[HanCinema's Film Review] "Love Reset"

Jeong-yeol (played by Kang Ha-neul) and Na-ra (played by Jung So-min) have been together for about eight years. Their story is a very dramatic one- Na-ra was set to marry another man entirely while Jeong-yeol, commiserating at his friends' bar, tried to work up the gumption to whisk her away from the altar. So it's more than a little weird that the first thirty minutes of "Love Reset" is just the two of them arguing over how much they hate each other at a divorce court proceeding.

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Indeed, I can't even really describe the exact premise of "Love Reset" without spoiling it, which is quite a shame, really. The script is remarkably inventive and funny, self-consciously loaded with romantic comedy tropes yet never being overly self-congratulatory about them. The fact that Jeong-yeol and Na-ra genuinely seem to hate each other is oddly magnetic. Even while divorcing, they have undeniable passion and chemistry, just for all the wrong reasons.

What really makes "Love Reset" work is that Jeong-yeol and Na-ra are generally more annoying than they are genuinely vicious. In the backstory, Na-ra comes from a relatively well-off family and has a demanding career while Jeong-yeol is a bumpkin who was still studying for his legal license when they got married. As we see it, these are relatively mundane character traits. But in the context of the divorce, these identities are laced with disproportionate venom as the two bicker.

Ironically, it's not the backgrounds themselves that cause tension so much as the irritation Jeong-yeol and Na-ra have that their worse halves see it as the sum total of their personalities. The source of their resentments are remarkably transparent. The apartment they live in is absolutely filthy, for example, and the first step on their road to recovery is quite literally just cleaning it up.

The cyclically self-sabotaging nature of what the relationship has become is perversely what makes it so funny. "Love Reset" manages to get an identical laugh from the exact same refrigerator gag twice because Jeong-yeol and Na-ra are both objectively very unpleasant people. Even their families are horribly annoyed with these lead characters, and their stated goal of making sure the divorce goes through no matter what reads very differently in context rather than print. That Jeong-yeol and Na-ra make each other miserable is beyond dispute. Why they make each other miserable, is more ambiguous.

But then, it might not be why they make each other miserable so much as how. Because they genuinely care about each other. Jeong-yeol and Na-ra have little trouble shrugging their own families off, yet are perversely fascinated by each other because their marriage is such a genuine mystery. And again, it's to the credit of "Love Reset" that despite the fact that the first half hour clearly lays out why the lead characters need to get a divorce, and the lead characters know this too, both the film and the characters keep coming up with excuses for why they shouldn't. The challenge is what makes it fun- and remarkably funny to boot.

Written by William Schwartz

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"Love Reset" is directed by Nam Dae-joong, and features Kang Ha-neul, Jung So-min, Jo Min-soo, Kim Sun-young, Hwang Se-in, Yoon Kyung-ho. Release date in Korea: 2023/10/03.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD from YESASIA

Blu-ray English Subtitled Full Slip Numbering Limited Edition

DVD English Subtitled