My Sassy Girl

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Gyeon-woo and "Girl"

My Sassy Girl (엽기적인 그녀) is a South Korean romantic comedy movie from 2001, written and directed by Kwak Jae-yong. It was a massive hit when released in Korea, and has spawned an American remake, a Japanese drama series remake a Korean drama adaptation (who moved the plot to the Joseon Period), at least three regional Indian versions including the Bollywood one , a Lithuanian version, a Chinese sequel named My Sassy Girl 2, and an actual official sequel titled My New Sassy Girl released in 2016 and co-produced between Korea and China. The events in the movie are more or less a true story, based on a series of love letters that were initially posted online.

The story is mostly told through a flashback. The plot basically involves Gyeon-woo, a milquetoast college student, who falls in love with a crazy domineering girl (who remains unnamed in the film) that he meets on the train. As she calls him "honey", and people berate him for not taking care of his girlfriend properly, he feels the responsibility to take care of her, and help her deal with whatever issues she has. This turns out to be quite a task.

While Gyeon-woo, played by Cha Tae-hyun, plays his part excellently and with no hint of irony, the star of the movie is without any doubt Jun Ji-hyun as the titular sassy girl, who comes off as simultaneously infuriating and utterly charming.

The American remake is considered to be extremely embarrassing.

Tropes used in My Sassy Girl include:

• Boy Meets Girl
• Catch Phrase: The Girl's "Wanna die?"
• Double Standard Abuse (Female on Male): The Girl regularly delivers punches hard enough to give Gyeon-Woo bloody noses but it's played for laughs.
• Drowning My Sorrows: the Girl's favorite method of deal with stuff before finding Gyeon-woo and making him her whipping boy. Given that her father seems to be The Alcoholic, it runs in her family.
• "Falling in Love" Montage
• Her Codename Was Mary Sue: The titular girl's scripts.
• Inspired By: the series of letters posted on the internet.
• I Should Write a Book About This: Gyeon-woo does this, and it even gets picked up to be made into a movie. It's like, circular, man!
• Love At First Sight: Gyeon-woo is immediately attracted to the girl, almost despite himself.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: pretty violent and dangerous example. Also downplayed, as she is legitimately troubled, and he helps her with her issues as much as she helps him with his.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Gyeon-woo is timid and quite mild, in a way that could be better received if he was female. Meanwhile, the Girl's domineering attitude, boldness, and penchant for alcohol are more close of the stereotype for young males in Korea. The Girl's scripts also have this, with the heroine saving her Distressed Dude or forcing him in a more stereotypical female role.
• No Name Given: the only character with a name in the film is Gyeon-woo
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Not marriage, per se. At the beginning of the film the protagonist's mother tries to get him to meet with his aunt because he resembles her recently deceased son. At the end of the film, he meets with his aunt and it turns out she's been trying to set him up for a date with his cousin's girl left behind... the eponymous Sassy Girl. This helps explain why she says 'Honey' at the train station in the beginning when she's drunk and stricken with grief.
• Reality Subtext: In-Universe — all of the stories the girl tells revolve around time travel and/or lost love. The girl lost her boyfriend not long ago, and she is treating Gyeon-woo as a replacement
• Replacement Goldfish: Turns out Gyeon-woo is this for the girl of his dreams.
• Spiritual Successor: Windstruck.
• Romantic Comedy
• Two-Person Love Triangle: Gyeon-woo is trying to avoid his aunt setting him up with some girl. The Girl is trying to avoid the mother of her dead fiance setting her up with his nephew. Turns out that they're the same people.
• Uptight Loves Wild
• Yandere: The girl.