My Paparotti Film Review

My Paparotti is a 2013 South Korean film based on the true story of an Opera singer who was involved in gangs. I’ve been wanting to watch this film for a long time and this past weekend finally found the time to enjoy it.

Storyline

During his youth, Kim Ho-Joong was involved in gangs but thanks to his grandmother, who looked after him, developed a deep interest and talent in Opera music. The film is about his struggle to choose between gang life or receive an education to take him to the heights of fame in the Opera world assisted by his eccentric teacher.

Actors

There were two main actors in the cast who played their roles brilliantly.

Lee Je Hoon (이제훈) played Jang Ho. He was born in 1984 and already has an impressive movie career. I hadn’t seen any of his work before but he clearly put a lot of effort into this important role.
Han Seok Kyu (한석규) played the teacher Sang Jin, they couldn’t have chosen a better actor for this role who is known to have a very unique style.

Review

As usual, the film had an average rating on Internet Movie Database, however, on Asian sites it was rated much higher. I am in agreement with the Asian sites.

There was a great mix of humour, drama and action that kept me engaged throughout the film. The acting was really good, excellent chemistry between the main cast, they did an excellent job with the roles they had. It was very believable that Lee Je Hoon was singing but obviously wasn’t. It was definetly the actors that made this film so believeable.

I am not sure how close the film was to the true story of Kim Ho-Joong but it did interest me to find out more about the singer, listen to his songs, and wonder what he is working on now. Recent “gossip press” about him was disappointing and diverted my attention away from it, I just want to remember the positives.

Absolutely a 5/5 for the movie, a must watch.