2004, Korea
Director: Kwak Jae-yong
Starring: Jeon Ji-hyun

Plot: When police officer Kyungjin (Jeon) mistakenly arrests Myungwoo, a schoolteacher, she immediately finds the man charming. ON the same night, Kyungjin gets into a brawl with high school punks and finds herself caught in a showdown between two gangs. Many things happen that force them to stay together. They are drawn closer and closer to each other and neither of them are able to resist the strange but pure nature.

One of 2004’s most highly anticipated film was WINDSTRUCK from the director of MY SASSY GIRL Kwak Jae-yong and its star Jeon Ji-hyun. Jeon Ji-hyun is one of the most popular actresses in Korea and Asia. If you enjoyed his previous efforts MY SASSY GIRL and CLASSIC, well, you are in for a treat. He combined comedic touch he did with SASSY GIRL and melodrama with CLASSIC to give us absolute outbursts of emotions. It continuously switches between sappy and hilarious moments back and forth, and ultimately ends up with another SASSY GIRL, which is a good thing. Jeon Ji-hyun plays a happy-go-lucky police officer. Her reason of joining the force is because her dead twin sister wanted to in life. I won’t talk about how marvelous she is. Jang Hyuk plays a high school teacher who had lead an ordinary life until he met Jeon.

Just as it was in SASSY GIRL, the film opens with narrative then moves on to a flashback and switches back to a narrative to tell the story of events which eventually lead to the opening scene. We will find out the encounters of two and how they eventually end up together. That is a structure of Kwak film and it is his formula. And as the story proceeds, it will get more and more interesting. The film starts to accommodate many different genres. Even though sometimes it feels like Kwak is trying to do what he couldn’t do with SASSY GIRL, it is truly embracing that he could occupy so many genres and still gives us bitter sweetness to the film. One might feel that it is just ridiculous at many moments, his attempt here is fully succeeded. Just wait till the last moment of the film. It will absolutely put a smile on your face.

You can say WINDSTRUCK is just another version of MY SASSY GIRL. It just might be. However, it is much braver in its directing. There is one thing for sure now. If Kwak and Jeon team up, it can’t go wrong.

Review by Shogo.