Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy: Never Quit the Game

I've been reading a number of disappointing contemporary novels in which the main character exercises minimal control of their fate so Kim Byung-woo's Omniscient Reader: The Prophecy is a welcome counterbalance. It's leading man Kim Dok-ja (Ahn Hyo-seop) is stuck in a choose-your-own-adventure narrative for which taking drastic action is the only way to survive. You see, he's been propelled into a scenario containing endless parallels to a dissatisfying online novel that he's been reading and recently finished. Now, finally, he has the chance to influence the outcome — as well as who lives and who dies — every time a new crisis arrives. Joining him in his postapocalypic journey are spiderwebby former co-worker Yoo Sang-ah (Chae Soo-bin), insect telepath Lee Gil-yeong (Kwon Eun-sung), muscle buddy Lee Hyeon-seong (Shin Seung-ho), tough girl Jeong Hee-won (Nana a.k.a. Im Jin-ah), loner Lee Ji-hye (Kim Ji-soo) and former fictional hero Yoo Jung-hyuk (Lee Min-ho).

If mentioning the biggest stars at the end seems strange, well, Omniscient Reader is a pretty strange movie. I mean, when's the last time you heard of a scifi pic in which heartless ETs set off a series of disasters on Earth so they could be entertained by human players in a live-streamed reality TV series / videogame? The metaphors aren't hard to decode. Nor is the plot hard to follow despite the reviews I read online. One villain is a politican! Another's a rich guy! Another's a sexually predatory businessman! And then there's quite a variety of lizard-like demons. What's the message? Teamwork and good friends will get you through the worst of times. And let's not forget the small joys that come when little kids mind-control oversized praying mantises.

Sweet & Sour: Who Do You Love?

I like a movie that emphatically changes gears midway and Lee Kae-byeok's Sweet & Sour definitely does that. What starts off as a giddily silly rom-com about a chubby guy (Lee Woo-je) with severe jaundice and an overworked nurse (Chae Soo-bin) who's an irresistable flirt turns into a harshly realistic drama about a couple unable to find time for each other because they're so overtaxed by jobs with no security. Admittedly, the nurse tries even as the engineer (Jang Ki-yong) is diverted by a sloppy but talented co-worker (Jung Krystal). But eventually, you question whether the two even belong together. Either pair actually. It's then that Sweet & Sour takes a mindspinning twist, which elevates the movie to a whole other level.

Rather then give you the details on that front and rob you of the fun that I promise you lies ahead, I'll simply say that this feel-good/feel-bad/feel-I-don't-know-what movie ends up stitching together three genres instead of two: romantic comedy, workplace drama, and time-dislocating head-spinner. To Lee's credit, each section of the film contains hints of the other two so the final product (art!) doesn't feel disjointed. To the contrary, I'd say Sweet & Sour is a bit of a miracle, modest as it may be.