Ellie Loethen

Yonsei GSIS Newsletter, Editor

This month, there was a new film on Netflix that was highly advertised and looked forward to.  Husbands in Action is a new film starring Gong Myeong and Jin Seonkyu as the lead characters, though the film itself has a star-studded cast, including Kang Hanna, Lee Dahee, and Kim Jiseok, to name a few.  It follows Hwang Choongsik (Jin), a detective for the narcotics department, and Lee Minseok (Gong) as they try to save Lee’s wife, Si-nae, who is also Hwang’s ex-wife.  The wife, played by Kang Hanna, and her daughter are kidnapped by a drug lord’s wife (Lee Dahee) as retaliation for her husband’s arrest.  Hwang and Lee end up working together to save Si-nae and her daughter from the drug cartel.  In the meantime, there is a power struggle between the leader of the drug cartel, Ma Dojoon (Kim Jiseok), and a drug lord recently released from prison who wants his empire back. 

Ma, Hwang, and Lee eventually work together to unravel the plot of the rival drug lord and form an unlikely alliance when the drug lord ultimately kidnaps Ma’s wife as well.  It’s a slightly confusing web at first, but the trio have to learn to trust one another as the stakes get higher and higher.  The film is full of high-speed chases and comedic dialogue that will keep you laughing through the film.  Gong Myeong’s performance is brilliantly, awkwardly funny.  His character is the only one who isn’t involved in police work or a world of crime until his wife is abducted.  The two main characters often clash over their awkward relationship dynamic, but ultimately put their differences aside in order to protect those they care about. Overall, it’s an entertaining film if you like fast-paced, silly stories about unlikely partnerships and, in a sense, found family.  

If you’re looking for something lighthearted to start the summer, I also watched the 2021 Miracle: Letters to the President starring Lim Yoona (Girls’ Generation) and Park Jeongmin.   This story follows a young high school freshman, Joonkyung, in the North Gyeongsang province during the late 1980s.  He lives in a small village with no roads and no nearby train station.  The people who live in his village have to commute by traversing the train tracks and trying to avoid the active trains.  Joonkyung writes letters to the president of South Korea (at the time Chun Doohwan) asking him to build a train station near his town, but with no luck.  He lives with his father, a train engineer, and his older sister, Bokyung.  Additionally, Joonkyung is a math genius who continuously places first in all of Korea on his exams and in competitions. 

Joonkyung commutes two hours to high school each day, typically accompanied by his sister until a certain point.  There, he meets Lahee, a spunky and smart girl who takes an interest in his mission to get a train station established.  The two spend a lot of time together, and she coaches him to write letters with better handwriting, spelling, and in the Seoul dialect rather than his country accent.  The story follows Joonkyung, Lahee, and his family as he works to hone his mathematical genius, develop his relationship with Lahee, and build the station.  He struggles with his relationship with his father, but is comforted by his sister.  Even though there’s a pretty shocking plot twist in the middle which puts the entire story into a different context, the film is lighthearted, silly, nostalgic and the perfect opening to summer.  Hopefully, the story of Joonkyung warms your heart just as it did mine.

Thank you all for tuning in with me this semester!