A weird, bad, but fascinating movie

Usually when I give shows middling scores, it's because they're boring. They get mired in cliches, the drama is drawn out too much, everything is just average and forgettable. Hot Gimmick is a lot of things, but boring? Heck no. I don't even write reviews much, but I just had to for this one because I'm still trying to understand what I just watched. It was a mess, but an interesting mess.

Story: 6/10
I don't know whose idea it was to make Hot Gimmick a movie rather than an anime or drama, but it was a terrible one. The manga it's based on is 12 volumes. They try to pack the entire story into 2 hours and the pace is INSANE as a result. Twists get revealed constantly and emotions go from 0 to 100 and back again in just minutes. This really should've been a 12-16 ep drama. As it is, characters just instantly have these strong conflicts when you're still trying to get oriented with their basic relationships.

For the plot itself, you don't see stuff like this explored often in East Asian dramas. Usually, mature topics are limited to stories with adult characters, but Hot Gimmick is frank in its discussion on teenage sexuality. It's pretty true to how my friends and I talked about sex as teens. At times, this feels realistic, but then some of the story beats are so nuts that it creates this cognitive dissonance between relatability and fantasy. It's off-putting, but well, it isn't boring.

Characters: 5/10
Because of the runtime, there's little space for characters to grow. They fall into two-dimensional cliches: the dumb naive heroine (Hatsumi), the arrogant asshole genius (Ryoki), the kind protective onii-san (Shinogu), and the charming flirty childhood friend/model (Azusa). Each of these characters has a second, darker side that gets revealed over the course of the movie, but it serves as shock value more than thoughtful character development. This is where the movie format is especially limiting, because these characters touch on interesting themes. There's so much spoiled potential here. Azusa, in particular, has deep pain that the movie throws out there and then promptly gathers back up for the sake of a tidy ending.

While each of the three guys are troubled in their own ways (to say the least), I have to give special mention to Ryoki. His abuse of Hatsumi is constant in the manga as well, but seeing it play out in live action is even more uncomfortable. It eases up in the second half, but that only reinforces the old fantasy of the abusive man who really loves you and can change for the better for you (while still calling you a slut when he gets mad). I wish he was mean in a more interesting way, at least. Characters like Ryoki were more common 10 years ago when the manga was running, and that's for the better.

Acting: 7/10
Like with everything else, I have mixed feelings on the acting. Shimizu Hiroya is the weak link for me, though I have sympathy for him considering the material. He mostly shouts and stews in anger, but because Ryoki is also supposed to be cold, Shimizu's delivery is empty and wooden. He did quite well during the one vulnerable scene. Hori Miona does as well as can be expected from such a meek character. Itagaki Mizuki's full emotional spectrum is the most convincing of the cast (though unfortunately, that hairstyle and color is terribly unflattering on him). Mamiya Shotaro struggles to convey the suppressed inner side of Shinogu's emotions, but it's a tall order to fit that kind of subtlety into such a frantic movie. I WANT to feel for Shinogu more than I actually feel for him.

Cinematography: 4/10
I wish I had enough filming education to fully describe the directing and editing choices, because they're nuts. Dark scenes are so dark you can barely even see the actors' faces, so good luck reading their emotions. In an effort to cram in as much dialogue as possible (I'm assuming), a lot of the breathing room between lines is cut out. If it was done once it could convey the emotions of an overwhelming, stifling moment, but the barrage is frequent. These are simple problems that make the movie hard to watch. If you can't see what's going on, if they're talking too fast to follow, you get confused. It's that simple.

But then there are the stylistic choices, too. You won't see simple shot/reverse shot scenes, that's for sure. The camera is moving 99% of the time, even if it's subtle. Sometimes the shots constantly cut back and forth. Sometimes it zooms way out to the background or way in to parts of their face for no discernable reason. The movie randomly becomes monochrome for its final minute. Why? There must be artistic meaning in there, but the cinematography fits a small-time indie production better than an adaptation of a mainstream romance manga. There's a reason the shot/reverse shot style is ubiquitous: it works. It doesn't distract from the story the way Hot Gimmick does. But is unmitigated chaos really worse than boring? Probably, but I have to give props for at least trying to make something interesting.

Music: 3/10
Again: WEIRD. The soundtrack features odd remixes of Pachelbel's Canon and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, among other classical tunes. They don't do anything interesting with them. They're slow and stripped back and sound like they were made on the cheap, as does the other music. It all gives off royalty free vibes. The classical music here is going to be familiar to any Western viewer, and it takes you out of the moment. You'll try to remember the name of that song and think about all the other times you've heard it. Maybe there's artistic merit here too, but I don't hear it in the original instrumentals either. I just hear cost-cutting. Boo.

Replay Value: 8/10
I gave the movie high marks on replay value because you're going to have to watch it twice to understand what's going on, especially if you haven't read the manga. And honestly, this could be good inspiration for aspiring writers who want to explore the movie's themes or filmmakers to study the unusual techniques. It teaches you a lot on what to do and what not to do.

Hot Gimmick is both more and less than the sum of its parts. It's a pretty bad movie from most angles. I can't say I enjoyed watching any part of it. You'd think that would make it a 3/10. But still, the artist in me really appreciates what they tried to do (even if I don't understand what exactly that was). They took risks and made something unique- a true rarity in the romance genre. If I had to choose between re-watching Hot Gimmick and any other drama I rated 6/10, I would choose this in a heartbeat. Not any time soon, though. My head still hurts from this go.

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Fun until the last few episodes

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much more than a fluffy romcom. I hoped the pace would be snappy because it's shorter than the 20/24 eps I'm used to, but still more substantial than 10-min webdrama eps. But it felt like it lazed around for the first 11 episodes, and then was like "oh ****, we forgot to include the story." And there wasn't much "rom" OR "com". So what happened?

Acting: This was the best part of the show for me. Chani, Kang Minah and the supporting cast did great. I thought this was actually Hwiyoung's first time because he acted like a newbie to me. Considering his experience, he underperformed imo. He portrayed happiness and kindness well, but other emotions were a bit stiff. But even so, it wasn't bad enough to break immersion in his scenes.

Story: There was a lot of potential here. I'm always interested in the production of idols/music and Sorin (Kang Minah) had an interesting character arc set up. But none of it developed well. They don't spend any time on her decision to give up the idol dream until the end, when suddenly it was relevant again. Give her those complex emotions! It's natural for her to be conflicted about Shiwoo succeeding where she failed. Don't just throw that away with one line at the end.
The best part of the drama was Luice (Chani) for me. He had the important factors of making an unlikeable character watchable: 1)the other characters don't like him either; 2)he grows more sympathetic by the end; 3)he's unknowingly funny, like making a fool of himself without realizing it. He was the only comic relief- most of the drama was not funny to me. But I enjoyed Luice a lot.
The last three episodes were rushed and strangely dark. Some serious stuff goes down, but then they have to do another 180 tone shift for episode 14's happy ending. Considering the severity of what happened, some characters do not deserve second chances just because they feel bad (cough cough, Jooah and Dowoon). The plot left no room for their redemption arc, so it's weird everyone just forgives them and moves on.

But even though it was rushed, I could've rated this a 7.5 if not for the romance's "conclusion". As in, there was none! Maybe it's meant to be sequel bait or something, but the least they could do was get Luice and Sorin together. He doesn't confess to her and she doesn't seem particularly interested in him OR Shiwoo. What's the point? For me, I don't care about a kiss scene or whatever... it's the payoff after seeing them grow closer and care about each other! What's with this lukewarm final scene of the three of them singing together? There's no emotional payoff. Way to end it on a low note (pun intended).

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