It takes ‘Love Reset’ a full half-hour before it’s premise sinks in. Director and screenwriter Nam Dae-jung (with co-writing credit to Bang Gicheol) spend the first 30 minutes of the film to present us with a hilarious set-up. Kang Ha Neul and Jung So Min are in extremely fine form as they portray a couple who get married after some challenges and then find themselves completely hating each other after. Nam Dae-jung is relentless in delivering funny moments to really emphasize how the relationship of Na Jeong-yeol (Kang Ha Neul) and Hong Na-ra (Jung So Min) turned sour and how they cannot stand each other.
This is really a showcase of the pair’s fantastic comedic timing and their ability to sync into the film’s hyper-real dramatic situation. Na-ra is a problematic, spoiled rich girl. She’s confrontational, has a problem with holding her alcohol, and has some questionable hygiene issues. Jeong-yeol comes from a more modest background and has become annoyingly frugal, and it took him a while to pass the bar exam, so he was supported by his richer wife. There issues got into the relationship and the way by which they have turned homicidal against each other is the source of the comedy.
Kang Ha Neul and Jung So Min play it up so well that you can’t stop laughing at how they can’t stand each other and it’s part of the charm of the film. Then, as the title suggests, the couple lose their memory during the 30-day period before a divorce is made official. Both sets of parents, especially the mothers, don’t want them back together but it is to the couple’s benefit that they stay at home as this might help them recover their memories. So now, they have to live together, try to remember who they are, and not fall in love.
The second act of the film surprisingly is more directed towards the couple remembering their past and director Nam Dae-jung manages to use this to continue emphasizing all the horrible things that they’ve done to each other. The backgrounds of the couple are further explored and mined for their comedic potential. Na-ra and Jeong-yeol are shocked to discover the kinds of people that they were but also are seeing each other with a completely new set of eyes.
The romance part comes in just beneath the surface, just underneath the laughs, and propelled completely by Kang Ha Neul and Jung So Min’s performances. Never does Nam Dae-jung really worked hard towards absolving his character’s past mistakes. Instead, he’s here to have a good time and is not above alluding to the film as a film by his own characters. At the later part of the movie, even the characters are comparing the current situation as if it were a film.
As a rom-com, ‘Love Reset’ doesn’t quite get the romance part all the well. The film is more focused on the comedic aspects, which it captures excellently. I was laughing along with the rest of the theater for every little thing that they did. The lines, the situations, and even the slapstick parts. There are all kinds of comedy at work here and the whole cast is up to the task at making each joke work.
Interestingly enough, the film also shows how divorce is handled in South Korea and it seems so logical and sensible that it is a point of envy for us non-South Koreans watching the movie. The film makes no moral assessment of these proceedings. Sometimes, love dies. But also on the flipside, sometimes it takes amnesia to realise what is important after all. It’s a hilarious film led by two very strong comedic performances. If it was equal parts romance and comedy, then it would have been perfect. Otherwise, it’s just a great comedy.
My Rating:
Love Reset is now showing. Check screening times here.
