Korean Movie Review : Fashion King

This movie has a bit of everything, comedy, emotion, romance. It also carries strong messages about life and fashion and has a celebrity appeal of my favourite main actor, Joo Won ( famed actor from Bridal Mask and Good Doctor drama series )

Director :             Oh Ki-hwan

Producer :           Cha Seung-jae

Written by :         Yoon In-wan

Based on Fashion King by Kian84 (Fashion King (Hangul: 패션왕; RR: Paesyeon Wang) is a South Korean manhwa series written and illustrated by Kian84. Started on May 5, 2011, this webtoon manhwa was released on Naver. The print release of the first volume of Fashion King was released in December 2, 2012. The comics have been adapted into a film of the same name.

Starring :

JOO Won as Gi-myeong (Good Doctor, Bridal Mask)

AHN Jae-hyeon as Won-ho (MY LOVE FROM THE STAR)

SULLI as Eun-jin (a member of K-pop group f(x) )

PARK Se-young as Hye-jin

KIM Seong-oh as Nam-jeong

Music by              Lee Jun-oh

Distributed by     Next Entertainment World

Running time : 114 minutes

Trailer :

Synopsis :

A teenage boy transforms from a ‘fashion terrorist’ to a ‘fashion king’ in order to win the heart of the prettiest girl in school. 

With a pair of thick glasses and stuffy appearance to boot, high school student Gi-myeong is mercilessly teased by his classmates on a daily basis at a rural provincial high school, until he jumps on a chance to transfer to a hip high school in Gangnam, Seoul. At the new school, he comes across the girl of his dreams – Hye-jin – who is a beautiful online starlet. For a nobody like Gi-myeong, he can’t even get close to her due to her massive popularity. As if that was bad enough, her boyfriend is not only one of the smartest students in school, son of wealthy family, but professional model Won-ho. But not the one to let the girl of his dreams just slip through, he vows to transform himself and be a man whom she can admire and be with.

Gi-myeong meets a fashionista named Nam-jung, who teaches him the essences of fashion, such as ‘cool’ and ‘tight’. With the help of Nam-jung, Gi-myeong passes countless qualifying matches, and realizes what ‘tight’ really means. Seeing his face on TV piques Hye-jin’s attention, but he realizes that it is Eun-jin whom he loves.

Finally, Gi-myeong and Won-ho head for the final round. Unfazed by Won-ho’s threats and violence, Gi-myeong enters the finals with incredible conviction as a chance to transform himself into someone he really is in his heart…

Review :

I must say that the acting of the casts was excellent. Before I watch the movie, I thought it was solely a comedy romantic. It turns out to be a much more serious movie that I have expected. As mentioned earlier, it has some strong messages for the audience.

In fact,  Gi-myeong ( Joo Won ) bravely stood up to save another student from the bully. He was once a victim before so he understood the feeling of being bullied. The message was to stand up for what you believe in, with confidence.

The other message was about Fashion. Many a time during the movie, I came across the word dopeness appearing on the English subtitles. After googling it, it refers to the characteristics of great and extraordinary. What it means is that, we have to differentiate our fashion and stand out from the others.  Gi-myeong also learrned that fashion was not just having a branded label but it was about how you wear and present yourself. He learned it from the guru  who taught him about fashion sense. This was reflected at the end of show during a fashion competition between Gi-myeong and Won-ho. If you are curious to know what happen to Gi-myeong, do watch it at the cinema.

Besides having the strong messages, the movie contains elements of true love as in the case of Eun-jin and Gi-myeong.

The comedy section started early in the movie with the opening scene of little monks having fashionable shoes with various branded labels.  The fashionable monk appeared again to make us laugh even harder.

In conclusion, I would recommend this movie. It was entertaining and I believe the audience will learn something from this movie. I would give a rating of 3.5/5.

The movie will be out in cinema on the 12 March 2015.