Derek Childs (totalovrdose)
I'm unsure why, but it appears every second South Korean film I watch now-a-days, happens to star the always entertaining Kim Ha-Neul: either, I'm subconsciously drawn to Ms. Ha-Neul's talent, or, Ms. Ha-Neul appears in a wealth of varying genres. Once labelled the queen of comedy, though I am unable to confirm or deny if such a title does Ms. Ha-Neul justice, I am able to articulate how she is certainly the queen of facial expressions (reflective of the Blu-Ray's cover), employing a wealth of over-exaggerated and unrealistic facial gestures. These fantastically bolster the humorous climate and demonstrate the emotions she's currently exhibiting, her expressions matching perfectly with the overall feel of the movie.Ju Yeong-Ju (Ha-Neul), through her impeccable skills of deceit, successfully achieves parole, and with her new found freedom, aims to attend her sister's wedding. Choi Hee-Cheol (Gang Dong-Won), a pharmacist, hoping to propose to his paramour, inadvertently triggers a conflict with Yeong-Ju whilst on the train. When a thief snatches his ring, Yeong-Ju fears she will be suspected. Not wanting to return to prison, she reacquires the ring, and through much personal difficulty, manages to locate Hee-Cheol's familial residence to give back what belongs to him.Song Jae-Ho is especially terrific as Hee-Cheol's father, exerting authority and compassion in equal measure, while Kim Je-Yeong as Hee-Cheol's grandmother, is as sweet as she is humorous. Other cast members, including Lim Ha-Ryong and Lee Young-Eun are just as adept in their roles, the cast in total generating a family as entertaining as they are charmingly lovable, and, in some instances, peculiar.Unable to confess the truth, Yeong-Ju unfortunately triggers a series of alarmingly hilarious situations that result in the family suspecting that she is in fact Hee-Cheol's fiancé. Upon been forced home, Hee-Cheol is forced to conform to the inconvenient information Yeong-Ju has fabricated. Though initially likable, for much of the film, Yeong-Ju presents himself as a pretentiously arrogant young man, so it is no surprise when his family reveals greater appreciation for the stranger they've let into their lives.What follows is a series of incidents, many of which are even stranger than the next, Yeong-Ju and Hee-Cheol discovering much about each other over the short time period. However, in pretending to be Hee-Cheol's lover, has Yeong-Ju begun to exhibit actual feelings towards the man whose life she's invaded? Although stereotypically similar, on occasion, to other South Korean comedies, in not only tone, but characterization (the unlikable male who exhibits change, the lovable woman that changes his perspective, the emotional connection exhibited between friends, etc), the film exaggerates almost every portion of the narrative to create a story so unbelievable, it's surprising everything works so brilliantly. Ms. Ha-Neul shines in this feature, exhibiting, with much professionalism, more emotions than anyone could possibly hope to name, to create a character that nobody can ignore. If this is the kind of comedy Ms. Ha-Neul stars in, I'd very much like to view the other humorous features she's credited for.
karluk99
Kim Ha-Neul plays Yeong-ju, a convicted criminal who has just won parole by using her acting skills to make the parole board feel sorry for her. Through a chain of coincidences involving a stolen engagement ring, she ends up in a small town pretending to be the pregnant girlfriend of a man she sat next to on the train. It's a great idea for a romantic comedy that may very well work for some viewers.But a great comedy needs to actually deliver laughs, and I found that the laughs were few and far between. As for romance, it was difficult to figure out why the two lead characters fell in love. They don't seem to enjoy each other's company very much. A few more scenes showing them drawing closer together would have made it easier to root for a happy ending.Yeong-ju's character was unconvincing as an ex-con. Sure she prides herself on being able to mislead people by spinning convincing lies, but otherwise she's as high-minded and moral as any woman you'll ever meet. It would never occur to her to steal money just because it's there for the taking.I was surprised to discover that Kim Ha-Neul won an acting award for her role as Yeong-ju. She spends too much time mugging for the camera for my taste. Her performance in Almost Love was definitely better than here. But I won't quibble. She's a talented actress who deserves multiple awards. It took a strong performance from her to make Too Beautiful to Lie worth watching at all.Overall verdict: Too Beautiful to Lie has its moments, but overall there are better Korean romantic comedies to watch.
Desertman84
Too Beautiful To Lie features Kim Ha-Neul, Kang Dong-Won and Song Jae- Ho. It is a romantic, melodrama comedy about a beautiful ex-con and an innocent and naive village boy.It was directed by Bae Hyeong-jun."Yeong-ju" is a cute, innocent looking girl with an excellent deception skills who is imprisoned for fraud. But using her talent she managed to go through the evaluation and able to receive a parole for her only sister's wedding. She boards a train with wooden crafted geese which she handcrafted as for her sister's wedding gift. But during the journey she is confronted by an innocent village boy "Hui-cheol". He is also on his way to propose his love to his girlfriend with his deceased mother's family heirloom ring. New problems begin when Yeong-ju witnessing pickpocket man stealing the ring from Hui-cheol. Driven mad by her own safety she stole the ring back, to make everything back to normal. But unfortunately for her, she is unable to board the train on time thus missing it and leaving her wedding gift bag on the train.Determined to find her bag, she tracks down Hui-cheol and reaches his village looking for him. Making things more complicated everybody misunderstood her and welcomed her as their daughter-in-law due to the ring. Unwilling to tell them the truth due to her own safety and get time to resumption of her bag she manages to fool everyone around the family and manipulate Hui-cheol as father of her unborn child. Meanwhile, Hui-cheol who didn't have the ring to make the marriage proposal comes back empty with a heavy heart, and is enraged when he finds the plot that has been going on while he was away. But worsening his situation, no one actually believes him, thinking he had abandoned his poor fiancée, and ended up kicked him out of the house making his life more miserable.This is a standard made-to-order romantic comedy from the Korean Cinema that is both cheesy and formulaic despite the good performance of Kim Ha-Neul, who's effective as a wacky romantic comedy lead.Practically,it offers nothing new to the genre.
