Movie Review - Hello Ghost

(This review involves spoilers so please be warned. Thanks!)

It's official - I am now a certified Cha Tae Hyun fan. I watched Hello Ghost thinking that it'll just be one of those comedies which, although enjoyable, are oftentimes insubstantial and forgettable. Little did I know that my expectations would be smashed into little, hyper-critical pieces after seeing the film. Instead of fluffy romance and slapstick comedy, we were shown loneliness, familial love and romance in its simplest and moving form. And of course, Cha Tae Hyun sold this movie like nobody's business.

Synopsis
The first scene of the movie gives us an unflattering, close-up view of a sniveling Sang Man (Cha Tae Hyun), a man so lonely and depressed that he has made killing himself off his new aim in life. In a cheap motel room, Sang Man goes about his suicide attempt, gulping down pills by the handful. We are not shown what prompted him to commit suicide but it seems to stem from loneliness. A few seconds later, the phone in his motel room rings. After Sang Man answers the phone, he sees his water pitcher empty. With nothing to down the pills with, Sang Man drinks water from the bathroom faucet and drops on the floor, unconscious, until the motel owner barges in the room. Next thing we know, Sang Man is being pulled out from the river (probably after the motel owner threw him out) and is taken to a hospital.

When he gets up from his hospital bed, Sang Man begins to see people that only he can see. The first ghost that he meets is a heavy (literally, hehe) smoker (actor Ko Chang Seok) who has a penchant for blowing smoke rings. This first meeting with the Heavy Smoker shows us that whatever the ghost is doing (in the spritual dimension), Sang Man would mirror in the physical realm. This places him in a sticky situation because while looking at the Heavy Smoker smoking, Sang Man catches himself doing the same thing - in the hospital room. When taken to meet the hospital's psychiatrist, Sang Man meets another ghost (actress Jang Young Nam, aka Crying Lady), a lady who cries non-stop for unknown reasons. Then he sees the ghost of an old man (actor Lee Moon Soo) staring at the butt of an oblivious nurse. The last ghost to round up our team of ghostly characters is a mischievous, playful boy (Cheon Bo Geun). Sang Man is aware that these are ghosts so he visits a shaman/fortuneteller (a quirky cameo by actor Lee Han Wi) to ask why they keep on following him and how he can chase them away. Alas, he is told that the ghosts need his help in accomplishing their unfulfilled wishes and they won't let him die unless these are fulfilled. The only thing he can do is to assist them completing their tasks and once done, they will leave him alone with his suicidal plans. At first, he is adamant about being at the beck and call of these four ghosts who have to borrow his body while they go about their tasks but seeing that he has no other choice, he goes relents to their wishes, one by one, until he accomplishes everything.

While fulfilling the Dirty Old Ghost's wishes, Sang Man sees a beautiful nurse (actress Kang Hye Won) in the hospital talking briefly to the Old Ghost's friend. He is immediately drawn to her beauty and gentleness and becomes helplessly intrigued by her. In the succeeding scenes, we witness how Sang Man's outlook in life changes with each interaction he makes with the people he meets during his tasks. He meets the sick father of the nurse, the husband of an ailing wife, the lonely old man left in the hospital by his family and even some policemen who caught him driving without licence. These brief meetings take him further away from his desire to die and bring him closer to the people who care for and love him. At the end of the movie, Sang Man has a realization that he was never really alone and that the love of his dead family still lives on with him, plus he ends up together with the beautiful nurse from the hospital.

Comments
In this movie, Cha Tae Hyun showed yet again why he is so loved as an actor in the Korean entertainment industry. Even though it is obvious from his films that he is an excellent actor, his acting remains very grounded in a way that his acting is never bigger than the movie itself. Unlike other superb actors, his movie persona and his acting never overshadow the story and the other characters so much that the viewers will only notice him. In fact, what Cha Tae Hyun does and does successfully all the time is to be one with his character, form a believable connection with other characters and that, in effect, elevates the story of the movie. To me, it would appear that his goal in joining a movie is not to show how good of an actor he is but to show how good of a movie he is acting in. This is probably a reason why most of his movies end up as box office hits, not only in Korea but also worldwide. And this is also one of the reasons why the American adaptation of the movie "My Sassy Girl" bombed - because it is difficult to find a Cha Tae Hyun who can sell movies like he does.

Aside from the acting, what really stood out in the movie for me was how it effectively shows that loneliness is not only a psychological concept but also a physical one. As an orphan, Sang Man is used to living and being alone. This is the reason why he wasn't able to build meaningful relationships with others. However, with the arrival of the ghosts, Sang Man now sees the step leading to his apartment full of shoes, his apartment full of people/ghosts, and his dinner table full of guests. He now doesn't find himself going about his activities alone but rather always being accompanied by people. He finds himself no longer lonely but important and loved and cared for. Although his loneliness was caused by both his attitude and lack of relationships, its disappearance, on the other hand, was caused by the changes in his outlook AND the presence of companions.

Speaking of Sang Man's companions, I started to wonder why these particular ghosts appeared and clung only to him and not to other people. I may not be Korean but after seeing a number of K-dramas and Korean movies, I know that these things happen for a reason. (I'm referring to 49 Days where the Scheduler and the two female leads were all related to each other). Hello Ghost is not an exemption. In the scene where Sang Man finds out who these ghosts really were to him, I felt just as stunned as Cha Tae Hyun's character. Sang Man's relationship with the ghosts might have been obvious to some even at the onset of the film, but I was completely blindsided - not because the relationship was so absurd but because the first part of the movie intentionally didn't give details about Sang Man's birth family. In fact, the only thing we know about his background was that he grew up in an orphanage and that he had no family. Also, the ages of the ghosts were not consistent with Sang Man's current age. Thus, it didn't occur to me that they could be related to him. Nonetheless, I felt happy for Sang Man's character because he finally found out who his real family was, even if they all died many years ago. The fact that he remembered that at some point in his life, he was part of a family who cared for him and loved him, makes a difference in his yet-to-be-lived life ahead.

Like what I mentioned earlier about loneliness being a physical and psychological concept, we could say the same about love, in that we can feel it both in the physical company of our loved ones and in the "abstract" memories of those we loved and those who loved us. I particularly enjoyed the last scene in the movie which brings us back to the first scene but in the POV of the ghosts. In it, we see Sang Man attempting to commit suicide but we also see that his family was with him the whole time, doing their best to keep him from succeeding. And from this, we know that even if his family were no longer physically with him, even if Sang Man has no recollection of them, they will always be around because their memories of Sang Man won't ever be forgotten and that no matter where they are, they will always remember him.

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