My Tutor Friend

My Tutor Friend
Poster to My Tutor Friend (2003)
Hangul	동갑내기 과외하기
Hanja	同甲내기 課外하기
RR	Donggabnaegi gwaoehagi
MR	Tonggapnaegi kwaoehagi
Directed by	Kim Kyeong-hyeong
Produced by	Jeong Yeong-kwon
Written by	Choi Soo-Wan
Starring	Kim Ha-Neul Kwon Sang-woo
Music by	Choi Soo-Wan Lee Kyeong-seob Choi Soo-Wan
Cinematography	Ji Gil-woong
Editing by	Ko Im-Pyo
Distributed by	CJ Entertainment
Release date(s)	January 30, 2003 (2003-01-30)
Running time	110 minutes
Country	South Korea
Language	Korean

My Tutor Friend (동갑내기 과외하기 - Donggabnaegi gwaoehagi) is a 2003 South Korean film released on January 30, 2003. It is about a touching story of two completely different students from two completely different worlds. One is a rich male repeating his third year of high school and the other a poor girl in her second year of university struggling to make ends meet.

The movie was directed by Kim Kyeong-hyeong and is his debut film.

Plot

This movie is about the lives of Kim Ji-Hoon (Kwon Sang-Woo) and Choi Su-Wan (Kim Ha-Neul), both 21 years old. Su-Wan is in her second year at university while Ji-Hoon is still in the process of repeating his third year of high school. Su-Wan’s mother works in their family business, selling fried chicken. To help out, Su-Wan earns money by tutoring other children, but often gets fired after hitting the students. Her mother has a rich friend with a son in need of a tutor. The friend, Kim Ji-Hoon’s mother, wants a tutor that will make her son study so that he can pass his exams. This salary is able to pay for an entire semester (half of a school year) of Su-Wan’s college education. Ji-Hoon is always able to attract the girls and draw attention through his love of fighting. He fought at his new high school, Surim High School and managed to offend Jong-Seo Lee, the leader of the triad group at Surim. He was able to attract his girlfriend, Ho-Gyung Yan, through his fighting. He had problems with everyone. Including the entire gang at his high school, he beat up a member of another gang after they took things from his little brother. Besides studying, Ji-Hoon is actually fairly well rounded. As a child, Ji-Hoon was sent to America to study abroad. Due to this decision of his parents, the relationship between Ji-Hoon and his parents is strained. Ji-Hoon’s Father, Kim Bong-Man is threatening to send him back to the USA if he continues to get into trouble with fighting and bad grades. To avoid being sent back to America, Ji-Hoon needs to get at least a 50% on the upcoming mid-term exams. The only problem is that his usual average mark was much lower than that. Will he make it?

Yes, he manages to do it. At the end of the term, he barely ends up with a passing grade (50.1), but passing nonetheless. As a result from a bet that the two, Ji-Hoon and Su-Wan, Su-Wan must dance in front of a crowd during a festival that was taking place. While embarrassed and shy at first, she eventually gets really into dancing and so does the audience. Ji-Hoon is starting to really like Su-Wan at this point and is angry when he sees all of the guys watching her and running up to the stage. Near this point is also when Su-Wan’s boyfriend comes back home. When spying on the couple, Ji-Hoon learns that Su-Wan’s boyfriend is breaking up with her. The next day, Ji-Hoon shows up at his house and beats him up for leaving her. Later, however, he finds out that the reason that he was leaving Su-Wan was because he was becoming a priest. After the service, Ji-Hoon lets Su-Wan beat him up for a little bit. Once she settles down, he decides to take her sky sailing. This is when Ji-Hoon decides to tell Su-Wan that he likes her. Su-Wan does not know how to respond and pretends she cannot hear him. Later on, they go to an amusement park. Just when Ji-Hoon is about to give Su-Wan a present, Su-Wan sees her close friend at the park with her boyfriend. This is the friend that Su-Wan previously confided in about dealing with this student. Originally, Su-Wan’s friend thought that Ji-Hoon was her boyfriend, but Su-Wan, however, says that she would never go out with him. This makes Ji-Hoon mad and he throws her present into the fountain and leaves.

Eventually, all of Ji-Hoon’s fighting catches up with him. Near the end of the movie, Ji-Hoon has to deal with all of the problems that have been building up. First, his girlfriend is mad and is making him choose between her and Su-Wan. Once he chooses Su-Wan, he isn’t finished. He still needs to deal with the high school gang and the real gang members. Ji-Hoon and Su-Wan manage to run away for a little bit, but they get cornered and Ji-Hoon has to fight everyone on the beach. Once all of the other gang members are down, Ji-Hoon still has to deal with the best fighter of all. Ji-Hoon is at the man’s mercy, but Su-Wan is able to save Ji-Hoon. And then Su-wan and Ji-Hoon drive away on Su-Wan's motor skooter, Su-Wan is driving while Ji-Hoon sits behind and holds her waist and they go off together. In the end the movie ties up with Su-wan and Ji-hoon becoming boyfriend and girlfriend.

Cast

• Kwon Sang-woo - Kim Ji-hoon - is a troubled and wealthy third year high school student who was hired a tutor to help him complete his high school requirements.
• Kim Ha-neul - Choi Su-wan - comes from a modest lower middle class family. She is a second year college student that is hired to tutor Ji-hoon in order for him to complete his high school requirements.
• Baek Il-seob - Ji-hoon’s father - his father sent Ji-hoon to America as a child and now threatens to send him back there if he does not turn around his bad behavior and begin to get good grades.
• Kim Ji-woo - Ho-Kyeong - Ji hoon’s girlfriend who is attracted to him because of the fights he gets into.
• Gong Yoo - Jong-Soo - Ji hoon’s nemesis who he is constantly feuding with during the movie.

Production

This film was written by Jo Jung-hun, Ahn Eun-a, and Choi Won and was produced by Baek Jong-Jin through Prime Entertainment. This film was the third best selling Korean film of 2003 and was able to attract over 5 million movie goers.

Reviews

My Tutor Friend topped the box office for five weeks straight. Viewers immediately loved the movie which was similar to My Sassy Girl released in 2001. While this film may not be an example of a classic in Korean cinema, it possesses a definitive Korean charm. The film leans towards being a romantic comedy combined with action sequences which keeps the movie exciting. Fans enjoyed the film for the two attractive lead characters and their chemistry. Ha-Neul Kim is said to be quirky and sweet while Sang-Woo Kwon is very rebellious and is attractive. The warm reception of My Tutor Friend was not universal, and there have also been negative reviews. Some critics believe that the second half of the film seemed forced with a slower pace compared the first half. Many reviews also criticize this film for having an average plot, characterizing it as merely another teenage high school film.

Production credits

• Lee Kang-Beok - Executive Producer
• Kim Dong-Ju - Casting
• Go Im-Pyo - Editor
• Lee Seung-Cheol - Sound/Sound Designer
• Lee Seo-Yeol - Executive Producer
• Oh Sang-man - Art Director
• Jeong Hong-Gyun - Executive Producer
• Kim Hyeong-Kyeong - Screenwriter, Director
• Mun Dong-Shik - First Assistant Director
• Park Yeon-Seon - Screenwriter
• Ha Seung-Nam - Special Effects
• Ji Gil-Ung - Cinematographer
• 101 VFX - Digital Effects
• Lee Gyeong-Seob - Composer (Music Score)
• H Studio - Digital Effects
• Kim Hyeon-Ok - Production Designer
• Kim Jin-Woo - Costume Designer
• Jeong Uk-Chang - Sound/Sound Designer
• Shin Jae-Myeong - Martial Arts Instructor/Coordinator

External links

• My Tutor Friend at the Internet Movie Database
• http://www.lovehkfilm.com/panasia/my_tutor_friend.htm
• My Tutor Friend at HanCinema
• http://www.mediacircus.net/mytutorfriend.html
• http://www.acdrifter.com/Asian-Movie-Review/59/My-Tutor-Friend.html
• http://www.koreanfilm.org/kfilm03.html