My PS Partner

aka Watcha Wearin'?

Story: Hyeon-seung (Ji Seong) is completely devastated after hearing that his ex-girlfriend So-yeon (Shin So-yul) has a new boyfriend. He still can't forget about her and suffers a lot. But he then gets a phone sex call from Yoon-jeong (Kim Ah-joong) who expects her boyfriend to be on the other end of the line. She eventually finds out that she has dialed the wrong number, but it's too late to make things undone. Some time later Hyeon-seung is drunk and calls Yoon-jeong, being angry at all women on this planet. However, during the conversation it turns out that the two are good listeners for each other. After all, Yoon-jeong has some serious problems with her Seung-joon (Kang Kyeong-joon), too. He still hasn't proposed to her, even though she already quit her job for him. Furthermore, she finds out that her boyfriend has cheated on her. The following days the friendship between the two people talking on the phone deepens and they give love tips to each other. One day they decide to finally meet. It soon becomes obvious that more than friendship could develop from their relationship, but both of their hearts are still clinging too much on their respective partner...

Review: Contrary to my gloomy expectations there is every now and then a movie in the romantic-comedy genre that manages to positively surprise me. Movies which shed some light on the topic relationship from a more realistic angle, just like "Very Ordinay Couple" or "Singles" did, while also not cutting short the humor. "My PS Partner" is such a rare case. You shouldn't have any illusions, though, since there are one or two mandatory romantic film clichés in the end, but most of the time the director tries to present his story with a fresh breeze and he actually succeeds! Not only the well-written screenplay, but also the nice chemistry between the two lead actors make this picture a winner.

There aren't many romantic flicks that feature a pretty explicit sex scene right at the beginning to make clear that it wants to aim at an adult audience. Apart from that and some raunchy dialogue the film easily could have been rewritten for a younger audience, though. That this hasn't been done proves that director Byun Sung-Hyun ("The Beat Goes On") deliberately tailored his movie to an adult audience. An audience that is familiar with the complex rough edges of a relationship and wants to look at love in a more profound way than your usual standard love story with handsome stars and dreamy glances at one another. As already stated this is also reflected in the humor, which might be a bit raunchy, yet never turns out to be coarse and thus is NOT aiming at pleasing a pubescent audience.

The ideas in "My PS Partner" are fresh and the characters are likeable without being stereotypes. Some of the more absurd scenes manage to make you laugh out loud and the countless conversations about sex, especially among the guys, are exhilarating. The driving force of the movie is of course the relationship that unfolds between Hyeon-seung und Yoon-jeong. Both are either facing a crisis in their relationship or have just put one behind them. And both give each other strength through their conversations, the big topic of the movie being when you have to let go of a relationship. Hyeon-seung has been dumped, yet still emotionally clings to his ex-girlfriend. Yoon-jeong on the other hand has grown apart from her boyfriend and has actually just been waiting for ages for a proposoal from him so that things can finally unfold the way they should.

But of course there is more than just friendship developing between the two phone friends and things start to get more complicated. Here, we have to deal with some rather typical scenes, but the director constantly gets his act together again in order to minimize the kitsch factor. A very good example is the wedding which is getting crashed. Yes, nowadays such a scene should be illegal in a romantic flick. But thanks to an unexpected refreshing idea you can easily excuse this offense against good taste. The same can't be said about a couple of other scenes, but they are more insignificant and so it isn't that hard to turn a blind eye on them either. Particularly, since Ji Seong ("Confession", "Blood Rain") and Kim Ah-joong ("200 Pounds Beauty", "When Romance Meets Destiny") breathe so much life into their characters.

The dialogues between the two protagonists also nicely display how reasonable and helpful one's advice can be for someone else, but when it comes to oneself you become a pitiful fool that is extremely weak when dealing with love. For the adult angle that "My PS Partner" opens up to the viewer and the very good balance between romance, comedy and serious relationship drama the flick deserves a clear thumbs up. The screenplay comes along without any unneeded embellishment, yet gives the supporthing characters enough color. Also, there is no lack of small surprises so that boredom is not an issue here. As already said that makes only the rather genre-typical scenes a bit annoying. However, this doesn't change the fact that the movie is in a completely different league than most other Korean rom-roms. Clearly recommended and not only to fans of the genre.

Buy this movie:

Follow @AsianMovieWeb