Wet Dreams 2
Director: Jeong Cho-shin
Year: 2005
Production Company: MK Pictures
Running Time: 101 minutes
Perhaps on some level you have to admire a film whose dramatic turning
point is a young girl declaring “If he farts for Se-mi, I’ll make him shit
for me”. Somewhere in that statement is true romance. Later on with her little
heart broken she asks “You fart for me. Why do you have to see Se-mi.” I
think Ibsen had something similar but I can’t quite recall if it was in “A
Doll’s House” or “The Wild Duck”. I’ll have to check with the Library of
Congress to find out – please Ms. in which Ibsen play did he use fart and
shit as metaphors for love? Yes, on some level you have to be pleased that
they are still referencing the masters – combining teen age sex, school girls
and scatology can never go out of fashion I suppose.
In truth there is no teenage sex here – only lots of talk of it – it's like
watching talk show host Maury Povich interview trailer trash – don’t let
the cover fool you with its four scantily clad sirens of desire. First they
are underage and you can go to jail for just thinking what you are thinking
and secondly at no time and place in this film are they attired in this manner.
No nudity, no sex – what are they British? You may recall if you are unlucky
that the film “Wet Dreams” was made back in 2002 by this same director and
came in 6th at the box office. This dealt with a young teenage boy and his
crush on his female teacher – mildly sweet and barely amusing at times. So
what could be more natural than to turn the genders around – a young girl
obsessing about her male student teacher and his gastric problems.
Having seen this film along with “The Rules of Dating” and “Lonely Rivals”,
it strikes me that Korea is in dire need of some real reform and rules in
their school system. In “Lonely Rivals” a male teacher doesn’t feel uneasy
being out with a young student and patting her on the bottom, in “Rules of
Dating” a teacher basically rapes a student teacher and its not a big deal
and in this film two student teachers get turned on by high school girls
– and these are all comedies! I am not a PC guy but this gives me the creeps
to a large degree (though I still think “Rules” is a pretty intriguing film).
The new student P.E. teacher Kang Bong-gu (Lee Ji-hoon) is a major hunk as
far as the girls at Eunkang Girls High are concerned with his messy hair,
big genial smile and a major in pole vaulting! Sung-eun (Kang Eun-bi doing
her best imitation of Moon Geun-young) thinks he is her man of destiny and
gets her two buddies – the cool Soo-yoen (Jeon Hye-bin) and the nerdy Mi-soo
(Park Seul-gi) to help her out. By eavesdropping, they discover that Kang
has a problem – when he gets an erection, he farts – loudly. This is a cause
of course of much mirth throughout the film – I almost feel a need to laugh
just thinking about it – ha,ha ha. Now his erections are due to Baek Se-mi
(Shin Joo-ah) a walking advertisement for parents buying chastity belts for
their daughters. She is a complete hottie and knows it and is intent on seducing
Kang – this being the lead up to Sung-eun’s declaration of love, farts and
shit.
Of course Sung-eun is a virgin but pledges to lose that 100 times to Kang
– and tries to learn about sex from her male friend Suk-gu (the always fun
to watch Jeon Jae-hyeong) and from a safe sex cucumber. When she has her
first period, the class gives her a standing ovation. Does that really happen
in girl’s schools I wonder? I mean really, does it? Anyway, it’s much ado
about nothing and not surprisingly it ends up at a ballroom dance competition
– as many Korean movies as have this event it must be a national obsession.
It’s really not horrible – the girls are quite cute and with some embarrassment
I admit to finding parts of it amusing. In reality, it's probably more fun
than sitting through an Ibsen play.
Rating: 5.0
Trailer
Reviewed: 02/06
Previous films from Director:
Love: Impossible (2003)
Wet Dreams (2002)
Jakarta (2000)