The Suicide Forecast (Suspicious Customers) - Review

 

From asianmovieweb

A comedy that revolves around suicide inevitably has to be soaked in black humor. "The Suicide Forecast" tries to keep its overall tone very joyful despite its subject and does so by also introducing a surprising amount of slapstick moments. The interesting plot of a insurance salesman whose future existence depends on whether he can help others to find the courage and will to live again can instantly captivate and Byeong-woo is absolutely the right, at first even hateful, individual who little by little also comes to appreciate the value of life and by doing good deeds, which he is forced to do out of selfish reasons, actually seems to be becoming a better person. Being enriched by some interesting supporting characters this promises to be a fun ride.

Suspicious Customers Review

By Orion

What I liked:

This is actually one of my favorite movies of 2011, mainly because it surprised me by being more than what I expected. I thought it would be a comedy with some simple drama thrown in and I got a very human drama, a smart one and definitely not one which should be named a comedy. This is a heavy movie. Don't be fooled by the poster and trailers. Korea has yet to master promotion of their movies and they often promote a work as an entirely different genre than what it really is and in a whole different mood. They promote this as comedy, which is crazy, because it's not one.

I will make a bigger review on this at some point, because it really represents what I find a meaningful movie. No symbolism, no shoving "See! This is meaningful!" in your face like many works try too hard to do in order to convince you they do have something to say, no such insecure and cheap tricks.

The story works well, the movie has something decent to say about how we face life and change it, it's well filmed and easy to follow, the acting is very good and what a cast indeed. Also, it's sad to see Im Joo Hwan is not receiving more attention, because he is quite an interesting actor and a good one.

He hit the fine balance between awkward and endearing, for this character

Suspicious customers (Suicide Forecast - Life is beautiful)

Profile

Director: Jo Jin-mo (조진모) 

Premiere: 11/04/2011
Genre: Comedy
Cast:
Ryoo Seung-beom ~ Bae Byeong-woo
Seong Dong-il ~Manager Park Jin-seok
Park Cheol-min ~ Oh Sang-yeol
Jeong Seon-kyeong ~ Choi Bok-soon
Seo Ji-hye ~ Lee Hye-in 

Im Joo-hwan ~ Kim Yeong-tak
Younha ~ Ahn So-yeon

Story

Bae Byeong-woo (Ryoo Seung-beom) sells life insurances and one day he is promoted. When one of his clients invites him to a meeting he is asked by him if the insurance company would also pay the money in case of a suicide. Byeong-woo tells him that this isn't the case, yet the man dies shortly after the talk. The insurance company needs to pay since the man was drunk but the police believes this to be a suicide and also questions Byeong-woo. But that isn't the only problem of the insurance salesman, because now he remembers that an old colleague of his, Oh Sang-yeol (Park Cheol-min), found him a few clients about 23 months ago who all had a history of suicide attempts and therefore actually shouldn't have been allowed to sign a life insurance contract. Because of a stipulation in the contract the money is also paid in case of a suicide if the client pays his monthly fee for two years always on time. Should the single mother Choi (Jeong Seon-kyeong), the poor singer So-yeon (Younha) and the homeless Young-taek (Im Joo-hwan) commit suicide Byeong-woo would lose his job. So he needs to meddle in their affairs and try to find a reason for them to live. By doing so Byeong-woo is about to lose his head, too... 

From: hancinema 

Poster

Trailer

Im Ju Hwan joins Life Is Beautiful

Im Ju Hwan fans, rejoice! 2011 looks like it’ll be a busy year for the rising star, as he adds a film to his resume (in addition to upoming drama What’s Up). The movie is titled Life Is Beautiful, and has already drawn some notice for casting prolific film actor Ryu Seung-beom (Bad Deal) and singer Younha.