Someone Special is a South Korean romantic comedy film about a struggling baseball player and a fan with a long-time crush on him.It stars Lee Na-Young, Jeong Jae-Young and Jang Young-Nam.It was directed by Jang Jin.Dong Chiseong, a star baseball pitcher in high school and college, hurts his shoulder, and is replaced as an outfielder. What is worse, he experiences a constant nose-bleeding and hears from the doctor that he is only given three months to live due to a malignant tumor in his lung. Deeply depressed, he goes to a bar to drink away his sorrows until he falls asleep. A pretty bartender Han Iyeon, finds him passed out and picks him up and carries him in a box. One day, as Chiseong heads home, he hears a familiar story on a radio program about someone named the "Writing Princess" who described how she once carried a man in a box to a hotel room. It turns out that Iyeon's chance encounter with the struggling player at the bar was far from accidental. She apparently has lived close to Chiseong and monitored him closely over the past 10 years, suffering from an unrequited love.Someone Special has been highly anticipated for no other reason that it is director's long-awaited follow-up movie. And the first person he took in mind to realize this project was the inimitable actress and model Lee Na-young. The unique on screen situations that Jang Jin can create combined with Lee Na-young's unexpected and outlandish acting have made expectations for this film soar.Also, telling his down to earth romance with some good drops of humor to balance parts that at times are endangered to shift into sentimental over-drive, it offers the viewers a seldom seen cinematic surprise.

The movie that I'm glad that this film turned out not to be is the parody that exists within the movie. As that movie-within-a-movie goes on, the protagonist of this tale comments on how illogical and tedious it is, being a story of two lovers who are parted and somehow one can send his love to the other through a magical telephone pole as they both die. That movie-within-a-movie grabs all the trite clichés that infest Corean melodramas and brings them to their ridiculous conclusions.Someone Special or A Woman I Know (direct translation) is a romantic comedy, but it's build on a completely different foundation than the typical Corean melodrama. In fact, the closest analogue I can come up with to this film is Punch Drunk Love, which is also a completely different kind of romance. Unlike Punch Drunk Love, however, Someone Special is completely aware of all the genre rules and even follows them in parodic (but not spoofing) fashion, subverting clichés of terminal illness, tear-jerking moments, and remarkable connections between lovers. And even though it acts as a parody of the romantic comedy genre, it still retains the heart of a romantic comedy.The story, on the surface, is a little unremarkable. It's essentially about heartbroken baseball player and a young woman who has a one-sided crush on him. The comedy is derived partially from parody, flights of fantasy, erratic behavior and comedic situations, as well as some sharp awkward dialog. A few directorial touches that I love is the inversion of background and foreground and the overall approach to the look of the film.Another thing I love about the film is the acting. First of all, the male lead doesn't have model-like features--he's a rather average looking guy. And the female lead portrays her rather bizarre character with gusto and while she's costumed rather dumpy, she conveys a genuinely addictive naiveté. The rest of the film is peopled with rather amusing persons all played well by their supporting actors.I did have some issues with the editing, which I felt didn't do enough to cut down the running time as there were more than a couple moments where I felt like we could have more elliptical storytelling. Also, although I remain neutral to it, there are many setups where a hand-held camera is used and it can be distracting to those who expect a still camera when shooting a still scene. It's a little unorthodox and I can't find a compelling reason to shoot it the way it was shot, but at the same time, it's a rather memorable technique, even if excessive. Finally, sometimes the music was mixed too much up front and while I understand the use of pop songs in certain parts, as part of the genre critique, at other times, it was just a little overbearing and distracting.Despite that I felt like a few more things could've been done to improve the film, I still have to admit that I was really entertained by the film and loved its intelligent and yet still genuine take on the romantic comedy genre. With great characters, atypical amusing comedy and a really unique energy, Someone Special ended up being something special for me: a really enjoyable romantic comedy that considerably pushes the genre into a new place. 8/10.

I have to say coming in to this film my expectations were pretty low. And the first few scenes my expectations were met every way. I felt that because it had no A-List actors the movie was going to bomb, boy was I wrong. Nayoung Lee plays her role perfectly, and in hindsight (which they say is 20/20) I can see no other actress who could have played it. I honestly did not know this actress before this film, and during it I was confused as to whether she was supposed to be blind or not. Just due to the way she looks, and acts. In fact, I had to say she looked very odd. But aside from the initial reaction, she melted into her character and was great. The character development of this film was spectacular, all romantic comedies from the motherland all try to have a dramatic scene in the rain with everyone crying and such, this movie uses a blend of awkward 'getting to know each other' time and the occasional dramatic yelling and screaming over the pitter patter of cg rain, to produce a ... awesome end product. Sorry couldn't think of a better word. I feel this is more a sappy "guy who likes to watch sappy chick flick" movie then a regular chick flick, but all you ladies are welcome to get your ben and jerrys and settle down in front of the computer or TV because your heart will be warmed up instantly by this cleverly written and directed diamond in the rough.

As much as I love Korean cinema, I tend to get bit selective when it comes to melodramatic romance films, mainly because I rarely find myself in the mood for some extreme tear dropping. But once in a while I get an itch to watch a good K romance drama without the flashy action or over the top comedy and when I heard that this film was directed by Jin Jang I was more so interested since I enjoyed both Guns & Talks and Ditto and also knew or hoped that it wouldn't be a typical genre piece.First thing I noticed from the start of the film was that just as sentimentality was about to overtake the screen, Jang would quickly sneak in humorous imagination sequences or have his characters simply swallow their words to lighten up the mood, instead of delivering long compelling lines. At the moment I took that as his trick to slowly digress into full fledged gloominess, but to my relief that wasn't meant to be.I think the casting of these actors was done perfectly as both Jae-yeong Jeong, who shows his strength as a veteran actor and Na-yeong Lee, equally shone through with their natural and effortless delivery. Since Jae-yeong's character is facing an illness, his somewhat average looks helped him to convey his inner sadness better than most actors ever do in these type of situations. Na-yeong keeps herself confined although her character has a lot on her mind and heart, which essentially enriches the moments when she shyly smiles or tries to comfort Jae-yeong, all at the same time without becoming over bearing or needy.Still, I had my reservations about how the ending would take its final shape with this hocus-pocus of a sensitive story, but in the end I couldn't have asked for a better way of providing a closure. Jin Jang was able to smartly craft the oldest tale in the history of cinematic romances with a refreshing twist. This film might be even more enjoyable with the second viewing, especially if the first time around you didn't get the hint on what Jang was aiming for. My only complaint is about the music, which I felt was a bit too typical for a film that was heading toward the abstract, but perhaps it was added intentionally to surprise the audience even further.I wish more romantic comedies were like this, completely drag free and without the sappy fluff, but I guess good things come in small doses and that's just another reason why I'd recommend this film so enthusiastically.