Sex Is Zero

Rating NR Formats DVD Genre foreign Starring Ji-won Ha, Chang Jung Lim, Jae-yeong Jin, Seong-guk Choi, Chae-yeong Yu Directed by Je-gyun Yun Publisher Panik House Entertainment External Links Official Pankik House Ent Website

Well...talk about giving the plot of the movie away in three words, Sex Is Zero is a Korean style American Pie that deals with sexcapades in college, where Eun-Shik (Chang Jeong Yim) lusts for Eun-Hyo (Ji-Won Ha). But their lus - I mean, love is not meant to be because she only has eyes for the most popular guy on campus.

With his incredibly pathetic attempts to win her over failing miserably, Eun-Shik can only watch as while Eun-Hyo falls into the arms of the popular guy on campus, aka PGC, only to realize (inevitably) that the PGC is not worth her affection. Meanwhile, Eun-Shik's roommates are hooking up with Eun-hHo's girlfriends. And with a couple of masturbation-at-will thieves, we have a Raunchy College Sex Comedy.

Structurally, it seemed very contrived as the writer/director Je-Gyun Yun must've thought getting all the laughs in first 30 minutes of the film will do justice for the uneven and awkward portion of the film in last 30 minutes or so. In other words, the "TONE" of the film was way, way, off. "Don't make melodrama out of comedy Je-Gyun!"

Act Two is a bit more forced, relying on comedy that doesn't always work. One of the forced comedy bits concerns one of the female friends who throws herself at one of the male friends, oblivious to the fact that he's gay. The gag doesn't work, mostly because even a blind man could tell that the guy she's trying to maneuver into having sex has no interest, even before he, er, locates the wrong orifice.

As aforementioned, sudden switching of the tone of the movie, does NOT work. As a fan and as a filmmaker in development of a college sex comedy, three key ingredients for such genre are; A likeable male lead, a hot-ass, smoking female lead, and a big jackoff for a villain. After all, the villain must be so vile in order for us to fully enjoy his inevitable outcome. Sex Is Zero attempts to have these characters, but they are not fully developed to our satisfaction, thus it fails to impress us as a movie.

One can think of it as, "Well, this is just a mindless comedy." And yes, it is true, but it doesn't excuse itself for being half-heartedly attempted at achieving greatness.