What makes comedy work? Witty repartee? Physical slapstick? Preposterous circumstances? Overreactions? If humor were as easy as filling out checkboxes, it wouldn't be so hard to quantify. Which leaves me seriously wondering why Choi Sang-hoon's The Therapist: Fist of Tae-baek doesn't meet the genre's loose standards. As an acupressurist capable of fostering weight loss and breast enlargement, actor Oh Ji-ho is goofy enough. The plot about two former BFFs and taekwondo masters who find themselves on opposite sides of the law during a real estate scam is ridiculous enough. Their martial arts encounters certainly lend themselves to physical comedy. As does a drunk scene mid-film. And yet...
The Therapist isn't particularly funny. Or even amusing. Which isn't to say, it's boring. Or even bad. What's the gray area called? Undramatic dramedy? Because The Therapist feels like watching a film that adheres to the tropes of farce without the hilarity. You've got the shrewish wife (Shin So-yul), a violent villain (Dong Zhang) with a soft side, a rivalry that drives best friends apart then pulls them together, and exaggerated facial expressions from just about everyone. It could work but it doesn't. More than anything else, The Therapist made me realize how years of watching sitcoms has trained me to accept comedies that don't make me laugh. Without complaint.
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