The Movie

My Little Bride is a cute and fun with a perfect blend of romance and Korean-style slapstick comedy. The movie is about two families who have been very close and want to be closer. Their youngest generation consists of a male college student and a female high school student. Their grandparents were war buddies in the Korean War and made a pact to become relatives. The grandparent's children were both males and unable to fulfill that pact. Little did future generations know or expect that they would be expected to fulfill that pact. The storyline is a little absurd (and pretty unrealistic from an American standpoint, but perhaps more realistic in an older Korea?). Despite this minor point, My Little Bride shines with two great leading characters who have fantastic chemistry together and lots of comical situations to make you laugh and enough romance to make the story cute.

Park Sang-Min (Kim Rae-Won, What Planet Are You From?) is a college student who is studying overseas to teach fine arts education. He is a fun-loving guy who enjoys partying, drinking, his friends, and attractive women. He's a playboy, or at least that's what his childhood/family friend Suh Bo-Eun (Moon Geun-Young) believes. In the beginning of the movie, Sang-Min comes back to Korea because Bo-Eun's grandfather is sick in the hospital. Grandpa Suh practically raised Sang-Min's father. When Sang-Min arrives at the airport, he is loosely greeted by Bo-Eun. He relentlessly teases her and she responds with a feisty fury. It is evident from the start they have a great chemistry together.

When the Park and Suh families are together, grandpa Suh reveals the pact he made with now-deceased-grandpa Park to become relatives, Bo-Eun and Sang-Min realize that the family wants them to get married. The catches are that Bo-Eun is only sixteen and still in high school and Sang-Min wants to enjoy his youth, not be married. Grandpa Suh, on his 'deathbed', convinces the kids to fulfill his last wish and get married. They do get married and a myriad of silly, fun situations follow.

Sang-Min and Bo-Eun get put into some great situations that are full of laughs. For instance, after the wedding they go on their honeymoon. The silly part is that Bo-Eun ditches Sang-Min at the airport and leaves him by his lonesome for the trip. The situation itself is comical and the individual adventures that follow are worth some good chuckles. Another good example is their living situation. After the honeymoon, their parents put them in an apartment together with separate bedrooms. While in the apartment, they get in several fun situations.

Their relationship at first is more or less difficult. Sang-Min spends most of his time teasing Bo-Eun, who doesn't think much of her newfound marriage. In fact, while skipping out on the honeymoon, she starts dating Jung-Woo, a hunky baseball player. The relationship adds a lot of drama to the story, especially when Sang-Min is assigned to work as an intern at Bo-Eun's high school. Making the situation increasingly difficult (and comical) is Bo-Eun's teacher Miss Kim, an older woman who is looking for a husband. Kim sets her sights on Sang-Min.

Overall, My Little Bride is a fantastic movie. There are several things that I really enjoyed about the movie. First, it captures the Korean-style romantic comedy well, and blends a dramatic situation with lots of slapstick comedy. The characters utilize physical comedy and tie it into dialogue and kooky situations well. Second, the leading characters Kim and Moon are great together. They have wonderful chemistry that heightens the quality of each scene. Third, the storyline's pacing is solid with excellent writing. In the end, My Little Bride is great movie that should not be missed.

The DVD

Video:
This release is given in anamorphic 1.78:1 ratio widescreen color. The picture quality is excellent, providing a clear and clean picture with minor color distortions and compression artifacts. Both dark and bright colors are represented very well.

Audio:
The audio is given in Korean DTS 5.1 surround sound and 2.0 stereo sound. The track is dialogue driven and has limited use of the surround/stereo capability. The music sounds good; it is dynamic and vibrant. For non-spoken language options, there are English subtitles.

Extras:
For extras, there are several special features that include movie promos, behind the scenes featurette, deleted scenes, and a music video. The movie promos include TV spots (60-, 30-, 20-, and 15-second promos), teaser, and trailer. The behind the scenes featurette starts off with cast interviews and then contains behind the scenes, making of footage. The deleted scenes are a clip of deleted scenes and alternative takes. Lastly, is the music video with Moon singing the song from the karaoke scene.

Final Thoughts:
My Little Bride can be summed up in a couple words, cute and funny. The story is about two students, one in college and the other in high school, who are put into an arranged marriage to fulfill a family pact. The mismatched couple has great chemistry together and they get into some fun, silly situations that will leave you laughing and smiling. It is a solid movie that has more than enough merit to make seeing it worthwhile, as well it appears to have good replay value.