I did not laugh much as watching South Korean romantic comedy film “Honey Sweet” because it turned out to be not as sweet or funny as its story and characters could be. While it works to some degree mainly thanks to its two lead performers’ diligent efforts, the movie unfortunately stumbles more than once in case of developing their awkward romantic situation or several supporting characters around them, and I found myself more distant to the story and characters instead of rooting for them more.

During its early part, the movie shows us how inflexibly repetitive its socially inept hero’s daily life is. Whenever his mind is not occupied with making better snack products at his workplace, Chi-ho (Yoo Hae-jin) flatly and precisely goes through every scheduled daily routine of his, and he does not feel particularly lonely even though he is mostly alone in his house in addition to becoming fortysomething now. His solitude is occasionally interrupted by his ex-con older brother Seok-ho (Cha In-pyo), but Chi-ho does not mind giving some money to his problematic older brother whenever Seok-ho happens to need it due to his frequent gambling, and Seok-ho has no qualms on exploiting his younger brother’s innocent kindness.

On one day, Seok-ho happens to have a little problem with paying off his latest loan. Again, Chi-ho has no choice but to take care of this problem of his older brother’s, and that is how he comes to meet a loan company employee named Il-yeong (Kim Hee-sun). Although their Meet Cute moment is rather embarrassing, Il-yeong quickly becomes determined to get closer to Chi-ho as a single mother who has been looking for any suitable guy who may be a solution to her difficult financial circumstance, and Chi-ho also soon finds himself more attracted to Il-yeong even while quite flabbergasted by this sudden change in his stably monotonous daily life.

However, besides the frequent awkwardness in their interactions, there are some other troubles surrounding the burgeoning romance between Chi-ho and Il-yeong. While Seok-ho does not welcome much Il-yeong from the very beginning, Il-yeong’s college student daughter does not approve of Chi-ho much either mainly because 1) she still remembers well how much Il-yeong suffered due to her ex-husband in the past and 2) she also happens to have a little relationship problem of hers. In addition, Chi-ho’s employer becomes quite concerned when they come to learn that Il-yeong is persuading Chi-ho to quit his job for some serious health reason, and they naturally embark on a secret plan for sabotaging Chi-ho and Il-yeong’s romance.

Now this setup looks like an ideal recipe for good comedy, but the movie somehow fails to muster enough comic energy and momentum to hold our attention. Sure, it does deliver one supposedly comic moment after another as expected, but most of them are no more than shallow gags and jokes which do not add up much to the story or the characters on the whole.

Furthermore, the movie even misses a potentially big opportunity of manic screwball comedy at one point where Chi-ho and Il-yeong happen to be followed by no less than three different supporting characters with each own mean goal. We expect for any kind of big laugh at this point, but then this initially promising moment unfortunately fizzles within a few minutes as if the movie were afraid of pushing its comic limits, and that is a big letdown to say the least.

The movie is also quite deficient in case of characterization. We are supposed to accept that Chi-ho is a sort of confectionary genius, but we never get to know anything at all about his considerable talent, and even the movie seems to forget that. As far as I can see, he also shows a number of notable signs of autistic spectrum, but this aspect of his is casually ignored while one traumatic accident in the past is thoughtlessly blamed for his social ineptitude. Moreover, Il-yeong is solely defined by her plucky pursuit of Mr. Right for her without showing much human depth, and, to make matters worse, many of other substantial characters in the film do not go beyond the level of caricature while not even utilized that well for intended comic effects.

Anyway, I must admit that Yoo Hae-jin, who has been one of the most dependable character actors in South Korean cinema for many years, does not look strained at all as the lead actor of the film. Okay, he may not be one of the most dashing movie actors in South Korea at present, but he brings some amiable qualities to his character, and you can easily see why Il-yeong comes to like and care about Chi-ho a lot more than expected. On the opposite, Kim Hee-sun ably complements Yoo throughout the film, and, like several notable cast members including Cha In-pyo, Jin Sun-kyu, and Han Sunhwa, they certainly deserve a better film in my trivial opinion.

“Honey Sweet” is directed by Lee Han, who previously directed “Punch” (2011) and “Elegant Lies” (2014). Unlike these two previous films of his, I did not respond that well to “Honey Sweet” mainly because its handling of story and characters was not funny enough for me, and I became more disappointed around its last act, which is a bit too long and scattershot as lurching toward its expected ending. At least, it is not a total waste of time, and, considering what I observed from several audiences around me while watching it early in this morning, I have a feeling that you may enjoy it more than me, so I will just let you decide to check it out someday.