The Korean word `Yupgi' means ''to be curious about and search for creepy and uncanny things or events.'' But it has become a most fashionable pop culture code word, meaning anything nonsensical and implying something creepy but cool and funny. It's become a buzzword in Korea in recent years, especially in cyberspace. Kim Ho-Sik's hit serial story on the Internet, [Yupgi Girl], surely played a critical role in spreading and wedging the word ``yupgi'' into the collective consciousness as the hippest culture code. Yupgi Girl, starring Cha Tae-Hyeon and Jeon Ji-Hyeon, is a film adaptation of Kim's Internet serial of the same title. The movie follows Kyon-wu (Cha's) narration, in which Jun Ji-Hyeon is called ``the girl.'' (This presumably lovely female principal, strangely, doesn't even have a name, although she is the person who commits herself to all those yupgi demeanors.) Kyon-wu saves a girl who was apparently about to be crushed by an oncoming subway train. What made that sleek girl with glowing long hair and white face almost throw her life away in front of a subway train? Alcohol. As a complement to for this yupgi girl who throws up, dead drunk, on the wig and then on the very bald head of an elderly man in the subway, who becomes angry, hits him with her fists and shouts abusive words at him, Kyon-wu is a light-as-air character who is ready to serve this too high- spirited but pretty girl. The lively, sprightly, refreshingly charming actors, Cha and Jun, are the reasons to go to see this film, which is full of light-hearted laughter for the first 100 minutes before jumping ahead three years into a farfetched leap of plot for the last 20 minutes.
Just to let you in a little on the details of this movie; many of the scenes, costumes, lines were borrowed heavily from a few other korean movies, Il Mare itself included, as sort of comedic parodies. If you pay close attention to what's actually happening throughout the movie, you'd be sure to spot one many spoofs, connections and hints that would allow you to better understand the somewhat ambiguous ending. There's a 2 disc dvd set on sale at dvdasian.com, which promises more secrets and easter eggs, and I'm going weak at the knees already.
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