Baby And I (2008)

Movie Title: Baby And I 아기와 나 (Ah-gi wa na)

Genre: Family, Comedy
Directed by: Kim Jin-Yeong 김진영
Screenplay by: Lee Seong-Min 이성민 & Choi Won 최원
Released in Korea: 2008/08/13
Duration: 96 mins

Throw in teen heartthrob Jang Geun-Seok, cute Kim Byul, adorable Moon Mason, some light-hearted moments and some touching moments, along with slapstick violence...and you have Baby And I.

I won't say Baby And I is a great movie. It has its cliches, flaws and some what I call hmm? moments, but overall it's a movie to enjoy with a handful of popcorn.



Synopsis:
Han Joon-su is a rebellious 18-year old teenager, son of a rich CEO. As he is continually wrecking havoc in his school, which is suppose to be an exemplary school, even his parents (father) couldn't handle him and therefore one day, they ran away from home so that Jun-su will think about his ways and rehabilitate. Jun-su thought everything was swell until he found a baby abandoned in his shopping cart...and the baby turns out to be his! Jun-su is stuck taking care of the baby Woo-ram and in the course, learn to soften up and truly become a better person.

Characters:


Han Joon-su 한준수 by Jang Geun-Seok 장근석
Rebellious, drives a fast bike, fights with gangs, has a bad temper overall. Only son of his parents, he was not spoiled but exasperates his parents, especially his father, to no end. Although he is tough on the outside, he is actually trying to be obedient to his parents, in a way that for the sake of his parents, he would attend school albeit late and warned over and over again.



Kim Byul 김별 by Kim Byul 김별 (no typo. character's name = actress' name)
A genius school dropout and eldest of her family (having nine children in total), met Joon-su for the first time and fell head over heels for him. She returns to school for him, and in the process, helps him with Woo-ram. Unafraid of the system, she stands up boldly against anything that is wrong. In other words, she has a mind of her own.



Woo-ram 우람 by Moon Mason 문 메이슨
Voice by Park Myung-Soo 박명수
A baby abandoned in Joon-su's shopping cart when Joon-su was out shopping (celebrating his new found freedom), cute, typically demanding but acknowledges Joon-su as his father. He only wants breast milk and loves pretty women. Yeah, this baby thinks out loud.


Ki-seok 기석 by Ko Gyu-Pil 고규필
Joon-su's less affluent friend who struggles to make ends meet, and therefore got expelled from school. Has a sick mother to take care of. Works in roadworks at night.

Choon-seong 춘성 by Choi Jae-Hwan 최재환
Joon-su's another friend. The typical sidekick who is not really bright but obedient.

Tyson 타이슨 by Kim Jung-Nan 김정난
Joon-su's fierce lady teacher who usually dresses in tracksuits (reminds me of Gokusen's Kumiko) but who struggles to make sure Joon-su remains in school.




Review:

I've seen JGS before as a minor character in Lovers in Prague 프라하의 연인 and got to "know" him better due to 2008's Beethoven Virus 베토벤바이러스 acting as musical genius Kang Gun-Woo.

Baby And I was his project prior to Beethoven Virus (explains the hairstyle difference). Personally, I think he is more comfortable playing someone younger or his age than someone in the mid-20s (He's a 1987-er). Maybe because he carries out angst well.

Joon-su moves from being irresponsible and uncaring (wanting to dump the kid in garbage dump and abandoning him at the orphanage) to someone who starts to soften up, knowing how it is to sacrifice himself for his child.


In the meantime, while he was not knowing, Joon-su had also helped Byul to overcome her fear of rejection for being a genius. Ostracized by her classmates and teachers for asking the most difficult questions during class and answering complicated answers, Byul did not find school interesting again until she met Joon-su.


I won't throw in spoilers here. But it's cliched enough to see how it goes.

The highlight of this show would be the effort Joon-su took up to become a father. After realizing how much he has come to like his child, Joon-su goes all lengths for the kid (selling his bike, going door to door just to get breast milk). When all the facade of a cool, rebellious kid faded, Joon-su is a boy who wants nothing else but love, evident in how he cried as he misses his parents and how he softens up with love.

The character of Joon-su can be summed up in this: Deep inside, Joon-su wants to please his parents, but he doesn't know how to do so. Torn between his longing for childish freedom and the desire to be a good person, Joon-su is quite confused. The existence of Woo-ram helped him to break away that tangled web of confusion, to grow up, to learn that kindness is actually better, and to see the world as an adult.


Another highlight is Byul. I loved how Byul not balking at anything but always helping others. Though she's a genius, she doesn't find the smart appealing. Instead, she likes the more human Joon-su with his weaknesses and all. Speaking her mind at every occasion (listing out all the badness of drinking and smoking; pointing out that there isn't a school policy against bringing babies to school), Byul is the opposite of Joon-su: strong-willed despite her painful past.


However, the plot is cliched. The twist is cliched. The ending is cliched. The gripe I have about this film is the scenes that doesn't make cohesive sense. I think it meant to be funny but I found them odd. For instance, Tyson is always mistaken for being the mother of Woo-ram since she always bails Joon-su out from the police station. It's supposed to be funny but I just find it odd, almost believing that she IS the mother. Is this the direction that the writers and director wanted it to go? Turns out it's not.

And another part, Woo-ram is a grown-up trapped in a baby's body (thanks to his voice), but this could just be the copy of those American films, cause I sometimes don't see that chemistry between Woo-ram and Joon-su. Joon-su is good-looking and a ladies' man but he's not a hormonally driven guy. He is a regular Casanova but Woo-ram is hormonally-high (in the arms of a pretty woman, he says something like "I'm in heaven!"). I'd rather see a voiceless Woo-ram.


I watch less movies and more dramas, so 96 mins won't do characters and story much justice, but I would argue with that. You just need to have a reasonable and believable flow. Baby And I has flow and for that part it works. But there are just some points in the film that seemed out of place which then makes Kim Byul's character minor, Jang Geun-Seok's character very complicated though not supposed to be so, the supposed-to-be-funny scenes not funny at all, and the overall that feels as if it's an attempt to cram as much human stories, comedy and cute into one package.


I don't say this film fails cause I enjoyed this more than 200 Pounds of Beauty (which was ehem, the last Korean comedy I've watched), but it does leave a "oh, that's it?" kind of feeling.

Watch it for Kim Byul and Kim Jung Nan's portrayal of their characters. And oh also, Woo-ram's cuteness. And err...maybe for Jang Geun-Seok's eyecandy and more than average acting. Mind you, he's not bad. At least he cries WAY better than Kim Hyun-Joong.



Ratings: 3/5