'Wonderful Nightmare,' a tearjerker comedy
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From left, Seo Shin-ae, Jung Ji-hoon, Uhm Jung-hwa and Song Seung-heon in a scene from “Wonderful Nightmare” / Courtesy of Megabox Plus M
By Baek Byung-yeul
This summer, a series of big budget films filled with different themes hit the local theaters. In a tight race to become the season’s big winner, a low-budget comedy “Wonderful Nightmare” is a leading contender.
Although there are no action-packed scenes or colorful computer graphic displays, “Wonderful Nightmare,” starring top singer and actress Uhm Jung-hwa, has the power to make audiences laugh and cry during the 2 hour running time, as well as remind them of the importance of family values.
The comedy revolves around Yeon-woo (played by Uhm), an arrogant top-flight lawyer who represents one of the country’s biggest conglomerates and later becomes a wife and a mother of two children as she dies by “God’s mistake.”
Though she is about to take a new post at a law firm in the United States, the cold-blooded lawyer gets involved in a car accident and falls into a coma. Arriving in heaven, Yeon-woo is informed that she has died instead of another woman, who was destined to die a month later, because of a mistake by an official in heaven.
Admitting his mistake, one of heaven’s managers, surnamed Lee (played by Kim Sang-ho), promises he can make her alive again if she promises to live the life of the other woman who was supposed to die, on the condition that she cause no commotion.
After accepting the offer, Yeon-woo returns to a mundane life on Earth and has to live as the mother of a kindergartener, a defiant high school girl and the wife of a government employee.
Actress Uhm Jung-hwa looks in the mirror as she finds herself living the life of another person.
Uhm creates a portrait of how a high-income woman who enjoys her bachelorhood, turns into a housewife who’s always worried about managing two kids with an absurdly small salary in an exquisitely comical way. She also has good chemistry with actor Song Seung-heon, who plays the role of her character’s devoted husband Sung-hwan. The actor made headlines last month for being cast in an upcoming Chinese war film alongside Bruce Willis.
You will laugh and cry
“Wonderful Nightmare” seems destined to land a top spot in the summer box office rankings as it faithfully obeys the surefire rules hit comedy films in Korea -- making audiences laugh in the beginning and bringing them to tears in the end.
The film is reminiscent of the 2013 smash-hit film “Miracle in Cell No.7.” The comedy mixed with tear-jerking scenes, starring actor Ryu Seung-ryong, became the top-grossing film of the year, attracting more than 12.8 million spectators.
Like “Cell No.7,” “Wonderful Nightmare” starts comically and later makes audiences emotional when Yeon-woo is set to be separated from the family after her month-long stay.
Kang Hyo-jin, the director of “Wonderful Nightmare,” confessed that he inserted tear-jerking scenes at the end to let the audience feel a catharsis by shedding tears.
“It took me a long time to decide whether it might become too contrived if I emphasized sad scenes too much, so I have made different kinds of endings. However, I decided to go with this version to let the audiences emotions out at the end,” Kang said to reporters during a press preview at a theater in Dongdaemun, Seoul, Wednesday.
To ensure the film doesn’t become too much of a tearjerker, Kang effectively adopted scenes dealing with social irregularities as well.
“This movie deals with everyday life issues. So I spiced up the film with scenes that the characters fight against corruption in society,” he said.
“Wonderful Nightmare” will screen in local theaters on Aug. 13.