娱乐英语新闻:Obsessive lifestyle of modern S.Koreans depicted by movie "Plan Man"

SEOUL, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- It is well known that modern people of South Korea live a dead-tired life. They work an annual average of 2,092 hours, the longest in the world except for Mexico and Chile.

The never-a-dull-moment lifestyle led many South Koreans to be alienated from neighbors and be obsessed with something. Some indulged in pleasures, and others became brand-name freak to ease their loneliness.

A movie "Plan Man," premiered on Thursday, depicted such uptight and obsessive people in South Korea. Its main character Jeong-seok, played by Jeong Jae-young, plans all aspects of his life by every second, to the point where he crosses the road at the exact time when the traffic light turns green on his way to work in the morning.

"All modern people have at least one obsession. Jeong-seok is obsessed with time and cleanness. His character is a little exaggerated, but I tried to depict modern South Koreans through such an exaggeration," the film's director Sung Si-hup said in an interview on Sunday.

The main character falls for a woman who works in a convenient store and suffers from an obsessive-compulsive disorder like him. Jeong-seok thinks that she can understand his way of obsessive life, but she wants a man who can change her tendency that obsessively seeks to keep everything in place.

Jeong-seok decides to overturn his regimented lifestyle to steel her heart, and runs across his polar opposite So-jung, played by actress Han Ji-min, who is a spunky underground sing-a- song writer. So-jung has an easy-going tendency to plan nothing and be full of energy in doing everything.

The romantic comedy made the two polar opposites develop feelings of love while they form a band by accident, and Jeong- seok discovers that he is attracted by his opposite tendency. So- jung gets to understand the inner side of Jeong-seok when the movie dives into his back story.

"The dark side of Jeong-seok, what he experienced when he was a child, shaped his current fastidious tendency," said Sung. "Even though his experience can be unique, everyone has his or her own history that can explain who they are now."

The first time director, who was an assistant director on "A Dirty Carnival" released in 2006, said that he wanted audiences to get to understand the quirky tendency of Jeong-seok just as So- jung did when the screen veers into the dark territory of him.

The movie kicked off with factors of a typical romantic comedy, causing chuckles and cheese in the first half, but it does not end up just a comedy when the flashbacks focus on the dark side of Jeong-seok, converting the film into a movie which considers life from a philosophical point of view.

"This is a story about whether the point of view from which people stares at others is right and sound. Audiences may see Jeong-seok as just a weird man at the beginning, but the viewpoint may change when they understands his dark history," said Sung.

His message seemed to be delivered to audiences successfully. " In the first couple of minutes, I felt boring while watching it. But, as time goes by, it was exciting and even emotionally touching towards the end," the 45-year-old filmgoer Kim Hyun-ah told Xinhua after watching the movie.

Song Hui-yong, a movie goer in his 20s, said that the film was more exciting than expected as he does not expect great things from the romantic comedy, noting that its story telling was great as it depicted the change of Jeong-seok's tendency in a smooth and sympathetic manner.