Please Teach Me English (2003)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The posted review is seems to be the only negative one. The film is sweet, fun, often funny, and well worth an afternoon's or evening's viewing. The movie is about a mousy public official who needs to take English in case any foreigners come into her office. There she meets the man of her dreams, unfortunately the guy is a cad and seems interested only in fancy girls. This is compounded by the fact that their English teacher is an attractive woman. This all leads to lots of wacky encounters, typical Korean misunderstandings, and love. The leads are sweet and play off each other very well. There's a sub plot about a daughter given up for adoption coming back to Korea to meet her family, and these subplots are often superfluous but it works well here. The lead actress is utterly goofy and adorable. The rest of the cast is great as well. All in all, a fun sweet movie that will leave you will a smile on your face!

This story is about relations between Mun-su (starring Jang Hyuk) and Na Young-ju (starring Lee Na-young), both of whom are classmates in a private English class. Mun-su, having a taste of girls, would frequently look out for girls working in his shoe retail shop. However, Young-ju, who had an interest in Mun-su, frequently looked for him. Mun-su said she was normal. They eventually became friends, and would frequently sit together in English classes.One day, Young-ju boasted about a pig in her grandparents' farm who had the ability to recognize the English alphabet. The curious class decided to take a trip to the countryside and look for the pig, only to discover that the pig had been eaten up earlier on the same day (it was just a convenient excuse for Young-ju, as there was in reality no such intelligent pig). Young-ju used a little piglet and trained it to recognize the English alphabets, of which her efforts was discovered by Mun-su, who stepped in to help. However, the pig ran off after they successfully managed to achieve their goal, and had to run into the farms to recapture the pig. The entire expedition, along with Young-ju's family had a party that night before returning.During the return journey on the bus, Young-ju overheard Mun-su sharing a photograph of a woman with his partner, which she mistook as Mun-su's girlfriend. As she listened, Mun-su boasted that the woman in the photograph was more beautiful than the person herself in real life.A depressed Young-ju skipped classes, and her English teacher had to look for her before the second last day of class, prompting her to return to class. When Young-ju refused, the teacher knocked on her head, and both parties had to turn up in class the following day with a plaster on their heads. The day after, Young-ju, following a farewell lunch party in a Korean restaurant with the class, (of which Mun-su did not turn up, claiming that he had some personal matters to attend to), happened to meet Mun-su's mom as she entered a hotel, looking for Mun-su. Her mum took Young-ju to be a public relations officer, and Young-ju discovered that Mun-su's mum was meeting the girl she had seen in the photograph.The girl, known as Victoria or Moon-young, spoke no Korean and needed Young-ju to translate. As Mun-su's mum, wearing a hanbok, expressed her grief, regret and joys to Victoria, Young-ju, who had only just learned simple English, was at a loss and uttered out that "she looked more beautiful in the photo than she was in real life". Victoria looked astonished, hardly believing her ears. As her mother walked away, weeping, telling Young-ju that she will be going to the restroom for a while, Young-ju told Victoria that everybody hated her because she is not Korean. Victoria responded to Young-ju and told her to tell them that she came with good intentions and left.Mun-su's mum was astonished when she returned to the empty table. Mun-su arrived at this point of time, seeing his mother weeping. A guilty Young-ju went into hiding, seeing everything. They checked the counter, and found out that Victoria had just checked out of the hotel. Victoria gave one last glance at her family, before leaving for the car. Young-ju stopped her car, and told Victoria that everybody was waiting for her, and that she was actually lying.Victoria went back in, and hugged Mun-su and his mother. Young-ju slipped away and boarded a train, with Mun-su leaving his newfound family and trailing behind Young-ju. He boarded the same train, and confessed that Victoria is not his girlfriend, but his long-lost sister from New York. Mun-su found Young-ju and helped her to put on her shoes. Following which, they kissed each other, and the entire expedition on the train cheered for them. The couple married later and had a baby.Please, everyone know name of song, when Yeong-ju is crying in metro and Moon-su hind her....I like this song..If you know...very please send me email: [email protected]

i completely disagree with the posted review i usually give people the benefit of the doubt but this movie is quite funny and i think the usage of different movie mediums (ie animation, documentary)added a very cute yet thoughtful comedic value. It is a romantic comedy and not much should be weighed upon the realism but there are some pleasant real life twists and communicational misunderstandings and misinterpretations that give the movie a nice personal relevance. Also the underlying theme of the importance of people worldwide learning English as a necessity is mind opening.Especially how it is presented. The movie Isn't very serious or artsy which makes the point of people having trouble worldwide with being forced to learn English that much easier to witness for those of us who grew up in a place where English is the native language. I definitely recommend this film for fun and definitely for anyone who has the experience of being forced to learn English.

Even though the character development are not as established as hoped, this movie comes off as a pleasant surprise. The scene transitions are not always smooth, and there are a few odd tacks in the script course, but it does come off altogether as a cute date movie. The production techniques are very good, with some interesting animation along the way that enhance the whole scene. Especially the fighting game sequence.The acting was good; Hyuk Jang was good here, better than Windstruck I think. But the top acting goes to Mun-hee Na as Moon-Su's mother. There is a fairly dramatic section about a reunion of separated family that she really carries home. The dramatic portion cut into a lot of the comedy and seemed out place, but it did add some additional depth to the otherwise thin story line.Some of the character interaction were not clear but as a whole it was well done and comes off as time well spent.