“My Sassy Girl” is one of the very successful widely known Korean comedies. It is also one of the first Korean movies with very “strong” Korean female’s figure, a movie where male and female switch roles and against all the traditional beliefs of ladylikeness.

Gyeon-woo is getting on the subway where he meets the Girl who   later becomes the most important girl in his life. The Girl is drunk and cannot stand straight; she throws up everywhere and before  she passes out on the train she points to Gyeon-woo, calls him  “honey” so people think she is his girlfriend. From that moment  she becomes his responsibility. That is how the movie starts. The  Girl does not have a name. She can be anyone; she does not represent a typical Korean girl. She is just the Girl and she is sure to against a quiet, gentle, well-mannered Asian girl image. She drinks until she is wasted; she yells at strangers, fearlessly ready for a fight. While most of the movies in 2000-2005 are romantic movies where the main female characters are calm, “don’t speak until spoken to” girls; The Girl in is tough and bossy.

Because of such a “rebellious” female figure as the main character, the roles of male and female in this movie seem to get switched. “ Behind a successful man there is always a woman.” is an old Asian saying simply mean traditional Asian/Korean women are meant to be behind the men and help them to success. In the movie, The Girl asks Gyeon-woo the reason why the sky is blue, why Korea has four seasons and why Gyeon-woo was born.Later she tells him they are all because of her and for her. It against the belief of women are men’s helper, the man in this situation exists for the woman.

When the Girl visits Gyeon-woo at his school she makes him trade his sneakers for her heels. When they go to restaurants or coffee shops she is the one that order for both of them. She beats him in every single sports they play together. She always yell and hit him constantly. She is always the one who save him out of dangerous situations. Even in her fiction stories that she likes to write and make him read them despite how bad they are, she is still the “hero” and he is the “victim” to save. Clearly the Girl appears to be manlier than the boy in this relationship they have. In “My Sassy Girl” the Girl takes control, she leads and Gyeon-woo ( the boy ) follows, that is totally not what Asian/Korean believe in.

Even though, the Girl in “My Sassy Girl” is the odd Korean girl who against old beliefs of how a lady should act, she is unique and any girl can find herself related to her. Do whatever you want and be whomever you want to be despite your gender is the message of “My Sassy Girl” that get sent to audiences through the Girl.

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