoring Ji-hoon’s younger brother Se-hoon.
{The two become a couple}
This was a romantic comedy
that showed much of Korea’s culture. From Fried Chicken Restaurants, to high
school gang fighting, to amusement parks, the film showed a wide range of the
culture that the Koreans are very fond of. To this day, many people remember
this movie as one that had an unique plot and a twist at the end.
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