Review: “Antique Bakery” is crazy sweet
“Antique” the confectionary sweet comedy starring Joo Ji Hoon, Kim Jae Wook, Yoo Ah In and Choi Ji Ho, is a movie that catches you with it’s hilarity and absurdity right out of the gate. The tone is even throughout the first half but then the last half dwindles off into further absurdity (and not the good kind).
Joo Ji Hoon’s character was kidnapped when he was nine years-old and somehow escaped after two months of captivity. 20 years later he is still suffering from post-traumatic stress and decides to open a cake shop. He recruits the “magically gay” Kim Jae Wook, a man who confessed his love for him in high school, and an ex-boxer, played by Yoo Ah In.
A ridiculous argument in French, Kim Jae Wook as the “Gay with demonic charm” and Yoo Ah In are three great reasons to see this movie. Sure the eye-candy isn’t bad either, but outside of that, the film is just hilarious. It’s part farce, part food-porn, part witty happenings and, unfortunately, one bad part dumb.
All of the actors did well because the chemistry between these guys was great, they worked off of each other really well. Joo Ji Hoon is great in this movie. He has gotten so much better since “Goong” and it’s great to know he has a sense of humor since “Mawang”. Kim Jae Wook is…just a woman in this movie, long hair, high voice, the works. I think I may have been laughing more at his ridiculous outfits than at his lines. I was also laughing at how much he over-gayed his entire performance. Yoo Ah In was great as is Choi Ji Ho. Andy Gillet, even, with his small role was pretty darn entertaining. They all gave really good, comedic performances.
The first hour is great but then as we pull into the last half, and things begin to get explained, the film starts to unravel and the “depth” of the film is overshadowed by implausible characters and things. Let’s just say the intent of the kidnapper could have been unveiled with a lot more finesse and tact. It also became ridiculous in the last half, when everyone and their dog is making emotional revelations at ill-placed moments, taking away from the sheer hilarity of the film as well as the established tone. There was also a fight with inner demons that was bit TOO literal for me.
Overall, though, it’s worth a watch.
“Antique” is distributed by ; stars, Joo Ji Hoon, Kim Jae Wook, Yoo Ah In, Choi Ji Ho, Andy Gillet; Directed by Min Gyu Don, written by Kim Da Young and Lee Kyeong I and Min Gyu Don, edited by Kim Sun Min; Shot in 35 mm color Cinemascope; Running time is 109 minutes.
i want to see this movie…i want it in my dvd collection lol
i completely agree with your review. the begining was pretty good and then the ending half came along and i was like wth is this XD
It’s too short of a movie to try to fit in a legendary manga.. So of course it will be hectic @ the end.
I agree, it’s adorable! I feared for the worst when it first came out and nobody said anything. But it’s hilarious & the cast has great chemistry (Joo Ji Hoon does an especially charming job). I hope (but doubt) that we’ll get an official subbed release.
As for the smudgy bits in the second part: the movie mostly follows the source manga (Fumi Yoshinaga’s classic Antique Bakery). Which isn’t an excuse, but at least the plot weaknesses weren’t original to the movie.
love love love love this movie. i was just watching it because i had nothing to do. but seriously, it’s worth the time i spent. hahaha.
wow, what a coincidence. I just finished Antique today and i stumble across this? And you know what i noticed? The foreigner could act! Whoo. Hoorah. Kudos to Andy Gillet(and for being one hot guy, damn…).
I love antique, so entertaining and kim jae wook is awesome and joo ji hoon and everyone else. hehe.
I need to find the dvd. >.<
and the j-drama ver feat. Fujiki Naohito[cuz i'm a FN whore XDD]
I want to seeee it. :/
yeah this was entertaining. “over gayed” – LOL absolutely agree with you. kim jae wook reminded you of the aunt who’s also so loving and sweet: “had a bad day? here have a piece of my famous pie, it’ll make it all better!” the bitchfest b/n JJH & frenchie was so hilarious. they should really make their own korean-french (gay?) version of Tais Tois! :D
i never got what the boxer guy’s doing. why so much angst? and i think the director’s still doing Memento Mori-style 90s editing for the thriller part. korean thrillers have gotten more sophisticated since then in the flashy editing (Rainbow Eyes comes to mind.)
JJH wasn’t kidding when he said he loves acting now. you can feel he’s really engaged and happy to watch him enjoy himself.
I loved this movie! I do agree with you that the later half specially when everything things started to really unravel.. i unno.. i still love the movie tho! so glad the dvd version is out and there’s subs out for this ^_____^
the ending was supposed to be like that so i wasnt disappointed
the old man doesnt get caught
but thats okay becuase the main character is able to move on now
at first when i finished the anime series i was like thats it??
but then it made sense it wasnt supposed to be some flashing ending
it just showed that through all suffering everyone was able to move on and be happy with themselves and where life leads
so i thought it was a nice ending
god i loved all the deserts i was totally drooling
ahh where did you watch it?
where can i get the dvd
I just watched it yesterday and I enjoyed it enough. I was expecting a gay comedy romance thing but… it was more of a mystery story than anything else;; and I agree, the second half was kinda bad. It was cute and funny though, I liked it :D
Andy Gillet :
Lookin’ damn good!
:) maybe i should get the dvd!
it’s out on yesasia!
SUBBED~!
I thought the movie was great. I agree about the confessions thing though. In the manga I guess that they just have more time for everyone to reveal themselves, but here it had to be done in such a short period of time.
joo ji hoon with sense of humor is just the right reason for me to watch this movie <33
I have it on my memory stck. I love it so much hahaha his angry mutterings were awesome
Okay, so where can i watch it?
travp16 i got it from chinky’s movie site.
we must have all been on the same wavelength. this is a great movie. its so much fun and its a HOTTIE overload. if you liked the “feel” of coffee prince, this has that same vibe if you smash in some gourmet. its great.
I’m about to watch the movie! I’ve been waiting since November to watch it but since i’m in America i couldn’t see it when it came out!!!!! Hope it lives up to it’s hype!
WOW, the stoic dude from GOONG! not sure I want to experience his painful acting again…. but over-gayed def made me want to see how he pulled that off..(though not very hard, since he pretty much acted gay all throughout Coffee Prince)
btw, i hate people who can’t comment without telling others how the movie goes.. seriously NOT COOL!
the movie was cool i liked it..u can watch it on aznv.tv
i’m so excited to see the movie :))
damn! they’re so HOT!!
It’s also on Youtube with subs. Linkage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkvHV6HsUXY
you have to read the Manga to understand the ending…..
The first 4 volumes are basically in this movie…
I love it….and I’m planning to buy the DVD….
I watch the movie-making…
some scenes are shorter than i thought…
I think that you shouldn’t have to read the manga to understand the movie. If you can’t understand the movie, simply as a movie then it has failed as a film.
I mean i still like the film but you shouldn’t have to depend on outside sources to understand a film.
I love this movie! When I heard it was coming out, I’ve been stalking lots of sites and finally got to watch it at Aarinfantasy and it was worth it…I laughed when I needed to laugh and I was sad when I was meant to be sad but most of the time, I laughed XD.
OMG, I am absolutely in love with this movie. It was so hilarious .. totally a must watch ! (:
The cakes and characters were consistently adorable and yummy throughout the film. That’s good enough for me, having never seen anything else that has to do with Antique Bakery. Also, I feel that things were resolved nicely in the end, though the old man does need more explaining. I had to look through Youtube comments to get some clarity on that, lol.
After reading your review, I watched the movie at MySoju…was pleasantly surprised with the story, subtle hilarity & all, yummy cakes & casts…I love how relationships developed among the four main characters. JuJiHoon is goooooood here, actually all four of them are. after seeing him in Goong & Devil didn’t think JJH had a funny bone in him:) I love him more now. I really really enjoyed watching this, thank you so much for your review :)
This movie is okay I like it ^_^ and some the film are funny I really like watching He who can’t marry LOL ^_^
For anyone who has enjoyed this film, here’s a YouTube patisserie chef’s recipe for the pastry Charlotte aux Poires: (in French)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HGx3VtynuM