My Paparotti: Sing Out, Louise

Who you watch a movie with — or who you encounter any type of art with — can have a major impact on how you experience it. I remember hearing a casette of "Everything That Rises Must Converge" with my mother in the car after a particularly tense exchange between the two of us in the car. And let me tell you, Flannery O'Connor's bleak short story about a mother and her estranged son has probably never had a pair of more attentive listeners — destination forgotten. Happily, my viewing of Lee Jong-chan's feel-good comedy My Paparotti was a less emotionally wrought exchange. To the contrary, this cinematic success story proved effervescent when seated beside by boyfriend who corrected subtitles, mimicked opera singing, and encouraged all my sentimental reactions.

So let others roll their eyes at this underdog saga of a young troublemaker (Sung Yoo-bin) whose passion for singing provides a way out of "thug life" and under the prickly warm tutelage of a disillusioned teacher (Han Suk-kyu) whose own music career was derailed by some ill-timed tumors on his vocal cords. As for anyone ready to dismiss this film outright as fantastical nonsense, know this: My Paparotti is based on a true story! Characters like the bossy high school principal (Oh Dal-su), the kooky love interest (Kang So-ra), and the brotherly, middle-management mafioso (Cho Jin-woong) may register as pure cartoon but real life has a place for exaggeration, too, especially when it makes you feel this good.

Sunny: Girls Just Wanna Continue Having Fun When They're Older

I knew within about three minutes that I was going to love Kang Hyeong-Cheol's Sunny, an adroitly crafted chick flick about a girl gang in high school that slowly reunites 25 years later after Na-mi (Yu Ho-jeong/Sim Eun-kyeong), the artsy one, discovers the group's tough leader Chun-hwa (Jin Hee-kyung/Kang So-ra) is dying of cancer in the same hospital at which Na-mi's soap-opera-devoted mother (Kim Hye-ok) is a patient. This chance encounter has a domino effect, as Na-mi begins tracking down the other five girlfriends, all of whom now lead frustrated lives though each for quite different reasons.

Jin-hee (Hong Jin-hee/Park Jin-hoo) has gone from potty-mouthed punk to rich-but-dissatisfied wife, Bok-hee (Kim Seon-kyeong/Kim Bo-mi) has fallen from aspiring beauty queen to prostitute, Jang-mi (Go Su-hee/Kim Min-yeong) has devolved from class clown to second-rate insurance agent... As each new friend re-enters the picture, new memories surface -- the turf rivalry with a girl gang called Generations, the teenage crush on dreamy Joon-ho (Kim Si-hoo), the life-changing day when the prettiest one (Yoon Jeong/Min-Hyo-rin) gets cut in the face by a glue-sniffer.

The performances are of the hammier variety: The cast wails when asked to cry and makes their eyes pop when a raised eyebrow would suffice. But the broad style never gets in the way of the story or prevents the flow of tears. You'd have to be one tough cookie not to soften up as Sunny flashes back and forth between the innocence of youth and what might be best referred to as the resignation of middle age. Corny and sentimental as it is, Sunny nonetheless acts as a rallying cry to re-engage with your life, to never relinquish your dreams and to reclaim your rightful place as the protagonist in your own story.

I think one of the reasons Sunny is so effective is that it understands how strongly we identify with our younger selves. "We are always the same age inside," Gertrude Stein once quipped. And she's right. Painfully so. Exquisitely so. For though the body may tire, and disappointments may mount, the inner adolescent -- ever ready for discovery -- remains intact and little changed. Step outside your own petty grievances. Look around you with fresh eyes. It's never to late for your old self to rejuvenate or your young self to be reborn.