Son Tae-il has been in love with Joon Il-mae ever since he was a child, but he has always tried to win her heart by appealing to her father. Over the years, Il-mae’s father constantly promises Il-mae’s hand to Tae-il only once he grows pubic hair, once his grades improve, once he gets into college and once he passes his first judicial law exams, but he breaks every promise only to make a new one in order to protect his daughter while further improving Tae-il’s character.
Crazy First Love thus offers an interesting, albeit archaic scenario where Tae-il, through his constant appeals to the father, ends up developing a much stronger on-screen relationship with him than the girl he loves. While may be a refreshing change of pace, this works against the film’s favor as it leads to the all-too-frequent scene of Tae-il crying and whining to the father every time Il-mae goes on a date with another man or something else goes wrong.
While Tae-il’s character is certainly endearing, as he spends years and years of study, abstinence and dedication to protecting Il-mae, you will be absolutely sick of Cha Tae-hyun’s wailing his way through the film. One would think that Tae-il, after screaming and publicly embarrassing Il-mae in a couple failed attempts to win her heart, would try a different strategy. But, no. He is persistent and stupid; overdramatically crying so often that we are trained to flinch and cringe every time he enters the frame out of the likelihood that he will repeat the painful process.
Once he finally picks up his guts, his character runs a lot smoother at the cost of Son Ye-jin’s Il-mae. There is barely any exploration of her feelings and when we do finally hear the big revelations, her absolutely ludicrous thought process proves to be even dumber than Tae-il’s—which admittedly does make them perfect for each other. Son Ye-jin does a fine job, filling the role however she can, but she is fighting the insurmountable forces of poor writing and direction.
The film’s plotting is decidedly one note, as we get traces of romance and humor that are simply worn thin by sickening repetition. The film has its moments, and tells a new enough story to keep genre fans interested, but the uninspired screenplay is an unprofessional mess— often relying on overt, heavy-handed explanations of feelings and relationships instead of any actual depiction. How often must we be told that Tae-il and Il-mae are childhood friend? Or that Tae-il loves Il-mae? If anything, it more explicitly details every place the film is lacking by telling us what it can’t seem to show.
Reviewed by Tarun
