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Movie Review: You’re My Pet

2011 was a good year for the noona romance, with You’re My Pet standing as a highly-anticipated film based on the Japanese manga Kimi wa petto, later adapted into a Japanese drama series of the same name. Most of the anticipation rested on the shoulders of its two A-list stars, Jang Geun-seok and Kim Haneul. Expectations were high, halfway due to the fact that it’s an adaptation of a well-beloved series, and halfway due to that inevitable bit of expectation we get when anything comes out whole from a production limbo.

Since I was a movie buff before I stumbled upon dramas, I was happy to sink my teeth into a movie review – and I’d been cautiously optimistic since hearing about You’re My Pet. Here’s the thing: there isn’t really a whole lot to explore if you look too deep, and if there is a moral question to be raised about whether one person keeping another person as a “pet” is correct, well – it’s a valid question. It’s not one that this movie takes it upon itself to answer, though, because we’d be getting way too dark of a film.

That being said, this is the sort of premise that you have to buy out right in order to enjoy. Getting hung up on the schematics (like I did) is likely to cause unnecessary headaches.

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You’re My Pet doesn’t aspire to be anything more than fluff and has a basic premise – a stoic career woman who’s great at her job but terrible at love decides to adopt and train a human boy to be a pet and companion.

It’s a cohabitation drama, with the twist that the female is the one in charge and is the “master”, while a younger man is considered as a “pet” and treated as such. This doesn’t present as much conflict as you’d think, leaving the plot and its characters floating at surface-level most of the time. There are some cute moments, but overall it ends up feeling like a series of vignettes rather than a cohesive whole, since the story tries to be all-encompassing by including a host of side characters that don’t ever manage to steal the focus, but who manage to take up time I’d rather have spent exploring our leads.

At first, I found the sharp-and-quick editing to be a breath of fresh air. Scenes lasted no longer than a minute or two, and we were soon off to the next technicolor, sunny-day scene. And while quick editing in comedies is a virtual necessity, it’s rare that I come across a film where the editing is too quick, so much so that scenes aren’t allowed to breathe and we aren’t given a chance to get to know who these characters really are. And if we don’t know that, it’s hard to care. In this instance, the directing hand seemed to be working against the story – and then I remembered that this was the first feature film project for director Kim Byung-gon, which might explain it.

Meet our heroine, JI EUN-YI (Kim Haneul), a successful fashion magazine editor who looks like the classic city woman on the outside – snazzy outfits, cool demeanor – but suffers from normal insecurities. She’s the kind of woman who goes into the bathroom to eat ice cream during a bad day, while unfortunately also being the kind of woman who has her coworkers talking about her in that same bathroom. Girl can’t catch a break.

Her mother calls that she wants a divorce, her dad calls that her mom wants a divorce. To Eun-yi, this is rinse, lather, repeat. To boot, she’s always had bad luck with men, so much so that she makes a declaration at the beginning of the film, “I can only approve of someone that is taller than me, smarter than me, and one that earns more.” Her friends know that the chances are slim, so they suggest she just try a pet instead.

Eun-yi lives in a swank apartment befitting her job, and uses her younger brother, JI EUN-SOO (Choi Jong-hoon) as a maid. His unwillingness to continue folding his sister’s underwear becomes the catalyst for our two leads to meet.

Her brother’s friend, KANG IN-HO (Jang Geun-seok), is a ballet dancer who finds himself homeless after a fight with his previous female caretaker. He seems decently carefree, but he’s got a dark past – a ballerina became unable to dance due to him accidentally dropping her once, and it’s enough for him to avoid dancing with women. He’s got enough talent for his boss to keep him around, though he still tries to persuade In-ho to sing a duet with a girl during an upcoming musical.

In-ho is either secretly wealthy or slightly delusional, as he wonders how much it would cost to live in a five-star hotel every month now that he has no home. He likes the idea of being taken care of, and it’s here where Eun-soo comes up with the perfect solution to solve In-ho’s homeless problem along with his own servitude to his sister. He’ll just have In-ho live with her and do all the chores.

In-ho’s happy to take Eun-soo’s proposition even though he claims that he’s incapable of doing housework, and even pays him six months worth of rent to stay in Eun-yi’s house. Naturally, bringing a new roommate into his sister’s home isn’t something Eun-soo thought to tell her, so she suffers a shock when she mistakes In-ho for her brother and pats his bottom, only to come face to face with her new live-in guest.

Eun-soo gets on his knees to beg his noona so that In-ho can stay, and finally wins her over with the declaration that he’ll fix their parents’ marital problems if she takes her friend in. This is one of the many side stories introduced only to have no conclusion or payoff later in the film.

There are a lot of instances where the audience is required to fill in the blanks – when this device is used well, it normally flies under the radar. This is the only movie I’ve seen recently where it seems as though whole chunks of scenes were edited out – not in a way that seems made to move the plot along, but in a way that makes it seem as though they filmed a ten-hour movie and suddenly found that they needed to edit it down to ninety minutes. The side effect is that many possibly-good scenes stay in ‘possibly’ territory because they end up feeling rushed.

For some scenes it works, like one early-on where In-ho defends a woman’s honor and gets chased down by the men who were with her, resulting in him hiding in a box near Eun-yi’s front door like a little puppy waiting to be rescued. This scene would have been better served had it been their first meeting (not to draw too many comparisons, but in the original drama series this was their initial meeting) but coming on the heels of his already open-invitation to her home, it’s a bit out of place.

Eun-yi ends up patching up bruises from In-ho’s invisible fight, and In-ho’s the first one to pick up on the fact that Eun-yi wants a pet but doesn’t have one – and thus suggests himself as a pet replacement. After all, he won’t do annoying things pets do like make noise or poop in auspicious places. Seemingly going along with the idea, she starts naming off all the things he’ll have to do, so that he’ll be a pet with “no human rights”. She’s attempting to make the situation sound so unfavorable that In-ho will leave, but she gets the opposite reaction.

When she finds that In-ho is more than willing to give up basic human rights to become her living human pet, Eun-yi realizes what she’s doing and hastily tries to kick him out. She doesn’t succeed, and though she seems as though she tries to be in control of her life, it seems pretty easy for In-ho to wiggle his way back into her house and into her good graces.

So she decides to roll with it, and declares that In-ho’s name will now be Momo. She’ll feed him and take care of him, and in return he has to always be there for her. She sets her parameters clearly: a pet is just a pet. It is neither a husband or a lover. He isn’t to bother her when she’s working and above all else, he cannot even give her ice cream a passing glance. Eating it would be asking for death.

In-ho takes the premise and runs with it, happily settling into his new life as a pet that absolutely owns his owner. No matter her tough-ish exterior, In-ho is usually able to whine his way into getting whatever he wants – whether it’s food, or for Eun-yi to wash his hair.

Eun-yi’s the kind of girl who does puzzles in her free time, and though the basis of the relationship seems pretty unhealthy, having a roommate in In-ho seems to be doing her well. If he truly was the submissive pet she ideally wanted him to be (although finding out what she wants is difficult as we’re given only a cursory peek at her thoughts), the relationship would be decently doomed. But because he’s constantly seeking her attention, the awkwardness of being strangers soon melts into a workable cohabitation. Sort of.

For instance, he doesn’t bother speaking in honorifics (because pets don’t use honorifics) and has no shame. Since she’s becomes embarrassed even in her own home, In-ho’s carefree personality is a useful dichotomy to Eun-yi’s inner insecurities.

We follow Eun-yi to and from work throughout the movie, and it’s here that we’re introduced to female rival and character-paint-by-numbers specialist LEE YOUNG-EUN (Jung Yoo-mi), but more on her later. The long and short of it is that Eun-yi is having her own having problems at work with the chief editor, and Young-eun only helps to exacerbate the problem.

There are a small wealth of comedic moments and certainly no dearth of skinship – and one of my favorite bits comes when In-ho starts dancing alone in Eun-yi’s apartment. She comes home late, he more or less ropes her into dancing with him, and he dips her romantically at the big finale…

Only we hear a crack! and realize that her back just went out. Ha. I still think that the tiny, two-second scene afterwards where she nurses her back while he undergoes school-grade punishment is my favorite. This is the only moment in the movie where the age difference between them is really laid out, and though I feel like this is a valid conflict that was never really explored past this point, we’re left to assume that the age gap makes no difference to anyone, which is valid enough. Not every noona romance needs to explore the issue of the age gap.

So, to introduce some outside conflict, we get CHA WOO-SUNG (Ryu Tae-joon), Eun-yi’s former first love. All those things she listed as her ideal type earlier? That’s him, in a dreamy nutshell. He’s tall, dark, and handsome, successful at his job – and apparently has eyes for Eun-yi. Knowing that her initial love for him was unrequited adds fuel to the fire, and it’s not long before Eun-yi is trying to convince herself this might be it for her. He might be the one.

We get some weird interludes with her friends – and I say weird not because the subject matter is weird, but because we’re never really introduced to her friends and the scenes are so short that I couldn’t get a firm grasp of the who or why of it all. Either way, they eat cake together and support each other.

Woo-sung and Eun-yi go on a successful first date, and when Woo-sung makes his way into her house with the hope of getting into her pants, In-ho is there to spoil the fun and scare him away by barking like a big, scary dog.

The idea of competition gets In-ho to step up the romantic angle, because he’s apparently come to like her during their time together. Either way, we can enjoy the cute moments they share while they go on cute dates, made even cuter by the lack of the master-pet dynamic while they’re in public.

There are some ripe comedic moments when In-ho starts to act out the moment Eun-yi’s attention wavers at home. He starts leaving various booby traps for her in the house, like filling her shoes with soil and eating all her ice cream, and leaves a polaroid of him performing the prank at every crime scene. Once again, though, I feel like I’m not given enough time to really enjoy the jokes when they’re a blink-and-you-miss-them sort of deal. The pranks and the polaroids are comedy gold – I only wish I could have seen more than a few seconds of them.

In-ho even starts going above and beyond, doing things like bringing her cold medicine at work. His good looks garner the attention of her female coworkers, which causes Eun-yi to spin a lie that he’s her younger cousin.

The differences between the way she acts with Woo-sung and In-ho become clear, both to us and to her, as she notes that she’s become very unnatural in her effort to look beautiful in front of Woo-sung. She doesn’t have to pretend in front of In-ho, who accepts her as she is.

The lack of explanation on how we get from one point to another is the exact opposite issue I experienced with the first episode of Wild Romance, where I felt we were told more than we were being shown. Here, we’re being shown too much without being told much of anything. A balance is harder to find than you’d think.

Eun-yi ends up going on a business trip when she’s supposed to have time off, and Woo-sung is quick to produce… a wedding ring. He wants to marry her. She doesn’t take the proposal seriously because she’s worried about leaving In-ho at home (the way an owner would worry about leaving a dog alone, never mind that In-ho is a grown boy), so she ends up ditching Woo-sung in order to rush home to In-ho.

Woo-sung is not to be deterred, and pays a visit to Eun-yi at her home. She even goes so far as to borrow a dog to pass off as “Momo”, but the dog pees on Woo-sung and that’s the last we see of it. Though she tries to get In-ho to stay out of the house, he’s made up his mind to compete and the two men engage in some friendly, video-game based competition to prove their manliness.

Her friends show up to crash the party, and then we cut to… the washed dishes, because her friends have already left. This is another one of those moments where I directed a “wait, what?” at the screen, unable to process why certain moments exist in this film if they’re not even onscreen long enough to impact the story, or to give insight into the characters.

In-ho takes a few unannounced days off from being a pet to focus on his dance career, and Eun-yi busies herself with work and worrying. She keeps trying to convince herself that she really likes Woo-sung, although it seems more like she doesn’t want to pass on the opportunity. It’s usually when her friend is giving her advice about how dogs act in reaction to their owners that sets Eun-yi in motion – and this time, she decides to find In-ho since she’s been worrying for days whether he’s eaten, or died.

Their relationship dynamic is one that only works with the female being aggressive (and even then, it’s debatable). But the agression-is-okay-when-it’s-female-on-male trope starts to wear thin by the halfway mark, even though Eun-yi’s beatings seem harmless. The first time she runs around beating In-ho? Funny enough. Fourth and fifth time she beats him? Not as funny.

Workplace (and love) rival Young-eun returns to the scene by ousting to Woo-sung that Eun-yi is living with a man. This causes him to stand Eun-yi up on their date, and in her worry she accidentally dials In-ho. He flies to her rescue on a bicycle, and we see a curious side of Eun-yi we haven’t seen in the previous parts of the movie – since she’s suddenly scared and unsure, too busy worrying what Woo-sung will think if he comes to find her gone to think about anything else.

This is where we see that her deep-seated fear comes from the experience of men rejecting her on the basis that she has no patience and tolerance. Instead of taking her home, In-ho takes her out on the town, where they dance in a square to live music being played and have a good time. It’s one of the poignant moments in the film that I connected with, because both characters make the moment seem completely organic.

Eun-yi’s had a good amount of champagne on their fun night out, and is properly sauced by the time she gets back to her apartment. The sexual tension that’s been building between them culminates in a scene where it’s almost assured that they’re going to get busy.

Kim Haneul and Jang Geun-seok work well together in moments like these – and the previously-lukewarm chemistry hits a natural peak here. The situation only gets awkward when Woo-sung arrives, having somehow bypassed her door so he could creep into her house unannounced. Naturally, he’s witnessed the whole foreplay/flirting situation, and that effectively puts the kibosh on their sexy times.

Eun-yi makes the mistake of attempting to explain the whole dog-master thing to Woo-sung, who doesn’t want to hear any of it. I can’t blame the guy, since that scenario sounds messed up any way you slice it. Either way, the two men end up confronting each other and have an all-out sissy fight, trading dirty punches and skittering around each other like scaredy-cats. It’s pretty funny.

Eun-yi manages to drag In-ho away, and he finally confronts her about how she really views him as a person. Eun-yi’s stress level, naturally, is high due to all the recent romancing she’s been receiving, and she becomes angry that the person she depends on to always accept her is asking her soul-searching questions. In the heat of the moment, she sends him away. She can’t take one more person trying to force a sense of guilt on her.

In-ho’s grand romantic gesture (which tries to be tongue-in-cheek, but doesn’t quite manage to get there) includes asking Eun-yi to come see his performance. Apparently he’s surmounted his fear of dancing with women, which leads to an interesting if not slightly-perplexing scene – the big musical number.

Musical numbers in romantic comedies can be fun and delightfully self-aware, so when we leave the literal stage of the number to go to an evergreen park, it’s clear that we’re being eased into a big, climactic moment. But by the time we hit the halfway mark in the musical interlude, I realized that Kim Haneul was curiously absent.

Essentially the musical number became a dream sequence when it was taken off the stage, and so seeing the same performance we would have seen on the stage – with Jang Geun-seok romancing a random musical actress instead of the heroine – left me wondering if Kim Haneul was simply too busy to film that day. And if not, what’s the purpose of seeing Jang Geun-seok do all this singing and dancing by himself? It’s certainly not that he doesn’t have the right to a musical interlude (because everyone has the right to a musical interlude), it’s just apropos of nothing without Kim Haneul present, since it happened at a time in the film that would suggest that it was the finale, or the finale lead-in. (She shows up for a few seconds at the end with single-shots only. Curiouser and curiouser.)

In this case, the musical interlude tricked my mind into believing we were at the end only to find that we weren’t – and when the actual end came, it couldn’t really compare to how outlandishly bombastic the interlude was. If the intended effect was for a quiet, poignant ending this would have worked perfectly – but there was clearly effort put into making the story resolution a grand affair. It just didn’t hit home for me.

The bottom line: A series of moments strung together by a will-they-or-won’t-they plot, without any turns along the way. Despite its lengthy production time, the entirety of the film – and especially the ending – came off feeling rushed. Couldn’t get past the premise enough to just enjoy, but my suspension of disbelief wasn’t the only thing holding this film back from greatness. Or even goodness.

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I was so excited when I started to watch this, but in the end I was totally dissappointed by the whole movie

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Agreed. This was a FAIL.

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okay, thank god. i thought it was just me.

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It was like they actually tried to put all 14 volumes of the manga in one movie. Without paring down on the side characters/mini plots. So it was super rushed, and awkward. Yeah...I was disappointed too. This is one where I'm gratefull to the jdrama (because that was my intro to dramas!) but....I'll take the manga. None of the adaptations have lived up to the manga.

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if they had just taken the great moments between sumire and momo it would have been great, but they tried to do that while adding in so much side stuff that nothing makes sense....instead of a movie they should have done a drama, then it would have been so great

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I'm happy I caught your comment. I was thinking everyone just thought this movie sucked because they didn't know the story very well like in the manga but you did read it so I'll take your word for it. They should have just made a drama out of it.

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Same, Thinking it stemmed from my total love of the initial series..

Other things that were a real bother:
He was a ballet dancer..
One doesn't beat a pet so obviously he was a guy from beginning to end for her. Maybe a culturally equivalent younger guy.
And the way she done the wrestling move, it shouldn't hurt at all. It's true that's a character original so maybe the second point holds some truth even then.

What was interesting was that for some reason, sqeuences of events were mostly left to the viewer to fill in but the whole initial cohabitation thing was fully explained as contrary to the original.

Oh and chaaracter caricatures. So much. But I ranted about that enough in my own reviews so.. =)
In the same review, I also remember thinking that if this movie had been a story of its own,(not a remake) it wouldn't be so bad. Bigger stories have been compressed in such a way and done fine.

Anyway I'm just glad it wasn't my own shallowness throwing me into a narrow-eyed ditch again. Should just scroll down and go yep yep yep at everything haha.

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Oh it is just a horridly gone bad movie! What a waste!

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dito.

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waste of time watching....wasted talents.....original Kimi wa petto was best

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agreed. i was searching for the angst. but there's none. this one is a waste.

I thought he'll surpass or at least be at par with Kimi wa Petto's Momo or she'll be able to deliver drama just as good as Sumire-chan. But all I can see is the "cutesy" version.

Don't get me wrong, I am JGS fan way back "The Happy Life" (and I love it more when he has less fluffy hair.).

But this? This is an EPIC FAIL (for me). =(

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Totally agree. I was so disappointed that I cast a doubt over JGS' performance in the upcoming Love Rain. I was a huge fan of his before You're my Pet :(

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I was also anticipating the movie. i like the Japanese Version . I like JGS and KH. Both are good actor and actress but I dont know its a fail.. im disappointed. so bland

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ditto. my level of disappointment in it is such that i actually groaned when i saw that there was even a review of it on DB. ....although it was pretty fantastically cathartic reading my rants up on here. hehehe :P great job, headsno2! :D

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Totally agree. This movie was sooooo wrong in so many levels.
I didn't get ballet at all from JGS's dance sequences and I really liked that modern ballet fusion thing in the Jap series (instead what I got was weirdly awkward, tweeny-pop dances whut).
And there was no underlying plot at all. Just straight-on fluff that was entertaining for a while, the movie was ultimately unsatisfying and disappointing. :((

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so agree with you. seriously it's nothing special about this movie.. I'm usually not hard to please, but I can't even bear watching this. :|

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Um, I think you have trouble understanding the meaning of making an "adaption"! This is supposed to another version, instead of being a 2 hour summary of the source material. Personally, I saw this movie before watching Kima Wa Petto and to this day, You're My Pet is one of my favourite Korean movies!

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This movie rated a 'fair-to-middling' on my scorecard, but really, that's just because I'm a rabid Jang Geun Seok fangirl. It wasn't a *horrible* movie, but I probably wouldn't have made it all the way through if he wasn't Momo.

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Can't call myself a fan of anything. Maybe a follower with expectations in the lead girl actress. If that's a way to justice my views and opinions here, so be it.

Still, it was what it was. Fluff and maybe even nice on its own. If one likes that sorta thing. As a remake though, utterly terrible.

The actors took the characters and incorporated their own trademark traits into each. Sumire was a strongly defined character, fluid in her emotionless emotions but if this is the cultural equivalent of stoic workaholic so be it. Never once did he feel like a dog though and that was somehow unforgivable because Momo was a phenomenally lovable character. That may just be the bias speaking but. It became only atypically "kinky fluff".

Was so hoping she'd be so stone-cold drunk as to simply accept the circumstances of belying mortification as a drunk person. But no, of course that is supposed to sober 'em up. Gugh.

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OMG ! This thread is going to be a lynching session ( running out of here... ).

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jaja! I'll be the head lyncher...

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Chicken! Hang around - you might find this interesting! :)

First, thanks, HeadsNo2! I'm happy that you've chosen a movie to review but sad that you're never gonna get back the hours you spent dissecting this awful dreck of a film.

You've done a great balancing act of taking "YMP" apart - your kindness towards this project is apparent. I, on the other hand, can't be.

It's been awhile since I watched YMP - reading your recap brings all the horror I felt while watching this right back again.

I don't think that there's any way to sweep the premise of YMP under the rug. The woman makes a boytoy her PET. In my book that's just sicko, and trying to glaze it over with humor just doesn't fly (for me).

From the writing to the awful editing to the sad acting, this was a mess - and I love me some KHN. Can't stand JGS, but it could have been anyone in that dehumanizing role - it wouldn't have made any difference.

I'm glad you caught the fact that KHN was a no-show for that ludicrous musical scene - she probably handcuffed herself to her trailer and refused to come out. I just hope she spent that time watching herself in 'Blind', reaffirming what a great actress she really is, (YMP not withstanding).

I really wish I could have something positive to say about this movie. I just can't - it was a waste of time, money and talent.
It's a red flag when the promo stills, as lewd/suggestive as they were, were the most interesting draw for YMP.

But again, thanks for tackling a movie review - it was a good read!
:)

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I know what you mean BUT we are entering manga territory here. The whacky, outlandish (like WAY-out-there) manga territory that makes no sense whatsoever when viewed from any perspective other than itself. A territory that requires total suspension of disbelief rather than questions of political correctness.

I don't want to say manga should get away with everything, because I do not think they should - there are mangas that need and should be dissected because what they do really shouldn't fly (I'll place the typical empty-head bimbo shoujo heroine at the forefront of this - this is a manga character type I have very serious issues with but that's a different discussion than this one).

The human pet however I can live with - within this manga territory. (And the robot boyfriend à la Zettai Kareshi too. :-))

Of course, where to draw the line between what to dissect critically and what whacky premise to just enjoy? I don't know, it's probably a personal line that one has to draw. Which is why for me the manga's and the dorama's (and I guess, this film's) premise isn't problematic in any way, but for you it might be no matter what.

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You make a good point. I think in this case the difference between the manga and movie is vast in premise and execution, but you are right - this is one of the few times that the subject matter is one I can't wrap my head around. It just sets off what few morality bells I still have left. (I watched the J-drama of 'My boyfriend is a robot' - that didn't bother me - different strokes for different folks. I dropped it because it was boring, not because I was offended by the subject matter).
I find the basic premise of turning or treating a human into a subservient creature repugnant. Maybe because it smacks of implied slavery? IDK, I do recall having the same reactions while watching an American soap opera years ago where the victim ended up falling in love with her brutal rapist and marrying him. Some things are just wrong - and in YMP, no amount of 'Mandy' dance foolishness can give it rationale (for me).

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That's just the thing. He's just subservient. A pet requires you do everything else for him, washing his hair, feeding, cleaning after him, etc etc. Almost like caring for a baby. If anyone's slaving, it's the "master". There's probably a name for it but it ain't BDSM or foreplay-slavery... The constant "comedic" hitting is also reminiscent more of "annoying little brother" that seems a staple in other korean shows so I don't even associate it with the relationship label at play here.

Truly, reality would be a bit different though. Unconditional "love" and care is accompanied by expections of love, adoration and consistently (and usually only) positive attention in kind. All the positives and (usually invisible unless you are 12 and grounded) negatives of having real pets.

A real person relegated to such pet-like status would have their own depressive situations, problems with roommate, etc etc. Which is what made Momo and subsequently, Sumire the interesting-because-they're-nigh-impossible characters they were. Characters' suspension of belief were in place far longer than viewers' which made for watchable material.

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Alice is right! Do you have a pet with you? I've lived with cats for about 50 years and, although they're different than dogs, I very often feel I'm their servant. They do offer love, lots and lots of it, but I also love them to bits. And they certainly don't do what I want all the time.
I hear dogs are different, follow orders and so on, but on the other hand they need all this care, you have to leave your warm house three times a day and take them for their toilet walk, in rain or snow, even if you're dead tired and just come from work and a one-hour commute. You have to bathe them and keep them company....
Generally, the amount of care is comparable to small children who, however, never grow up.
What I am saying here is that there are nuances in the pet/human partner (forget about "owner"): in some cases the human can be bossy, or even abusive, unfortunately, but there are many cases in which the pets have control of the human's life.
In the film, the young man accepted this role because it allowed him to meet his house/food needs, thinking that "for now this will do", but gradually changed the relationship.
By the way, have you seen the film "100 days with Mr. Arrogant"? There, to pay off a monetary debt, the girl agrees to be the slave of the young man: she must be at his beck and call, do his house chores and a lot of other things (except for sex, as it's a Korean romcom, so totally "clean"). And of course he falls for her, so reversal of the situation after the credits - just like in this film.

I mean, these things are to be taken a bit playfully, there's no need to take them at face value. And even the face value is not that tragic.
Oops, sorry, I have to leave you. My cat is calling me to clean her litter - she's quite picky, if it's not clean she'll do it on the bath mat.

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I found the way the manga handled the pet thing to be more acceptable. Sure, it was out there, but in the manga there was the whole "yeah it's wacked but it kinda works only because these people are unique, and it's only working on a temp basis...and yeah, it's not normal." Plus, by half way through you see that while "momo" might've started playing pet on a lark, he keeps playing the role more for Sumiko's benefit... and he's trying to slowly move the relationship into healthy territory. And the 2nd half of the manga focuses on that, and eventually the relationship ends normal. Which made the whole premise more acceptable to me. You don't really get that in either of the adaptations... sadly.

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*Sumire. lol

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The chicken comes back to bite your calves :)
The older woman in control ( home, money, feeding... and other physical activities ) of a young handsome guy is the CORE of the story. I'm not an fundamentalist a la " Respect the drama, it's a Bible ". But what i liked in the dorama is the fact that they had the guts to explore that strange notion of a couple ( a kind of sweetened BDSM relationship if we have to say the real name ). The story tells about a practical agreement on a life routine subscribed by both parts, which derails once sexual attraction and affection fall on their heads. So, like most of people, i didn't like the way they portrayed Momo's character ( womanizer, macho, cruising with his buddies... ) : A guy like that just has to knock at the door of a groupie to have a ceiling above his head. He is supposed to be homeless, without any self confidence. All he has to offer is affection *like a pet*, and dance prowesses.
My opinion is that they didn't understand the concept at all for this movie, plus i also feel JGS just stands here as himself. Add ridiculous dance scenes, no chemistry and waf ! waf ! scenes of JGS rolling on the floor ( dying in shame for him )... I've never felt so embarrassed watching a movie.

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So, totally agree with you regarding what was in the dorama versus the movie.

The missing link in the movie is the exploration of the idea of 'a couple', which the dorama even has her talking to her shrink about it, right up to in ending voice-over epilogue.

I couldn't figure out what this director was trying to say with this movie. And, it got to the point where I didn't care. I felt embarrassed.

This movie was a mess. And, HeadsNo2 was very kind and worked very hard to find the good points in this movie. Thank you.

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Agree with you Mystisith! The lack of character motivation irked me to no end. Momo actually has a really interesting back-story that was barely hinted at. You see why he goes into this master-pet relationship, you see why he stays, you see a serious side to him, a manly side to him. And they through that out the window.

Sumire is this really serious career woman who refuses to be seen as weak and comes off cold and hard. But, what I liked about her character was her vulnerability. She really did care what people thought of her and she was a person who couldn't show her emotions or be herself but she gradually changes--which didn't happen. I felt like the changed her character completely. To some of the things she wore (I noticed she had heels with flowers and a mini-skirt on in one scene and thought "who is this?!) to her personality.

I watched the movie all the way through hoping something would change and what I got was a big mess of one of my favorite things. Smh.

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They threw everything out of the window if you ask me...

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I think there are many other themes at work in the original manga and drama that the Kmovie failed to portray/include. I have always found this manga to be interesting both in its premise and its execution of what seems like a decidedly deviance from the norm but really, is majorly tame compared to some other stuff out there. What interests me more is how these relationships (consider the bdsm or rather, S&M genres? tastes?) are "accepted" perhaps not as the norm but as something more palatable when the submissive in question is female. I think the mangaka was very bold in reversing the roles. Anyway, I found it fascinating that it was the "submissive" in question who propagated the entire thing. If he does not find it subjugating or demeaning to dehumanize himself, I wonder at our reactions. Anyway, I could write a whole paper on this (I should have taken that manga class!) but it's so interesting!

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That's a really great point and I would urge anyone who hasn't read the manga yet, not to be disillusioned by the movie adaptation, and give it a try.

I think the issues raised by the original work are truly fascinating and can speak to all of us in a world where gender roles/stereotypes and inequalities are still rife. I think you should write a paper on it. I for one would love to read it!

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It's typical female-oriented fluff for the guy to "do things only because it's that girl". Possessiveness and adoration might be cut from the same thread.. I agree the tameness of content was made everything so fascinating. x)

As for "it's okay when it's a girl on guy" in drama portrayals of domestic(?) violence -- Seriously, it's like the japanese never cared. Nodame was a particularly acclaimed one which was pretty much this and more. The ditzy female character is always hit or heaped with varying levels of extreme "comedic abuse" and it never seemed to matter to anyone. In fact it's usually a positive thing when it's a smart, perfect, handsome guy. Most don't get any comments if at all on such. Same for the ditzy(?) male lead. It's quite a demonstration of disparition in accepted and sometimes, popular stereotypes.

Random unrelated comment: I knew a girl called Nazifa. Funny that there's a slightly inverse version. Is it simply a different culture?

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AMEN AMEN. This movie was downright horrible.

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Totally agree...such a waste for the two leads.....the Japanese version was way better

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I seriously didn't like it, but it really was no fault of the actors. It was all in the writing and the utter butcherization (is that a word?) of the original manga.

JGS is still adorable!

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I found him annoying here. He wasn't the character, he was JGS (breaking out in song in the middle of his dance rehearsal, with everyone crowding around him in admiration?)

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And I thought I was the only who thought so.

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I remember watching this and having 2 thoughts (well other then Jang Geun Seok is cute).
1 - this would have been great as drama where it could be fleshed out properly (didn't realize that it had been a drama in Japan)
2 - Mandy = my Lady in Korean. Here's the vid of the musical interlude with the random woman. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGPJFIwr2uE

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It was a wonderful drama.

If a Korean drama is to be made of it (which after this disaster of a film seems unlikely), the filmmakers involved in this project should under no circumstances be involved. They.did.not.get.it. I mean, what the manga was about (they J-drama did).

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I agree with you completely. I was really excited about this film, but as a fan of the J-drama I guess I was expecting it to be much better than it turned out to be.

The characters/plot was just messily put together and I found myself not caring. :(

I guess I'll just have to watch the J-drama again to get my Momo-fix!

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Okay this movie SUCKED and i agree with ur review. i am a die hard fan of JGS but this movie was really, really bad. the end was rushed and i kept comparing it to the great japan drama and this one did not even come close to an inch of the drama. why JGS, WHYY?!!!

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I don't even remember if I finished the movie. It lacked any kind of umpf to help me remember it. It has that "easy" feel to it which I think Korean movies (especially romance and rom-coms) typically have. I just wish it had a little more punch to it so I don't fall asleep to how blah the whole thing was.

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I completely agree with you. I love the manga and the J drama and was looking forward to this movie, but it was just so rushed. My favorite part was the picture pranks. If they could have spread those out a little more I would have been in hog heaven.

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unless you a fan of Mr Jang you not be missing much if you do not see it, even Kim Haneul couldnt do much for it. It best to try and avoid any hype attached to it, then you can watch as normal Korean comedy/romance film if a rather poor one. It reminds me a bit of another Jang made film but Jang Nara, her Oh Happy Days was made to cash in on her fame at the time, and this seems just the same, though I put Oh Happy Days ahead of this effect by a long way. The whole film was made to my mind to cash in on Jang Geun-seok high-profile right now, but the way he is getting so overexposed can not be good for him in the long run to my mind. I do not rate him highly as a solo singer but he clearly has real talent as an actor but works like this may fill his bank balance but well not make him a better actor, nor get him out from the image of being an Idol actor, again not helped that he is also an Idol singer!

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hm, I'm pretty sure jang geun suk was never an idol. he sang a couple of songs for osts and cfs but he was always an actor

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umm... in all technicality now, he's going for an "idol" status. Idols in korea usually start as a singer/dancing, then acting -- mixed in with cfs, tours, etc. that's basically what JGS has been doing, especially with his career path in Japan. he just started with acting first.

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ummm JGS started out acting in sitcoms and then did film a few singing CFs usually for phones he also did two movies where he played in a band, and then played the part of an "idol" in his drama You're Beautiful... but he's never been an "Idol".

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This movie was mostly fluff, whereas the J-drama version was actually much more insightful and meaningful. Such is the problem between 10-ish hours of dramas vs. 2 hours of movies, I suppose.

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I wish the 10 hours vs. 2 hours would have been the issue though - I think this could have been made into a better movie, the lesser amount of hours wasn't the biggest issue here. Honestly, I think the j-dorama did more in 1 hour (in terms of the pet-master relationship, setting up the characters, creating the 'sexy' vibe, etc.) than this overly long film did in two hours.

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Kim Ha Neul looks really pretty in this movie but I have to agree that the editing is really bad and confusing. I also hate that they changed their first meeting because I think it's actually the most interesting part in the original drama.

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great scenes,great acting but *terrible*horrible* editing!I was puzzled and left with a lot of questions.This movie made me think whether jks still has ability to choose right dramas/movies.

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Thanks HeadsNo2!

This movie was unnecessary at best. JGS and KHN were cute in some scenes, but it was as if the writer and director were too afraid of letting these slightly-off center characters seem weird at all and forced them into a standard rom-com. The result? Awkwardness all around. The j-dorama accepted who these characters are and let them have their unique relationship. I agree that it also helped that the j-dorama had the screen time to let the relationship breathe.

PS - This movie had one of the worst covers of 'Mandy' ever. And I say that having seen Angel sing it on his show. Eesh. Poor JGS.

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weird characters are usually essential in Jdoramas and movies. so, they're quite good with that. it's like, the Koreans are good with helming sweet romances; while the Japanese can go for the weird and eccentric.

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I agree with other posts that the J-drama version was so much better than this fare that did nothing but waste the considerable talents of its two stars.

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I've not seen the movie, so I didn't expect to find your review as engaging as I did. Great job! You didn't just say "meh", you explained very coherently and reasonably what it was like and what did or didn't work for you. Nice!

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I don't like this movie...

Call me too attached with the japanese version, but really..when I saw the japanese series I get that the woman is stoic, who can't be in relationship because she is STOIC. While the man, is the pet, in real meaning. I mean, he is so innocent, and he obey what his owner (THE STOIC WOMAN) order him. He want his owner feel happy, thus lead the scene he help her in dating with his pure Innocence. While the woman, is felt like a woman trapped with gift pet that actually she doesn't want to kept, but later fallin in love with the cuteness of the pet. He is a real pet and the woman is the bossy one...That's the point of reasoning why the title is 'Kimi wa Petto/You're My Pet'.

In this film, I don't see that thing
The film had ruined the innocence of the pet into some 'usual cheesy movie where man move into the house of the woman'. Particularly, I don't feel the strong will of the woman, nor the innocence of the man. The man is the one who control his owner with his sly act and mind, like some arrogant brat he is. The story shifted into some people who fall in love each other because they are habituated, cheesy.

I'm sorry for my long comment & bothering you.

One word to this movie: failed

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I like the Jdrama version much better, although ....

There are 2 scenes that have a bit of chemistry sizzle.

My favorite scenes were of the pranks, pouting and mischief.

At the end they seemed to explore the possibility of their relationship roles being reversed.

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aw, it wasn't good? sad face. I suppose I'll go watch the j-dorama then.

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watch the jdrama!!! Macchan was the perfect Momo^^

I actually haven't been able to get past the first ten minutes of this movie because I loved the jdrama and despite loving JGS he's not the Momo in my head...

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This was big disappointment for me as a JGS's fan.
How did this movie performed at box office? Anyone?

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A flop in Korea, as expected. But japanese fangirls flooded the movie theaters. If i had paid a ticket for this, honestly i would have felt robbed.

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We talked about this on OT a few weeks ago, too. It was universally (and soundly) panned. No one liked it. Too bad - could have been fun.

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I watched this movie in cinema, free - thanks to my country's Korean Culture Center, and it was full of JGS's fans, with really really bad subtitle.

The movie itself was mediocre, I was disappointed. Even though I won't say I love the dorama, but I think it was wayyy better. No chemistry between JGS and KHN, the story was rushed, and I didn't care with the characters.

Too bad. I like the actors, but this movie...won't recommend it to anyone who isn't JGS's fangirl.

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Did you get the machine-translation subs? They were so bad it was hilarious.

Actually they are one of the reasons why I stuck with the movie all the way through, because they make an interesting example for a conference paper I'm writing on fansubbing! I hadn't seen machine-translated fansubs before, but I think it was very suggestive of how badly people wanted this film to be subbed very very quickly.

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Haha..well, it wasn't machine translated, I think.. It was more like first year Korean language student / over excited teenager fangirl with bad grammar and excessive slang translation.
It was so weird and ruined the mood, and made the bad movie worst.

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I ended up fast forwarding through most of this movie, and if anything, it turned me off a little to JGS, who I loved in Your Beautiful. Honestly, I just don't think his dancing is that good. I even went and watched some of his concerts and felt the same way. I'm not opposed to weird fantasy dance scenes if done right (a.k.a 500 Days of Summer) but this one seemed to be nothing more than a vehicle for JSG to show off more. I love you Sukkie, but some of your actions lately makes it seem like you're getting a little too full of yourself!

It did propel me to watch the Japanese drama (because I had to see what all the hype was about in doing a remake.) I enjoyed sooo much more as both characters were more compelling and their relationship more complex. This movie, unfortunately, was a huge letdown.

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That would be watched some concerts online, haha!

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I was really excited about this, having seen the wonderful J-drama... but I still haven't managed to make it through the entire movie yet. I stopped a little over half an hour into it, too disappointed to continue. It really was a humongous flop, and the editing was choppy and confusing just like you said, which pulled me out of the story multiple times. It's too bad, because I really do feel like the plot has potential, it's just a shame it didn't have a more competent writer and director at the helm...

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This film was a big, big mess. My biggest issue with it is that the filmmakers just didn't get the original story - there were a number of things that made Kimi wa Petto (the original manga, and then the dorama) as fun and unique as it was, but that the Korean movie totally missed.

The pet-master relationship to start with - introducing JGS's character as a human, rather than as the injured, helpless creature found in a box was the biggest sign of that. They didn't get the symbolism of that, instead it's even JGS who suggest becoming a pet - which gave him some element of control. And KHN never became much of his master, he never much of his pet.

The sexy vibe of the original (manga + dorama) also totally got lost. Chemistry? I never felt there was any chemistry here.

I also didn't think JGS made a very compelling dancer.

I could rant on*... It's sad, because originally I had hopes for this movie. :-(

(*I did rant plenty already about this film on my blog so I won't repeat myself here.)

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LOL JGS couldn't really dance at all. They tried to cover it up at the end with that k-pop song + dance number, and I was sitting there like "wtf is this?"

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I actually started with a lot of excitement..but in the end I felt disappointed ...moreover I kinda found it slow & need I say jarring ..I thought the chemistry is gng to be smashing & felt wondering on the chem.dept. as well...wastage of time...not at all enjoyable !

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I feel like i'm watching JGS prince of asia reality show *sarcasm

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I thought i'm alone when i found YMP huge letdown. I'm a die heart JGS fan but watching this makes me feels so dissapointed..and i'm not sure of others but i feel JGS becomes too 'girly' in this movie..

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trainwreck all around
Kim Haneul was wasted and needs to fire her people
JGS needs to stop

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I would be one of those people who can't buy into a premise like this. The only thing you would be finding in a scenario like this is a corpse. Same goes for finding a person in a trunk of a car. I don't get why these scenarios would be used for light-hearted dramas and movies. They're more disturbing to me than anything.

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Thanks for the review. Sorry that you picked this one though. It had its cute moments, but overall too awkward and disjointed.
I have found myself to have mixed feelings on adaptations of novels/mangas/etc. In this instance, I think they tried too hard to keep some elements of the story and the odd inserts just didn't seem all there/weren't fleshed out. My general feeling is if they can't give close to 100% of the story, then they need to really rework it because I hate half-(butt)ed attempts.

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Yaaay movie review! I'll definitely have to agree with your opinion about the editing though; to me, this movie felt sort of incomplete. It started out feeling full of promise, but when it ended, it didnt feel as if anything had been properly resolved.

P.S. Thanks for the movie reviews you've been putting out more often!(: I really enjoy reading them. :D

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Reasons I didn't watch this:
1. Wasn't fond of the dorama even if it was Matsumoto Jun
2. Read bad reviews online
3. Chilling Romance was more my type of movie at that time (plus LMK + SYJ = <3 )
4. Was sick of JGS' hair. ;) I don't think I'll be watching Love Rain for almost the same reason (plus Yoona :( ) Just cut it off already like it was in DoReMi or BV.

Thank you for the review.

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This movie blows big time. I'm sorry but JGS is wasting is talent on this kinda of stuff, the boy needs some help in picking his projects. The movie was truly a train wreck from beginning to end.

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I agree that JGS needs help picking his projects and I hope he had that help for his next project, Love Rain, which should be coming out soon.

Although I had been looking forward to YMP since I first heard about it, it was so dull, boring and sad that I couldn't finish it. It also doesn't help that I didn't like JGS's last TV drama, Marry Me, Mary. I only managed to watch a few episodes before I gave up and stopped watching.

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I thought it wasn't bad at all! I didn't think too much into it. I just watched cause JGS was in it and I liked the original movie. ^^

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Original movie? There is no movie version of Kimi wa Petto in Japanese (if that is what you mean).

Are you sure we're even talking the sama thing?

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We'll I'm talking about the Japanese version of you're my pet.

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thanks for the movie review! i'm glad i wasn't the only one who was disappointed with this.

i really did enjoy the j-drama & was excited for this movie since i do like KHN & JGS, but this was a let down. there were some scenes which were great, but i totally agree with the weird editing. a lot of the times, i was like "huh? that's it" for certain bits.

on the whole, not totally awful (imo), just kind of meh.

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thank you for 'positive' review (sacrasm). i also was disappointed and sped past the dance sequence. ha ha..i didn't even know there EVEN was one. i can't understand how jgs is the king of hallywu in Japan? 2-3 decent dramas, and lot of cheese.... and that makes him a tom cruise????

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Finally someone wrote it black on white.
Can I hug you? ;)

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Oh, it wasn't good? Sad. Well, i had doubts for it from the starting, but with JGS casted, I thought it would be good. Oh well. Good thing I read this before trying to watch it and didn't waste my time with it. Thanks for the recap! :)

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The movie looked fresh and engaging at first (i.e. the cute taxi animation at the bottom of the screen to enhance the taxi metaphor). But then, you realize that it's all surface, no heart. Seriously, if you like the Kimi wa Pet premise, watch the original jdrama because that's where you get to watch a real story unfold.

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I heard it was bad but this really was lacking. I'm guessing its because the director was wet behind the ears. Makes me wonder what an experienced director would of done and if the movie would of been better.

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I think that a better director could have helped - really it felt like a series of somewhat-connected music videos strung together rather than a movie - but a director might not have been able to fix the other flaws, such as:
- ignoring the original premise of the story
- inability to focus on the main conflict
- JGS' horrible mugging to the camera, acting like a greasy ladies man, inability to dance, etc. etc.
- lack of any chemistry between the leads
- a music video dream sequence pop number...really?

Even the jdorama, which was pretty decent, didn't really emphasize the main element of the manga; that ultimately Sumire is the more weak and damaged human being, and that Momo is wise enough to figure this out and strong enough to be what she needs, even though it has to be a "pet" in order to get around all of her inhibitions and defensive walls. She helps him heal physically, then he helps her heal emotionally. He is really very strong and forthright, and this doesn't come out at all in the Korean version (in fact he's pretty sneaky and not terribly moral) and only marginally in the jdorama.

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I watched it as fluff an enjoyed it as such ,probably because I'd already thought of 10 ways it could have been worse.

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I treated it as fluff too, and I wasn't disappointed. Had a good time actually. I needed a pick-me-up. There may have been some fast-forwarding involved, lol.

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Wow. Guess it sucked. I feel like rewatching the drama. The characters were so perfect and MatsuJun was the epitome of 'pet'.

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I started this movie, but I didn't get very far before I gave up on it. I already wasn't sure if the premise was okay with me before jumping in, but it's really the editing that did me in. All this stuff was being thrown at me that I'm trying to take in (which apparently I didn't have to do), and I had to read subtitles because I don't speak Korean. So I just gave up. Doesn't look like I missed much.

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I felt the same. I couldn't finish it. It felt like they were throwing all this stuff at me that didn't make sense when they edited them together. It was so strange.

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this was definitely an awkward movie.....I had trouble understanding what happened in the movie because it was edited so strangely

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Oh man. I was so disappointed. See, I've read the manga and watched the drama and am a big fan of both so I thought "Omg! A movie! Yay!" And then I watched it and I was sooooo bored and disgruntled. Many many complaints. First of all they made Sumire (Kim Haneul's character for those who don't know the japanese names) into someone so AVERAGE. They didn't flesh out the fact that she was a cold, hard-working, perfectionist on the outside and a soft, girly, romantic on the inside. She just seemed like some confused career woman--why was her boss always looking down on her? 2.)What was up with her clothes? She would never wear a mini-skirt or anything they made her wear in that movie ever.3.)Why did she have a whole group of friends? She has one friend for a reason. 4.) Where did that love triangle go? Other guy barely had screen-time and I nearly forgot he existed.5.)Why did they change that meet-cute? I mean, that's the least of my complaints, but it was just so odd.6.) Everything seemed so shallow ): --I think that was the worst part, I can't blame anything on this being 2 hours, cuz those 2 hours could have been great, but it just wasn't. All the heart and most importantly the message was gone.

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Oh the clothes... as weird as weird could be! Especially the super-short shorts that she wore... to work? (but maybe that's an acceptable thing in Korea???)

The group of friends thing didn't amount to anything. It was like a subplot for the sake of making the movie different from the dorama. Same with the divorcing-parents. Totally unnecessary.

I suppose the disappearance of the love triangle was a time-issue BUT they should have attempted it. Jumping from meeting again to marriage proposal DOES NOT MAKE SENSE.

The meet-cute is my biggest complaint, simply because it means that the filmmakers didn't get the premise of manga. Sumire finds a stray dog. KHN's character just has her brother's friend stay over one night and come back the next day.

But yeah, shallow is good word to sum it all up. I also don't think it's the two hours.

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This movie was just terrible. Oh, how I wanted it to be awesome.

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This movie was horrible. There were two big problems to me. One was that you plainly just can't squeeze a drama/manga like Kimi wa Petto into a short movie. There needs to be chemistry and they need to lay a strong foundation between their characters and build it up to become the relationship that Momo and Sumire have. It's complex because their relationship is so out of the ordinary. This movie didn't make me feel that they could be one without the other. And second, they're just not supposed to get together in the end! I always thought that was the best thing about Kimi wa Petto. That Momo and Sumire's relationship ends up somewhat undefined. That they've made their own definition for relationship, not one of passion, but affection and comfortability. I love that they kept it open-ended about the future, but still gave the audience the satisfaction of being together. But of course, leave it to its Korean counterpart to make it all about romance. All in all, I think if the movie had been a drama and the characters had time to develop, it might've been better, but as it is, just a disappointing watch.

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Now, I might be wrong about this, because I read the manga a few years ago, but Momo was much more *desperate* to find a place to live in manga, which was probably the main reason he agreed to become Sumire's replacement pet...Someone, help me out here...

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Yes he was.

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That's true. My take was that the "pet" thing STARTED because he was desperate enough that her attempt to scare him away didn't work...and once he could've moved out, he was already in love with her (or at least interested), and stayed to support her and slowly try and get the relationship more "normal." If he moved out, that'd would've been it.

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Thank you! And I think the main idea behind Sumire's condition (Momo staying as her pet) was that he wouldn't actually accept it, so they effectively get themselves into this master-pet relationship neither could get out of without admitting their feelings (which makes it so much more complex than what the movie tried to portray). Oh well.

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where can I watch this? Is it now being sold in yesasia or where can i buy the dvd for this?

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Don't buy it ! Spare your money for something worthy. Really.
You can see it at dramacrazy or mysoju or kimchidrama, for free. And enjoy the enraged comments left by the viewers.

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Word!
:)

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judging from comments, it seems like once a manga becomes a movie/drama in korea the plot and charaterization change to the point that its only the title the remains the same? or sometimes the title changes too?

sorry, but i think taiwan does a better job in adapting a manga to drama or movie. - this is just my personal observation.

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Wow. That bad huh? Heh.... Heh heh... Heh heh heh... *starts laughing her head off*... I'm seriously loving the comments here. This movie is getting ripped apart, and I can just imagine just how bad it must have been in the Korean Media. I feel bad for everyone involved with this movie, but at the same time it's just too damn funny. XD

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