SFIAAFF: Rules of Dating

The Korean movie Rules of Dating, made its North American premiere at the Castro on Friday night. What appears at first to be a light-hearted romantic comedy about a libidinous school teacher vainly pursuing the student teacher in his charge quickly takes on a much darker tone when you throw in work place sexual harassment and what amounts to one of those, "hmmm we think that was pretty much a rape scene" moments into the mix. Bummer for anyone who was actually on a date expecting to engender good feelings about relationships for after the show.

The pervy teacher, Lee (played by Lee Yu-rim) is part clumsy lothario and part relentless sexual predator whose creepiness is only mitigated by his over-riding goofiness. In one scene he drunkenly looks at the object of his affections, student teacher Choi, after she urges him to eat more clams at dinner and meaningfully intones, "I feel like a different type of clam." Apparently it's not love that's the universal language, it's the women-taste-like-fish joke.

Our feelings about Lee moved from amusement to repulsion to annoyance and even sympathy. Gang Hye-jeong, who plays Choi, turns in a complex performance as the student teacher who appears at first to be innocent to the point of naïve. As the movie develops you realize her peculiar reserve is the type of shell developed by someone who has experienced too much when it comes to love, loss and the necessity for self-preservation.

One observation about school teachers in Korea: they seem to be able to sneak away from the classroom for a little nookie at nearby love motels a lot. We kept thinking, who's watching the students?

Rules of Dating plays again at 9:15 p.m. on Satursay March 25, at the San Jose Camera 12. Buy tickets here.

SFist Mihi Ahn, contributing