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[HanCinema's Film Review] "So I Married An Anti-Fan"

Fang Miao Miao (played by Yuan Shanshan) is an incompetent Chinese paparazzi. No, seriously, from the very first scene we see that Fang Miao Miao is very bad at taking salacious photographs in a subtle, non-suspicious manner, which is kind of an essential skill in the paparazzi business. She also resorts to violence at the slightest excuse. When Korean star Hou Zhun (played by Chanyeol) comments on how Fang Miao Miao should be in jail, that just ends up begging the question. Why isn't Fang Miao Miao in jail anyway?

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Well, because the premise of "So I Married An Anti-Fan" hinges on Fang Miao Miao and Hou Zhun doing one of those fake relationship programs on television together. Why anyone would want to watch a popular idol hang out with a petty obnoxious paparazzi is...rather unclear. "So I Married An Anti-Fan" goes to great lengths to establish that Fang Miao Miao is very bad at her chosen profession, constantly posting articles that are quickly and decisively proven completely wrong. Then Fang Miao Miao turns into a psycho stalker and I'm just left wondering why exactly are we supposed to like her again?

I guess Fang Miao Miao does at least manage to be a better character than Hou Zhun, who's such a cipher he might as well not have a personality at all. There's an entire subplot about Hou Zhun stabbing his friends in the back for professional advancement. Hou Zhun never so much as contradicts this depiction of events, which has the unintentional effect of making him look like a sociopath. A running gag whereby Fang Miao Miao accidentally delivers nasty hits to Hou Zhun's manager while Hou Zhun himself appears indifferent also bolsters this impression.

But to be clear, this is less the fault of the actors and more an issue with a very bad script. The direction isn't too great either. Yuan Shanshan and Chanyeol are mostly blocked off from being able to do much in the way of romantic chemistry mainly because most of their scenes were obviously filmed separately. Observe how most of their conversations simply switch from one talking head shot to another.

An even worse example is Fang Miao Miao's dancing. Even though Fang Miao Miao's dancing is supposed to be an essentially interesting and attractive aspect to her character, the dancing scenes are very short and also obviously edited in such a way to disguise the presence of a body double. I mean good grief, if Fang Miao Miao's only likable character traits are wrapped up in dancing, shouldn't director Kim Je-yong have hired an actress who already knows how to dance?

But maybe it was out of his hands. "So I Married An Anti-Fan" was obviously conceived as an international project to capitalize and promote its Chinese actors in Korea and vice-versa. Unfortunately the movie is so insipid and dreadfully unfunny the project is just an embarrassment for everyone involved. It's literally an insult to fans, in that there are several sequences where fans are belittled and mocked for having strong emotional attachments to actors. If this movie wasn't even made with fans in mind, I don't have a clue who else the target audience could be.

Review by William Schwartz

"So I Married An Anti-Fan" is directed by Kim Je-yeong and features Chanyeol, Yuan Shanshan, Seohyun and Jiang Chao.

 

Available on Blu-ray-and DVD from YESASIA

Blu-ray HK (En Sub)
Blu-ray HK (En Sub)
DVD HK (En Sub)
DVD HK (En Sub)

 

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