4th Period Mystery
Director: Lee Sang-yong
Year: 2009
Rating: 6.0
A.K.A. - The Clue
This lightweight Korean crime-comedy-high
school romance film fights above its weight level with its spunky leads,
rapid fire plotting, off-beat quirky moments and some clever cinematic angles.
It goes down very easily but you have to admit there isn't much substantial
really there. Once the crime is solved, it becomes apparent that it was the
getting there that mattered as opposed to the who and why.
If Korean films depict high school with
any degree of accuracy, be happy if you didn't go to one. Constant yelling
from the teachers, using a stick to whack late students, Olympic Mean Girls,
nerds eaten up like lunch meat, blackmail, camera shots up skirts, the nasty
psycho guys and of course murder. All of that is squeezed into this 80 minute
film fairly early on.
The school jerk is found stabbed to death
in an empty classroom by Jung-hoon (Yoo Seung-ho) who had fought with him
earlier on. Like all people seem to in this situation he immediately picks
up the knife, gets his fingerprints on it and blood on his hands and clothes.
You would think we would all know better by now. If you find a dead body
- immediately back away and run like hell. He knows he is dead meat - suspect
number 1 - but fortunately for him the girl nicknamed "Curtain" for the way
she covers her face with her long black hair like a ghost from Ju-on discovers
him standing there.
She is an obsessive mystery and crime enthusiast
who stays up all night reading and sleeps during class. The school weirdo.
Also a burgeoning Sherlock Holmes as she looks around the room, at the stab
wounds and immediately concludes that he is innocent. She also has a secret
crush on him and decides to solve the crime with his help. And it has to
be done in 40 minutes before the class will be filled with students and a
dead body. So they begin running around looking for clues. A lot of running.
And it is charming, cute, amusing and fast. The two are clearly made for
one another as they both have eyebrows so thick a caterpillar would be envious
and not too surprisingly when the hair is pulled back she is a knockout.
