Sunny (Sseo-ni)

A CJ Entertainment presentation of the Toilet Pictures, Aloha Pictures production. (Worldwide sales: CJ Entertainment, Seoul.) Created by Ahn Byung-ki, Ahn In-ki. Executive producer, Katherine Kim. Co-producer, Lee An-na. Directed, compiled by Kang Hyoung-chul.With: Yu Ho-jeong, Jin Hui-gyeong, Shim Eun-gyeong, Gang So-ra, Park Jin-ju, Kim Bo-mi, Kim Min-yeong, Nam Bo-ra, Min Hyo-rin, Goh Su-hui, Kim Seon-gyeong.As perfect in general day's sunshine, Korean femme-centric ensembler "Sunny" is really a warm ray of motion picture light that brings about pleasure and tears in equal measure. Ably mixing the approaching-of-age and middle age crisis genres, Kang Hyoung-chul's sophomore effort plays something similar to a more potent, nicer Korean version of Hollywood weepie "Occasionally" (1995). Its socko local haul of $47 million will not be surpassed offshore, however the film could glow worldwide, because it explores issues familiar to auds everywhere, although having a distinct kimchi flavor. (Korean dialogue) Pic's pivotal character is Im Na-mi (Yu Ho-jeong), first met like a well-to-do, taken-for-granted housewife who accidentally discovers that her high-school friend Chun-hwa (Jin Hui-gyeong) continues to be put in the hospital with terminal cancer. Thrilled doing old buddy again, Chun-hwa demands that Na-mi obtain former teen gang -- known with each other as Sunny -- together again for any reunion before Chun-hwa dies they've got to do something fairly rapidly, since Chun-hwa is not likely to live a lot more than two several weeks longer.. Na-mi sets to fulfill Chun-hwa's wish by checking in first having a former teacher. As Na-mi walks up the road to her old-fashioned, Kang utilizes a 360-degree pan to leap back two-and-a-half decades towards the eighties, when teenage country bumpkin Na-mi (now performed by Shim Eun-gyeong) was the brand new kid at her Seoul senior high school. The flashback enables the script introducing the entire Sunny crew: feisty youthful Chun-hwa (Gang So-ra), who always had more belief in Na-mi's talents than she ever did foul-mouthed Jin-hui (Park Jin-ju) pretty airhead Bok-hui (Kim Bo-mi) overweight, cosmetic surgery-obsessed Jang-mi (Kim Min-yeong) violent bookworm Geom-ok (Nam Bo-ra) and too-awesome-for-school ambitious fashion model Su-ji (Min Hyo-rin). Each one is charmed to different levels by Na-mi's honest if awkward style. The film cycles backwards and forwards between past and offer effortlessly, handling the seven protags (increased by two) along with a ton of subsidiary figures without ever losing its balance or momentum. While tissue ought to be released at cinema exit doorways, it is the pic's robust humor that puts the hook in. Kang's script handles to provide up a deft depiction of teenybopper existence while perfectly taking the quick changes which have changed Columbia previously 3 decades. Pic's fabulous and funny focal point is really a downtown standoff between Sunny along with a rival distaff gang, their fight coinciding by having an attack on the left-wing demonstration by Korea's Fifth Republic militia. Set to "Touch by Touch" (a track by Austrian group Pleasure, a eighties Korean pop sensation), and happening underneath a theater placard for that anti-communist-designed "Rocky 4," this amusing but breathtaking sequence reps a showpiece for that technical expertise Kang demonstrates throughout. Pic's teen thesps are evenly terrific. Likewise, the thesps who play their grown-up alternatives heartwarmingly embody the mistakes of grown ups whose dreams were unfulfilled. Supporting cast can also be perfect. Clever lensing by Lee Hyung-deok capitalizes around the superb production style of Lee Years old-han, which contrasts the monochromatic sophistication of contempo corporate Seoul using the bubble-gum pop colors from the eighties. Version caught in the Busan fest would be a director's cut that clocked in at 11 minutes more than the version first launched in a commercial sense in Columbia in August. Variations include more vivid teacher-caused violence and much more profanity from Jin-hui than was initially thought in a commercial sense viable. At press time, a bit of music utilized on the director's cut soundtrack, including Cyndi Lauper's "Again And Again," had not yet been removed for worldwide play.Camera (color, widescreen), Lee Hyung-deok editor, Nam Na-youthful music, Kim Jun-seok production designer, Lee Years old-han costume designer, Chae Kyung-hwa seem (Dolby Digital), Lee Seung-yup. Examined at Busan Film Festival (Korean Cinema Today), March. 13, 2011. Running time: 135 MIN. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com