Doce Mel (2023)

Never too late for love

I wanted to watch something short and light and this popped out of nowhere. And since you can never go wrong with a rom com on a Sunday evening, I gave it a go. And I enjoyed the film. It is fun and unremarkable but a nice single watch!

The story is a bit unusual because the main leads are in their forties. He is a dorky researcher, working for a snacks company. His life is orderly, by the clock, every day the same as the one before. She's a single mother who just got a job in a loans company and she needs to get the money from his brother. That brother is an ex con and gambler, sponging off of his brother who goes to the loan company to pay the debt. They meet there and she falls for his humour. Meeting her changes him for the better: he gets to be more open and joyful so much so his boss gets worried!

The cast of characters are a quirky lot: not a mean bone in sight but odd! Apart from those already mentioned there is the rude daughter who does not want her mother to date; the pharmacist who has seen everything but the ML still manages to surprise her, the brother's girlfriend who falls for the ML's boss and turns out to be the FL's friend.....just a typical romcom! With a lot of funny scenes where the outcome is not expected (falling down the stairs!)...and of course, a number of obligatory scenes: a public confession, running into each other's arms etc.

The ML is the character who changes the most: or at least it is the most remarkable. The others develop slightly.

The movie is about ordinary people, living ordinary lives and trying to find happiness. The actors are all excellent: the ML is not the typical romcom material but the actor pulled it off brilliantly and they were perfect together!

Will I rewatch it? Not sure! Maybe in order to spot all the cameos....

NB The screenplay writer is amazing: look him up. He is hugely talented: wrote some of the best dramas and movies in recent years, and is better looking than the majority of korean actors! A lot of good fairies must have been present at his birth!

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Love can come at any time in our life

I watched this movie to detox myself a bit from a disappointing drama I ‘ve been watching in the past few days, also recommended by another MDL user, what can I say, really a happy breath of fresh air...

It's a really pleasantly well-made romantic comedy that, without saying anything new, joyfully succeeds in engaging the well-prepared viewer for its two-hour duration (which is not particularly heavy at all, however).

It is in the choice of the main players that the movie's success is most evident; telling a love story with two mature characters, wonderfully mature I would say, but at the same time still young in their hearts and at the end of the day simply desperate to have someone at their side to love, like all of us...

The story is of disarming simplicity and the plot mechanics are those well established in the classic Korean rom-com: the main character, with his hilarious facial expressions, lost in his foibles and fixations, with an absolutely absurd and decidedly unhealthy job, the usual circle of colleagues/acquaintances more deranged than him, as well as the bothering element of his brother; on the other side, our beautiful Kim Hee Sun, a messed-up single mother with a teenage daughter, obviously problematic...

Rather than the usual clash-meeting between two completely antithetical entities, the most interesting element is surely the lengthy courteousness on her part, which allows the staging of several rather amusing scenes related to the total clumsiness of our male subject

But it is precisely in these phases of rapprochement of the two lonely souls, in this gradual process towards a state of happiness, that I found myself most satisfied, in that desire to attempt to experience the same joyfully adolescent emotions that can be found in so many dramas or movies, more or less good; that attempt at normality that leads us to think: "Why can't we experience the same joys too!"

Of course, there are the obvious lucky coincidences and even several innocent ingenuities that push the story towards the most obvious ending, thanks also to a supporting cast that is functional to its role, but in the end you are immediately inclined to cheer for the two heroes and therefore we welcome that bit of magical coincidence that leads to the happy end, just to have a Romantic Heart and believe/hope that love can come at any time in our life

The rating is a perhaps generous 7.5/10, but in cases like this it is OK to be kind...

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