[HanCinema's Film Review] "Perfect Proposal"

Ji-yeon (played by Lim Soo-jung) is a woman in her thirties who's been drifting around aimlessly on the international circuit. After an interview with Seong-yeol (played by Yoo Yeon-seok) an intriguing possibility is floated. Does Ji-yeon continue with her dead-end lifestyle, or agree to the risky and convolunted scheme? You can probably guess the answer to that question. What kind of boring movie would prevent its characters from doing anything interesting? Well I can think of several actually but "Perfect Proposal" isn't one of them.

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Let's start with the sex. There isn't actually any sex. There are a few kisses. I bring this up so that you won't be misled. Yes the scheme involves Ji-hyeon using her powers of seduction...wait a minute Ji-hyeon doesn't actually have any powers of seduction. Come to think of it this scheme doesn't really make any sense at all. Granted the plan not making any sense is sort of necessary for getting the plot to move forward because of course there are going to be twist and turns.

They're not spectacularly creative twists and turns, but they do manage to be somewhat surprising. "Perfect Proposal" is rather limited in the mystery construction department on account of so many of its character being a little dumb. But to be equally honest if Ji-hyeon were a particularly brilliant woman she probably wouldn't have been enticed by Seong-yeol's proposal in the first place. Really, how does anyone get a lot in life so crummy as to work on some rich jerk's party yacht?

Taken from that perspective, there's actually a sort of relieving simplicity in the performances of the supporting cast. My favorite was Min Dohee, mostly because Min Dohee is completely adorable and needs to get more acting roles. She brings a lot of cute energy to her scenes, even though all her character really does is provide story exposition. Given that "Perfect Proposal" is basically just a mystery thriller that's actually a more important role than it sounds.

I have little in the way of especially strong compliments for "Perfect Proposal" mainly because this is a bare bones project with little in the way of serious ambition. The mystery, and the resolution of the mystery are the main priority. Serious romantic chemistry falls by the wayside. So that leaves us with lots of scenes on a yacht where everyone is pretending to have fun. And for what it's worth, it's a reasonably fun make-believe party yacht.

That's going to have to be about as close to a recommendation as I can get. "Perfect Proposal" is a fairly servicable genre film where the characters are just likable and interesting enough that I want to stick around a moment longer to find out the deep, secret truth behind the central story. If I saw this movie while flipping through cable channels, I'd probably stick around with it for awhile. "Perfect Proposal" never gets outrageously stupid or mauldin, and that alone is enough to nudge it into the slightly above average range.

Review by William Schwartz

"Perfect Proposal" is directed by Yoon Jae-goo and features Lim Soo-jung, Yoo Yeon-seok, Lee Kyung-young and Park Chul-min.