Letter #66: The Effect of a Finger Flick on a Breakup

Good morning, Erin. 

So, when you recommended I watch this because one of the actors was someone I said I liked, my guess going into the film was that you were talking about Start-Up Dead Dad, given how frequently I have invoked him as an actor I wish was in more stuff. But, no, he was not the man you were referring to. 


Well played, my K-drama seonbae


I mean, obviously I’d have been more in-tune with your passing almost-hint if I weren’t simultaneously trying to wrap my head around a multimedia ARG surrounding the world’s favorite Korean boy-band, but…nevertheless: ya got me. You win this round.


…though, for getting my hopes up, I swear I will not rest until I make it a Pyrrhic victorySoooooo let’s have a quick look at The Effect of a Finger Flick on a Breakup:


1. What a ludicrous title—which I both like and frown at. It’s suitable as the name of a meditation on the “straw that broke the camel’s back” aspect of most breakups (which this certainly is), in that it is what you might subtitle a research paper or thoughtful personal essay on the subject. At the same time, it is horribly pretentious. Memorable, though, at least insofar as you’ll remember bits of it and that it was ludicrous (certainly better than most artsy/esoteric titles). But it’s weird enough to turn you off to giving it a shot. It put me in mind of the absurdly-titled late-’90s alt rock song “Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand,” which is a dubious thing to be even vaguely tied to—even if only in the mind of one person—and it is dangerously close to being a cliché light novel title (…light novels being the mostly un-literary “novels” written almost exclusively in the hopes of earning an anime adaptation, which, for a long while, had obscenely lengthy titles that were basically just summaries of the novels’ central plots). 


2. I was shocked to see that I knew basically the entire cast. I mean, it’s a very small cast, but I was still shocked—especially since everyone looked nebulously familiar, for a moment, then got the “wait, that can’t be…can it?” treatment, before finally receiving a “holy crap—it is!” as my brain confirmed it was, in fact, that person. 


2A. It’s obvious who kicked this recommendation off, but I think we need to first chat about how immediately I wrote “oo, I love employee/secretary/assistant whatever lady!” when she walked into her first scene. Golly, I was hoping she’d stick around—and she did! But, even better, she didn’t have glasses on, in her second scene, so I could realize that IT WAS CUTE LAWYER GIRL FROM ATTORNEY WOO!!! Oh my goodness, I was so surprised to see her. I mean, thrilled, but surprised. And, of course, once I saw it was her, I understood why I immediately liked her. (She should be in more things. Or more things that I watch, I guess.)


2B. But then, of course, there’s fellow Attorney Woo alum Jun-ho—who, I’m sure, we’re all still more than a little bit in love with—ABSOLUTELY BREAKING MY F***ING HEART as suuuuuuuuch a total jerkwad. I was like, “This…this can’t be my sweet, sweet Jun-ho!” But it was. I guess it’s nice to know he can be a bad dude, as well, but…yeesh, he was just such a dumbass. Which is the point, of course, that he was unthinking and taking his situation for granted. But…still. (You don’t get to start me out with the revolving door scene and then think I’ll be okay with you being a jerk, Jun-ho!) Even so, it was nice to see him, and he did a good job…though I wish the movie had gone a liiiiittle bit more into the whole not-totally-his-fault aspect of their breakup, if only because I felt they missed the chance to amp up the tragic aspect of breakups that happen just because those two people—regardless of how much they like each other—aren’t in balance enough to work out. Oh well. Not everything needs us to see things from the bad guy’s side, too. 


2C. …that said, he was playing Phillip Phillips on f***ing vinyl, so I don’t see how I didn’t know he would be the villain from the start. 


2D. Also, I’m surprised they don’t tease a future romance between him and Cute Lawyer Girl. Not that they needed to, of course, but she did say (at one point) something along the lines of she’s the only one who understands him when he acts like himself. 


2E. Of course, then we have Young Main Bully from The Glory as our protagonist. Which was a really nice surprise, as well, because I enjoyed her in The Glory. And she was enjoyable here, as well. She was a little overshadowed by my pre-existing crush on Cute Lawyer Girl, but I thought she did a very good job. And she probably gave the best performance, overall. (In part because her character had the most emotional range to play with. But also in part because, y’know, she could actually do that range.)


2F. And then there’s her mom, who took me the longest time to place. I spent most of the movie going, “I know I know who this is. But…who…?” Until she smiled (or some other movement of her mouth) and I gasped to myself that she’s the deity lady from Hotel Del Luna/the CEO or whatever from Start-Up. And it was so nice to see her after so long.


2G. …though I’m a little bit confused about the mom, specifically about them inserting kind of awkwardly that she…left her husband? Right? I’m not upset that she did, like, on a moral level or anything. But it felt a little unearned, narratively. I didn’t see anything that led me to think she’d had a sudden, massive shift in her outlook on her situation. So that whole note-on-the-table thing seemed a little weird, to me. 


3. Now, I don’t know who the P.E. Teacher was…but he was certainly adorable, wasn’t he. I mean, I dunno if you thought he was cute or whatever, but…such a nice boy. Good for him for getting the girl. Well, sort of getting the girl. 


4. When Young Main Bully goes to do that final goodbye at the…drinking park?...she walks off, and Jun-ho shouts after her. Everyone in that little park area turns to look a them. Yet, when he drunkenly goes to yell at her for “cheating on him” with P.E. Teacher outside that pizza place, he’s shouting and flicking her face and nearly gets into a punch-up with P.E. Teacher…and no one bats an eye


5. Okay, I’ve got a really, really dorky one to end on, this time: during their argument or whatever at the maybe-drinking park, there’s a shot of the two of them from the side, and…did you notice how they were framed? She, who wants to get out and go off, is in front of an open door—and he, who doesn’t want to change anything nor to listen to her, is in front of a brick wall. Coincidence, or deliberate symbolism? I suppose we’ll never know. 


5A. Though I’m pretty sure they never do any other shots like this, so…


And that’s all I got. 


Did you have fun with this one? Because I had fun with this one. Even beyond the exciting cast. 


You know what’s next. So…look forward to that. 


--Daryl 

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