Sweet & Sour

This Korean romantic comedy for Netflix is adapted from Kurumi Inui's novel Initiation Love and keeps the source's essential feature, the reversal at the end. Hyeok, played by Jang Ki-yong, meets Da-eun, a nurse played by Chae Soo-bin, in a hospital. It starts well, then Hyeok is promoted and moves to another city, distance sets in, and Bo-young, a colleague played by Krystal Jung, enters. Up to that point the film does whatever the genre does. In the last ten minutes, whose account we have been watching changes, and everything seen so far has to be re-read. The choice split viewers: some found it a trick, others a critique aimed at the rules of romantic comedy itself. It was released on Netflix on 4 June 2021. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean romantic comedy and stories that play with their own structure. Who it is not for: anyone who cares how an ending leaves them feeling, since this one closes somewhere deliberately sour.