Summer Friday Movie Nights: Sunny

It’s Friday, so lets talk about another movie!

Today’s movie is Sunny - 써니
Release Date: 2011
Director: Kang Hyung Chul
Starring: The cast is pretty large, check out this link for the list
Genre: Comedy Drama
Platform: DramaFever

Sunny is about a woman (Im Na Mi) who finds her old school friend (Ha Chun Hwa) while visiting her mother in the hospital. After finding out that Chun Hwa is suffering from end-stage cancer, Na Mi helps carry out the wishes of Chun Hwa to find their old group of school friends (who call themselves Sunny) before she passes. The story focuses on the current day lives of the 7 girls, and their past selves in school during the ’80s.

My quick non-spoiler review: This is one of Korea’s top grossing movies, and it is really easy to see why. The small bits of story of what happened during their school days and where the girls ended up was set up really well. It has some really great funny moments that are just meant more to make you feel good, and how you felt with your friends in school before life gets in the way. If you like the movie Now and Then this has the same sort of feel, and I think you’d like it.

Read more for a more in-depth spoiler filled review!

I originally picked this movie to watch purely because it was always on the top lists of movies to watch, and figured that if I was going to watch a Korean movie that watching from the top movies was the most useful. I didn’t know much about the movie itself besides the small snippet that I had read, so I went into the movie not knowing much

Sunny is Korea’s version of the movie Now and Then. I really love the format of seeing people in the present time, and showing them in the past. Especially in aspects like this where the characters are middle aged, and the past is from when they are in high school. It’s always more interesting when it’s a time period that I haven’t experienced, and with Sunny being Korean it was nice to see the snippets of what life was like for a high school female in ‘80s Korea.

Unlike Now and Then, there isn’t a huge event that the story is circulating around, just a glimpse of the girls as a group and where their lives had eventually taken them. They all shar one common theme: they weren’t doing what their younger selves had wished for. Chun Hwa had a sense of that (especially when she saw Na Mi), and that is why she persisted that she needed to bring back together the group, even at the last stages of her life. Throughout the movie during the flashbacks you see her in the leadership role and she played that till the end.

As I said, there really aren’t many events to talk about, although the part where the group goes to beat up Na Mi’s daughters bullies was probably one of my favorite scenes in the movie. It was funny, and worked with what had already been established with the group dynamic when they were younger (as they were constantly getting into fights). The moments in the cop car were hilarious and felt genuine. It reminded me of when I got together with friends when younger and how it was just about having fun with each other. I loved that it had that moment with some of the group as they are older, especially when they hadn’t been together for such a long time, that they were able to come together and click like nothing happened.
Another scene that I loved, and have to mention just because, is the scene where Na Mi is giving her mother the handbag and all the other patients in the room are watching a drama (you see them watching the same drama in a previous scene as well). The whole room is so into the drama, that when the major trope happens everyone erupts with anger. It was a funny little scene that was just perfect.

I would have liked a little more look into the character of Su Ji, as she was always brought up in ways that made it seem like there would be something more. I was worried at the end that she wasn’t going to show up, so I was happy that she was there and didn’t mind her coming in at the very last minute and the movie ending, but I felt her character just had more depth to her. I loved the moments we had with Su Ji and Na Mi, but it just felt like something was missing. Especially when you find out through the investigator that she was the one that was hard to find. Why was that? Even those that were really down on their luck and basically had no where to live they were able to find. It didn’t break the movie for me, but it did leave me with some questions.

In the end, the movie is pretty simple. There isn’t super ground breaking events that happen that are outrageous or keep you on the edge of your seat, but I think it serves the movie well. The cast is so huge, considering the group has 7 in it, that you can’t focus too much on one person because it feels like you are missing out on the others. I loved that really in the end, nothing groundbreaking happened: It was just a group of friends finally getting back together after years and reminiscing about what they were and coming together where they are. The simplicity of that was what made the movie. When we are younger, we spend most of our time with friends not doing much anyways, and we still perceived it as a fun time. I think the movie really tried to hone in on that aspect of relationships with friends.

This is a great movie, and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a good movie to watch that will make you laugh out loud and want to call your friends.