Dasepo Girl

Do not dismiss the movie “Dasepo Girl” (or Multi-cell Girl) as childish. It comes to you as an intentionally light movie as if it is claiming to be a “B-rated movie.”

The film is about comic episodes of bizarre and lively high school students who fully enjoy their lives. It is based on comic strips published on the Internet written by Chae Jeong-taek whose nickname is B-rate Dal-gung. The cartoon was loved by a group of maniacs who enjoyed the harmony of the drawings which one may expect in a boy-meets-girl story cartoons and explicit jokes.

Remade Internet Comic Strips-

The background of the film is Musolmo High School, which is prestigious in terms of seeking pleasure. A teacher and students leave school early citing sexually transmitted diseases and a teacher wearing lace underwear during class asks his student to whip and lash him, which reeks of sado–masochism. A “girl burdened with poverty” (Kim Ok-bin) who takes care of her family by selling sex to elderly men has a crush on super pretty boy Anthony (Park Jin-woo) who was transferred from Switzerland. But he places his eye on another. Eonunbagi (Lee Kyeon), the only virgin in the whole school, is not a good-looking guy and alienated by the students, but he is also the subject of a crush.

Distinctive characters and their exaggerating and twisting reality make the movie stand out. The girl burdened with poverty carries a “poverty doll” on her back. In movies and dramas, poor girls are described as brave and bright characters who overcome difficulties of the reality. In contrast, the gloomy girl in this movie shows the ultimate pathetic character who is obsessed with money. Beautiful Anthony’s name is the same as that of the male hero in the famous Japanese cartoon “Candy Candy” who is fantasized by many girls. Yet he is high-nosed and use swearwords a lot sometimes with a few English words he knows.

The very existence of “Terry & Us” gets laughs, who unravels the mystery of Eonunbagi (a person with a single eye in Korean) and his brother Dununbagi (a person with two eyes) and the question why women prefer white underwear.

The film parodies conventional TV drama storylines, sarcastically saying, ‘Life is nothing more than a TV drama.”

Laughable Situations-

The film is quite unrealistic and transforms taboos like homosexuality and crossdressing into jokes. Some say such attitude produces a paradoxical reality.

Characters and episodes are only as interesting as the original work. The turning point in the episode can be easily predicted, failing to show unexpected breakthrough or imagination. Drastic transformations of experienced entertainers like poverty girl’s mom (Lim Ye-jin) and Wangkal (Big sword) Sister (Lee Won-jong) and Kim Ok-bin’s “swing girl” dance are already disclosed on the Internet, leaving the audience puzzled as to when to laugh.

Moviegoers will have various opinions. As Anthony said in the film, people will feel culture shock, or be disappointed if they expected a sex comedy. Or they may find nothing intriguing since homosexuality and other aspects are nothing new. Those aged from 15 to 19 who think they cannot control things will be the ones who will enthusiastic about the movie. It will be released on August 10. Rated for ages 15 and older.

yourcat@donga.com