Sweet & Sour (2021)

Lee woo je needs more recognition

Ahh defos lives up to the name! Your feelings to the couples relationship becomes sweet and sour and you watch their relationship become the way it does with those feelings like aghh!! still dying over the ending an hour later!!
My guy Lee woo je was in the beginning and ending so shouldve given him more recognition in the credits.
But what i can tell you readers my feelings for Soobin at the end was like WTH! MASSIVE TWIST AT THE END GUYS!!! But kiyoung was kinda cute in this film first time seeing his acting.
And crystal was funny ♡
It was a nice movie defos not sure if there was any OST that stood out tbh but really liked it.

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Loved that this movie's ending caused such havoc online!!
Because the ending is realistic and she the female lead - PROUDLY made the right choice.

Shocked, annoyed and simply disappointed that the main lead did NOT ONCE mention his girlfriend the ENTIRE time. With every encounter he had with his work co-worker. - That's SHADY behavior already.

Also that old security guard setting them up like that is just unnecessary - like your trying to live out your fantasies through younger , better looking young men and push pressurize them into doing the dirty so you can feel some second hand ooemmph.

LOVED the sweet and kindhearted boy she took with her to Jeju Island - this just proves that its NOT about the way someone looks (which it seems is EXTRA important in KDrama culture). Its about the way they treat and respect you. Love is an ACTION word!!

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I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this movie even almost a day after watching it. The story and twists were something I did not see coming and had me rethinking everything I had just watched.

-- Spoilers Below --

The way this movie is laid out, I thought that she had fallen in love with him and he lost weight for her and it was the same guy the entire time. Skip ahead... we're all in a huge hidden twist.

Hyuk was likable and funny in the spots that we got to know him at his job and he definitely tried to make an effort with Da Eun. He was coming back home every night to see her, granted it was just to sleep, but he made that commute and took the time to do that for her. It was hard to like him during the pregnancy scenes because of how obviously detached he was from the whole entire situation. It's also around the same time that it becomes obvious how much he likes Bo Yeong. It's also hard to watch their relationship knowing that Da Eun is an hour away working while him and a co-worker are flirting. He shouldn't have given in so easily to the flirtation and temptation of another woman before fully breaking it of with Da Eun.

Speaking of her, her character was incredibly likable and sweet in the beginning. She was a nurse that went above and beyond to make sure her patients got the best care and healed quickly. In the scenes after the beginning, she becomes incredibly cold to Hyuk and you can tell that the shift of him getting a job in the city was huge in their relationship. During their long distance relationship, she doesn't really put in too much of an effort and wants him to do all of the work and help even though he is commuting to work. During the pregnancy, she also is so detached and I couldn't tell if she was even excited at all about it. She tells him to go wait in the car and seems stressed talking about it at all, even when she was depressed afterwards.

This all makes sense towards the end, after Hyuk mistakenly called Da Eun Bo Yeong's name, the two split up and go separate ways because Da Eun senses that he is cheating on her. Months go by and he begins a relationship with Bo Yeong as they finish their project for the city. He goes to meet up with Da Eun who hasn't cancelled their vacation to Juju Island yet and changes her name to insinuate meeting him. When he arrives at the airport he sees Da Eun and goes for an embrace, where he bumps into a man... The man from the very beginning.

It turns out the entire time almost Da Eun was cheating on Hyuk already. She had met Hyeok at the hospital and slowly fell in love with him and started inviting him over at night. Their relationship stretched out even after Da Eun and Hyuk break up. He is the guy she's planning on going to Juju Island with and that's what they end up doing. Hyuk curses and goes back to Bo Yeong who he confesses he has feelings for, he asks for her hand in marriage and she says she isn't ready for that yet. It basically ends on that note of things and had me really conflicted on if I liked it or not.

I couldn't like either character at all really, I felt for Da Eun until the end when it showed she was actually cheating on Hyuk first and then it clicked as to why she seemed so cold and detached around him. It made me rethink everything like why she aborted their baby, which is probably because it was Hyuek's, why she blamed him for abandoning said baby when she was literally cheating on him behind his back, and made me just feel so icky for the both of them.

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lots of issues

The thing I enjoyed about the film was Chae Soo-bin and Jang Ki-yong's chemistry and I think that's all I can say in terms of positivity.

The trailer for the film is completely misleading. I understand that they did this so that people wouldn't expect the "plot twist" but the problem with this is that it can leave the target audience somewhat bewildered. It advertises itself as a rom-com which is a genre that typically women enjoy to see their idealised version of romance. The film's objective of wanting to present the realism of love and life reminds me of 500 days of Summer. They're not the same but kind of have that same feeling of "things just don't work out" but the trailers of the movie are different. It doesn't target an audience group that are bound to be disappointed in the ending which is why I have such mixed feelings on the ending. While I understand the ending is realistic, I am still disappointed and unsatisfied with it especially since it is hinted that both leads are still in love with each other. But honestly I feel like it only touches on the surface level of realistic relationships. I think it may be due to the constant fluctuating between serious, realism and rom-com. Some parts of it are so comical that it wouldn't be crazy to believe that despite everything, we'd still get a happy ending. That's not to say that you can't have a realistic movie with comedic elements; the movie just doesn't balance the serious and comedy that well, leaving me with mixed emotions.

Like I've commented before, I think a lot of people will be dissatisfied with the ending in terms of the pairings. The leads are clearly still in love with each other and rebounding so if you were watching for Krystal and rooting for her (which I don't really understand why you would other than your bias towards the actress), I'm sorry but the male lead was essentially rebounding/settling for her and that relationship was all based on temptation and lust.

I didn't like that they glossed over what the female lead was going through on an emotional level. But I guess that could be excused as the film being mostly from the male's perspective. Despite the lack of perspective from the female lead, I really sympathised with her. Honestly the plot twist is basically just a superficial shocker; my feelings and opinions for the leads didn't change. I still sympathised with her despite everything because she was being emotionally neglected by the male lead. so you can understand why she was essentially "unfaithful". I don't condone it but I understand where she's coming from. For god's sake, she was pregnant and then got an abortion. Him complaining about how he was still making an effort to see her despite it being an inconvenience was not it for me. He basically led her to believe and have expectations that he was committed to her emotionally and everything when that was not the case as he was wavering in the workplace.

Even though I'm complaining a lot about the male lead, I still don't hate his character lol which is ironic. I think Jang Ki-yong is so charismatic that it's difficult to hate his character which I guess is a good aspect of the film. The characters aren't categorised as bad or good because that's simply not how life works. Yes, the characters made mistakes and had their wrongdoings but those are seen as flaws, something very much of human nature.

Overall, the only reason I would watch this film again would be to see the chemistry between Chae Soo-bin and Jang Ki-yong. Hopefully they get to work together again in the future.

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Misleading trailer...AGAIN

The Asian drama world is notorious for creating trailers that are completely and totally misleading, as seen here yet again. The trailer makes this movie look like a rom-com, but in reality, it's just meh - it's not fun or comical, more of a melo. The ending is a true twist that I 100% did not see coming, which was cool, but at the same time, by the end of the movie I was kind of like, "ugh, what a messed up relationship."

To be completely transparent: I am really not the intended audience for this kind of movie. It's about adultery, which I just don't find entertaining at all. And while my best friend told me it likely wasn't my speed, I wanted to watch it because... THE TRAILER...ugh you K-drama useless trailers. >.<

I wouldn't recommend Sweet & Sour to really anyone.

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LDR is really difficult

I think a lot of people didn’t like this movie because of the last 10 mins when they showed the twist. I actually liked it. Even though I was expecting a happy ending for the couple, I was also fine with how the movie ended. Sweet and Sour indeed. I thought it was very realistic.

The couple started sweet (as in any relationship) but when Hyeok was transferred to Seoul, trouble started. I think both of them tried their best to maintain their relationship but they were both tired, overworked, pressured and lonely. They started blaming and resenting each other rather than talk about it or make time when they’re together. Da Eun was lonely and met a guy who was nice and would do anything for her. Hyeok met a girl who was beside him and understands his work. I also felt like Da Eun was the first who started to cheat. When she accused Hyeok of having an affair with Bo Yeong, that’s when Hyeok did it.

In the airport scene, I thought Da Eun would not push through with the trip and run after Hyeok, but it didn’t happen. But, I think it wasn’t a bad choice. What I didn’t like is how Hyeok, after realizing he loves Da Eun after all and came running to the airport, found out she was already with another guy, and instead of fighting for her, he went back to Bo Yeong and tried to propose to her as a second choice. But Bo Yeong is also leaving and he ends up alone. Oh well, he made his choice and must suffer with the consequences.

I don’t know if months later, will Da Eun still be with Lee Jang Hyeok? Will Hyeok date another girl? Or will they both end up with each other again? We will never know.

Rating: 8.5/10

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I have mixed feelings about this title.

If only people could speak and talk through the problem before it escalates too much...

I felt it was really stereotypical. Role of man and woman... She expected her boyfriend to do everything, preferably right away, despite the understandable fatigue after work, getting up early and a very long commute. Also, he was always supposed to come to her, she never even offered to visit him. They never talked to each other about their expectations and problems. They just had an argument when the situation escalated.

The very beginning of the movie was cute, then it got a little creepy but still sweet, and then it got sour at the end and we got a plot twist.

This movie tells a very real story that could happen in real life. However, I have mixed feelings about this title. For me, the first part of the movie was good enough, but then it got worse. I don't feel like this plot twist is needed, but it's easier for me to accept, knowing that such things also happen.

The execution was definitely missing something. The whole movie was very superficial. I couldn't get into the characters' stories.

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Awesome movie, WATCH IT

I was looking forward to watch this movie when i first watch the trailer and it definitely live up to the expectations i had or even crossed it.
after watching the movie, i saw reviews and i was shocked by seeing all those negative comments, i don't know whatt they were expecting, please don't sway by those comments
i highly recommend this movie to everybody.
Awesome story
A damn good plot twist at the end
and Last but not least you will learn something form the ending
please watch it, mark my word this is some good stuff
it won't disappoint you

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If you happen across people talking about this movie online, you might notice how people either hate it or love it. I am somewhere in between. I don’t think that this movie was a waste of my time, I also don’t think that this movie was poetic cinema. For me, it was somewhere in the middle. There were parts of the movie that I really enjoyed and some parts that felt very draggy. As the title suggests, the movie was sweet at times and sour at other times. It sought to portray a realistic side of couples struggling to find a balance between their work-life and love life. For the most part, it worked. But sadly, the movie attempted to be more than what it was intended to be. The story was a mix of melodrama, comedy and romance genre.

In an attempt to bend the genre, the story lost its depth. It never tackled the hard themes introduced in the story and moved on like nothing happened. If the first scene was melodrama, the next was comedy. So even when the couples were dealing with hard times, they didn’t focus on an issue or even discussed it. There was no point where they thought about their actions and how much they might affect the other person in the relationship. Even worse, there was no consequence to their actions at all. Both of them were like robots moving from one day to another.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not calling the actors robots. They were completely amazing. Jang Ki Yong, Chae Soo Bin and Krystal were the lifelines of this movie. They did a great job portraying their flawed characters. The problem was the script of this movie that added a lot of complexities to a simple story by bending genres and making these characters look shallow. That said, I will still recommend this movie if you are looking for a light movie to watch. Even though Sweet and Sour was melodrama it most certainly felt light since the difficult subjects were sidelined as quickly as they arrived. Speaking from a critical point of view, if you are going to talk about these issues you need to at the very least address them. However, it still made a decent watch. It had some highs and some lows.

Conclusion
Whenever I write a review I know if I liked it or not but it is hard for me to say with certainty if I liked this movie or not. So please watch it and judge it for yourself, at the very least this movie was a good one time watch. Don’t go into this movie expecting romance. If you have some free time and a Netflix subscription I will recommend Sweet and Sour to you. Please come back to let me know if you liked it or not. Also, to talk about the ending with me.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

Sweet and Sour – Ending Explained
(CW: Mentions of cheating and abortion)

If you are a little confused about the ending, this is where I will try to explain what happened at the end of Sweet and Sour. There were two Hyuk in the movie – Jang Hyuk (Jang Ki Yong) and Lee Jang Hyeok (Played by Lee Woo Je). For simplicity, I will call them Hottie Hyuk (Jang Ki Yong) and Cutie Hyeok (Lee Woo Je). When the movie starts we are instantly jumped into the story of Cutie Hyeok falling in love with the nurse Da Eun. Even though Cutie Hyeok is a patient and Da Eun is the nurse, Cutie Hyeok takes care of her more than she takes care of him. Within the first 20 minutes, we see them go from strangers to going on a trip to Jeju.

She gifts Cutie Hyeok a pair of sneakers before their trip to Jeju as a couple’s gift. Cutie Hyeok wears the sneakers and runs around at the airport in excitement while she waits for him to come back. The camera shows him start running with determination to lose weight and then cuts from Cutie Hyeok running to Hottie Hyuk running in the same couple’s sneakers. The intention here is to say that they are the same people and the Cutie Hyeok lost weight and became this Hottie Hyuk.

The director very smartly diverted all our attention throughout the movie by adding hints that both Cutie Hyeok and Hottie Hyuk are the same by giving them exact same personality traits and background story. Both are pushovers and let Da Eun order them around. Both took a car from their parents to drive Da Eun around. Both are Engineers. Both met Da Eun at the hospital as patients. Both hate the Doctor guy that keeps hitting on her.

In the first part, we see Cutie Hyeok refuse macaron on their date and then later in the movie Hottie Hyuk says that he hates sweets – further confirming the audience that he is the same person. There are several other instances where we think that it is the same person, like the nurse trying to remember if she has seen Hottie Hyuk somewhere. We think that she realised that it is the same guy and he lost weight. However, in reality, they are not the same people. The movie is not chronological. It jumps back in time when we are introduced with Hottie Hyuk.

Da Eun is dating Hottie Hyuk for a while when we meet him for the first time. When her relationship with Hottie Hyuk starts getting bad, she meets Cutie Hyuk at the hospital. The night she is going through a very hard time with her abortion and Hottie Hyuk leaves her to go to work, the same night Cutie Hyuk finds her number and calls her. She tells him that she is alone at home and he should come over.

Cutie Hyuks changes the light bulb and throws the trash that Hottie Hyuk didn’t. Their relationship starts getting worse as time progresses. Da Eun starts dating Cutie Hyuk while Hottie Hyuk is busy at work and unable to go home. They still try to keep the relationship working but after a particularly nasty fight where Hyuk accidentally calls Da Eun Bo Yeon (Krystal), they break up with no discussion that they are breaking up.

Later, Hottie Hyuk cheats on her with Bo Yeon (Krystal) and doesn’t go home for some time. He tells Da Eun to take anyone she wants to Jeju which she does. Both the first airport scene and the last airport scene are the same scenes. Da Eun gifts Cutie Hyuk the sneakers and Cutie Hyeok starts running in excitement. This is when Hottie Hyuk finds her at the airport and then both Hyuk and Hyeok crash and fall down.

I hope this explains the ending.

Thoughts
Even though the ending had me scream at my tv and then start laughing hysterically, I still think that this ending was the weakest and the strongest part of the movie depending on the way you see it. On one hand, it gives a fun, unexpected twist to the melodrama but on the other hand, it makes the entire relationship meaningless. At the start when the camera cuts from one to another, we don’t want to believe that Cutie Hyeok lost so much weight that he turned into Hottie Hyuk. But as the movie goes on they kept adding hints in the movie that just makes us convinced that both are really the same person. It was brilliantly done and we need to give the credit where the credit is due.

- That said, cheating is not cool.
If you are watching the movie from a critical point of view, the movie loses its charm. Throughout the movie, the couples did nothing to show that they should be together. Both were terrible to each other. Da Eun takes advantage of Hottie Hyuk the entire time she was with him (much like what we see her do with Cutie Hyuk in the beginning). Hottie Hyuk gets a car and commutes for hours just to spend the night with her. He does house chores and drives her around. She is never considerate of his hard work and his exhaustion.

Hottie Hyuk (side note: I think I have probably called Jang Ki Yong hottie over 100 times by now but did I lie? lol) was also a terrible boyfriend. He never listens to her and only talks about his problems with her. He doesn’t tell her about his girl colleague and keeps lying to her about it even when he was not cheating on her. He is also doing the bare minimum for her. Especially, when she needs him the most. Had the writers not tried to make the story realistic and melodrama, the rest of the story would have made much more sense, and the ending twist would have even been funny.

The entire time the couples were not honest with each other, they had no emotions towards one another. Even after going through such a hard time, they barely communicate or even fight for that matter. Da Eun goes through abortion, she gets cheated on, her boyfriend is never there for her but when the movie ends we forget it all and she becomes a con artist that takes advantage of men.

“Where did it all go wrong?”

I would like to argue that the entire relationship was wrong. He was a pushover and a liar. She was selfish and a liar. What did you think of the movie? Do you are or disagree with me? Let me know in the comments below. I love hearing from you guys. ?

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