20 Amazing South Korean Movies You Must See Before You Die

Korea's favourite romcom phenomenon has been remade everywhere from Hollywood to Bollywood and even in Lithuania, not to mention a reimagining as a period drama TV series. You're probably best off sticking with the 2001 original, though.

Inspired by blogger Kim Ho-sik's posts about his tumultuous relationship with his eccentric girlfriend, My Sassy Girl is the story of a clumsy, awkward engineering student who helps out an extremely drunk girl on a late-night subway and is landed with a relationship with a beautiful but uninhibited drama queen.

My Sassy Girl throws a lot at the viewer: she torments him in endless creative ways, they break up, get back together, there's talk of fate and destiny. The girl (who never gets a name) is also an aspiring screenwriter, so the movie frequently slips into genre movie parodies with equally strident female protagonists to illustrate her works in progress. Ultimately, it's a story about how they both need to mature and grow up a bit.

The making of the film, however, and the reason why it doesn't just end up being Korea's version of the manic pixie dream girl trope is a star-making performance from Jun Ji-hyun as the eponymous sassy girl. Charming, charismatic and happy to throw herself into all kinds of wild shenanigans, Jun alone makes My Sassy Girl worth seeing.