‘30 Days’: Things to Look for in the Upcoming Korean Romantic Comedy

What draws the card in the first place is Jung So-min and Kang Ha-neul, sharing center stage as partners in 30 Days. It rings a bell about the 2015 comedy-drama film Twenty, of which both were a part. Jung and Kang are invariably adept in their facile expressions—in myriad roles veering from minor to major, at ease in any skin—with extensive capacity for conveying emotional states in a story. In 30 days, how it impacts a married couple falling in and out of love and what transpires when a sharp turn in their lives fundamentally changes everything should be something to watch out for.

The movie is a refreshing detour from the cliché love-hate drama. In contrast to Jung’s Hong Na-ra, a film producer with a burgeoning career, Kang’s No Jeong-yeol is a lawyer, professionally a dirt spoon. The two madly in love manage to marry against familial reservations. Sadly, love begins to limp when the lovers start to have disagreements; their character variances keep clashing, provoking bitterness and, eventually, the choice to divorce. The court grants them 30 days to fix their disputes; should they fail to do so a divorce will be issued, a time when they get into an awful accident, leaving them with amnesia. To the dismay of their families, who intend they must retrieve their memories and wrap up the divorce, the two in the hospital fall in love with each other anew.

From one representation to the next, Jung has never failed to inhabit her characters. Her choice of roles evolved as her profession expanded. She is instinctive in all that, including being ditsy and innocent, an intractable patient, a depressed case, broke and homeless, self-absorbed, and omnipotent, among others, but cast her whatever you will; she is a grounding presence—poised, formidable, and effortlessly so. In the shoes of Na-ra and in expressing her many mood shifts, I do want to see how Jung integrates everything.

Kang, I’d say, can enthrall audiences with the intrigue of a character, but he can also shatter the hopes people had for them. Most articulate in presenting what he wants, he amazes with his acting, building characters who are utterly unlike others and getting heaps of praise for them, recurrently winning some of the most distinguished awards. What he cuts out to make Jeong-yeol pop out in 30 Days should be exciting. I, for one, know already that he will make every shot look great, let alone the romantic scenes. He is supremely attractive; that presides.

The romantic comedy, helmed by Nam Dae-jung, will hit theaters on October 3. It is high on affection, animosity, hilarity, and drama, but most importantly, it offers an essential life lesson: a bend in the road is not the end of things; a bitter run may, in fact, herald the dawn of an exciting new chapter.