Berlinale Dispatch. Dasepo Naughty Girls.

"Life is a soap opera," read the English subtitles, as Poor Girl's (Kim Ok-bin) softly spoken words underline her pained expression. A teen anime soap opera musical, that is.

Dasepo sonyo (Dasepo Naughty Girls) by Korean director Lee Je-yong is based on the popular internet manga Multi-Cell Girl. And that, exactly, is what I found it to be: A manga brought to life with real people, sound effects going off with every wink, the works. Watch it the way you would watch cartoons, or your guilty pleasure TV series, or the corny musical you'll watch only with close friends. It's all that and more.

The movie opens with about eight pink-clad, pink-wigged girls, dancing a synchronized choreography with big pink balloons, all the while singing about their "No-Use High School." No use, because this school is so accepting towards every approach to life, you have Hindus, Muslims, Christians, atheists, all immersed in their own beliefs to the point that not much learning seems to get done. Said atheist class, instead, concentrates on gathering experience. A teacher calls in sick with a STD and starts a chain reaction of students leaving class as they realize they've slept with someone who's slept with someone who - and so on - slept with that teacher.

As the movie progresses, it stays true to all the genres it touches on in those first ten minutes. The teen movie: The social studies teacher relishes a spanking in front of his class and a boy enjoys sexual chats until he finds out who's really on the other end. The anime: Poverty is attached to Poor Girl's back in form of a blue rag doll and the principal is possessed by something otherworldly. The soap opera: Poor Girl falls in love with Anthony (Park Jin-woo), who looks down on her, then likes her, then is furious at her, then forgives her, then turns out to be her brother who was given away for adoption and then turns out not to be, after all. And, finally, the musical: Characters randomly burst into songs, the text running along on the screen Karaoke style, as if it's inviting the audience to join in.

What Dasepo does, it does well - extremely well, in fact. You just have to know what you're letting yourself in for. Though I enjoyed myself immensely, I could perfectly understand why someone would find the movie silly to the point of being pathetic. However, if you can accept accordion players in Lederhosen and Dirndl jumping out of nowhere to accompany a love-pained youth, or a principal suddenly barfing out a snake-lady who starts pelting a group of masturbating girls with instant re-virginizers, you'll have a hell of a grand time, I guarantee you.

Posted by dwhudson at February 10, 2007 1:09 PM