How to Use a Guy with Secret Tips (also titled in English as Men's Manual & Male Instruction Manual) is a 2013 Korean romantic-comedy-drama. It's a corny & predictable female-centric coming of age story, but it's solid & likable, and, it is absolutely hilarious.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Here's your story: Bo-na is a 30 year old assistant ad director that's fed up with being stuck in an unappreciative man's world; she can't make her male boss respect her talents in her professional life, can't find a man to notice her as a woman in her personal life, can't even get a random guy on the street to open a door for her.
After getting left behind one day in the middle of nowhere by her idiot male coworkers, Bo-na wanders upon a mysterious roadside salesman pushing all sorts of self-help instructional videos. It's late at night, and it's been another extraordinarily frustrating day with zero attention and help from the men in her life, so Bo-na is an easy mark to be sold one particular VHS box set that's supposed to solve all her man-related problems. Bo-Na soon starts watching these videos, which are both cheaply produced and completely absurd. But, they do eventually begin to offer her some helpful tidbits that she awkwardly sets out to employ in her daily life, and, it works. As such, it doesn't take long before Bo-na starts absorbing all she can from these videos, and is off on her journey to evolve from "ignored dorky girl" to "desirable successful woman".
Soon enough, Bo-na starts getting ahead at work, meets a top actor she quickly wins over as a love interest, and so forth and so on. It's all thanks to the tips in the videos, and everything is well on its way to working out perfectly for our young heroine. Naturally, there is a potential price to pay though for all this newfound success in the classic "be careful what you wish for" sense. You'll just have to see for yourself if Bo-na can accomplish her career goals and find love while not losing sight of who she is as a person along the way.
As is typical of these types of stories, it's obvious that Bo-na is already perfectly fine to begin with; she's attractive, smart, kind, fun, etc. There are few, if any, qualities she's seemingly lacking. She just needs that one little traditional cinematic boost of confidence (and a makeover, of course), if she wants to transform into the woman she's always dreamed of being. The entire story here is so familiar, and there's very little doubt how everything will ultimately play out; it's really just a matter of how entertaining it will be going from Point A to Point B, and this film certainly delivers when it comes to accomplishing that.
Lee Si-Young is the star of the film in her role of Bo-na. Among Si-young's many talents (actress, model, boxer, etc), this type of rom-com-drama part might be what she's best suited for. She possesses a nice comedic timing, particularly for physical comedy, and she's quite impressive and just delightful throughout this entire film. Oh Jung-se plays the male co-star as the top actor love interest. I don't think I've ever seen him in anything other than supporting parts over the years, but I really have to hand it to him for the performance he turned in here; he's good with every facet of his role, and, he's asked to do a number of semi-embarrassing scenes that he just rolls along with in admirable fashion. I wasn't really sold with the pairing of these two stars going into this film, but they both turn in outstanding individual performances, and they play off each other so very well throughout. There are numerous secondary characters on hand as well that solidly contribute; the ever-present "doctor" from the instructional videos is primary among them, along with various oddballs & bit players that mostly serve to add to the hijinks while helping to advance the plot.
This movie does a lot of things well, but its unrelenting humor is perhaps its strongest aspect; no tricks are spared in an attempt to illicit some laughs, and it succeeds in doing so way more often than not, Subtle comedy, physical comedy, and slapstick comedy are all on display, along with a myriad of gender & industry & cultural related jokes, plus numerous semi-interactive cut scenes & animations & pop-ups, etc...A considerable amount of credit for this film should also be given to the behind the scenes crew; the director coaxed some terrific performances from the cast, the writing is consistently engaging & witty, and it features some razor sharp editing. The pacing here is also very unique; it's hard to tell how much of this is intentional or not, but this movie deftly shifts back and forth from "unhurried & low key" to "blisteringly fast & outrageous" in a seemingly effortless manner.
Note: While this movie isn't overtly raunchy, it's not really suited for children or someone too young, so keep that in mind. It's not really vulgar or offensive, and there are no sex scenes, but it is primarily geared more towards adults and those who are mature enough to understand the overall story & humor. There's an occasional bit of blurred out light nudity, a lengthy shot of a man's bare ass, lots of adult themed gender related jokes, but it's all presented in a mostly harmless & safe manner. Nevertheless, a bit of viewer discretion should be in order.
Summary: At the end of the day, this is just a sweet & silly modern rom-com that won't get confused with cinematic greats, but it is creative, charming, and often hysterical. I'd be hard pressed to name very many recent films I've watched that left a bigger smile on my face more than this one did.
Bottom Line: 9 out of 10 stars!...Absolutely Recommended!
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