Review: Written and directed by newcomer Hyun Nam-seop, Saving my Hubby tells the story of a young women and her kid exploring the nightlife of Seoul, entering into an environment completely unknown to her. A pretty basic premise but you wont expect how many crazy things can happen in that very short time. The story looked really simple but it’s surprising how interesting it is to follow Geum-sun adventures in the city, trying to find the karaoke bar where her husband is while avoiding gangsters and crazy people.
The movie never gets boring and has good entertainment value all along with a good mix of comedy, drama, alcohol and gangsters.

Geum-sun is really the spotlight of the movie and Bae Doona in the role of the main character is incredibly charming as she can make her look like a hard hitting women but can also show a more tender and fragile side. But if Geum-sun was the most charming one, her husband was the funniest character of them all. At first look, he’s just likes a pretty ordinary salary man, but wait until he get completely drunk. The transformation is extremely hilarious! In the middle of these two characters you have the baby who is also very important to the story but never really become the main focus.

The rest of the cast consists of crooks, gangsters and random people that Geum-sun will meet on her adventure. The most important band of second character is the two groups of gangsters as they will be the turning point for Geum-sun and the night of boths parties will collapse from that point and this is were the movie really starts.

Entertainment is a major factor in SMH, the movie never get boring and always comes up with very cool ideas to keep the viewer awaked. There’s a few moment that will make you really laugh but unfortunately the movie never really explodes, as the humoristic level always keep the same regular pace. The humor is very well done and the timing and ideas behind the jokes are great. There’s a few big slapstick joke too so don’t expect a serious movie as it’s pretty obvious that SMH has been made for entertaining people before anything. The only problem is that you get a bit tired of the running chases after the third of fourth time, maybe they could have been a bit more creative on that side.

Saving My Hubby is a very surprising comedy, especially from a first time director. Since the last year, we have seen a lot of first time directors appear on the Korean scene, but only a few of them really got peoples attention. The cinematography and editing of Hyun Nam-seop is extremely well done and the dream sequences and back flash are very good. The movie wasn’t well received by Korean audience unfortunately but I hope that this matter wont play bad on Hyun Nam-seop because I’m very interested to see what he will come up with next.