I am not an ideal audience for South Korean film “Love Reset”. To be frank with you, I do not like comedies simply resorting to cheap gags and apparent jokes instead of being driven by genuine personalities and absurdities, and “Love Reset” often does such a rote and boring thing despite being quite aware of how clichéd it is from the beginning in terms of story and character. I am totally fine with its self-awareness, but, seriously, does it bring anything surprising enough to tickle or amuse me? HELL NO!

As a romantic comedy, it seems to try something a bit different at first. The story opens with the sequence showing how its two main characters, Jeong-yeol (Kang Ha-neul) and Na-ra (Jung So-min), ended up marrying despite some obstacles on their way to the eventual wedding. First, Jeong-yeol did not come to their wedding ceremony while Na-ra was waiting just because this petty and pathetic lad was afraid of full commitment, and that surely hurt Na-ra’s feelings, but, probably because she still loved him, she accepted his subsequent apology and then got really married with him later despite the strong objection from her parents.

However, after two years, things become quite changed between Jeong-yeol and Na-ra, who cannot possibly stand each other now as seeing more negative things from each other. In the end, they agree that they get divorced as soon as possible, but they have to answer a lot in front of the divorce court judges, and they certainly clash a lot with each other under your average “she-said-he-said” circumstance.

Anyway, it looks like divorce is the only solution for their increasingly acrimonious conflict, but there is a little problem to handle for both Jeong-yeol and Na-ra. They receive a 30-day divorce settlement period for more thought and consideration on their nearly settled situation, and that makes them more bitter to each other, but then, what do you know, something quite unexpected occurs not long after they leave the courthouse. In the middle of their latest argument, they happen to have a big car accident, and both of them later wake up to find themselves -are you ready for this?- almost totally amnesiac about their respective pasts.

Because both Jeong-yeol and No-ra do not have any memory on their relationship, their families and friends think this unfortunate incident of theirs may be the best for both of them. However, after listening to their doctor, No-ra’s mother decides that her daughter and Jeong-yeol should stay together for their recovery process at least before their divorce is eventually permitted several weeks later.

This is certainly a familiar comic situation of two different people awkwardly stuck together for a while, but, alas, the screenplay by director Nam Dea-joong and his co-writer Bang Gi-cheol, is utterly clumsy and superficial in case of character development. For instant, we are supposed to root for its two main characters as getting to know them more along the story, but neither of them is not particularly engaging or likable to hold our attention. While he was your typical petty jerk in the past, Jeong-yeol becomes nicer and tamer simply because of his memory loss, but the movie does not bring much personality to him beyond that as merely pushing him and Na-ra along its contrived plot. Even during the last act where things get more serious for Jeong-yeol and Na-ra, we do not get much sense of whatever Jeong-youl and Na-ra come to see from each other, and that is why its expected finale does not work as well as intended.

To make matters worse, most of supporting characters in the film are ludicrous caricatures which belong more to the artificial world of third-rate sitcoms. For instance, one of Jeong-yeol’s friends is mostly quiet and silent as always occupied with the bitcoin dealing on his smartphone, but we all can discern from his very first appearance that 1) he will certainly function as a running gag in the background and 2) he will eventually open his mouth when that is required.

I also feel sorry for the two lead performers in the film, who deserve better than this considering how they show some comic chemistry between them at times. I am not familiar with their previous films, but, as far as I can see from the movie, Kang Ha-neul and Jung So-min are good comic performers, and I can only hope that they will appear in better films where their presence and talent can be utilized more efficiently. In case of several other main cast members in the film, Jo Min-soo manages to generate some amusement as Na-ra’s stern and unflappable mother, and Hwang Se-in, who plays Na-ra’s unruly younger sister, acquits herself well as getting a few moments to stand out.

Despite its constant awareness of many of its genre clichés and conventions, “Love Reset” does not freshen them much on the whole, and that really bored and frustrated me a lot. As a matter of fact, when I was watching the movie along with a bunch of audiences around this noon, I frequently found myself weakly humming the tunes of several songs from Jonathan Demme’s great concert film “Stop Making Sense” (1984) just for cheering me up a bit. Or, is this actually the reflection of my unconscious wish to watch its resent 4K restoration version on big screen someday, I wonder?

Anyway, I observed that the other audiences around me laughed much more than me during the screening, so you may laugh a lot more than I did during my viewing, but I would rather recommend other recent South Korean romantic comedy “HoneySweet” (2023) instead. Yes, I gave that film only 2.5 stars out of 4 a few months ago, but, thanks to the mediocre boredom of “Love Reset”, I am now wondering now whether I was a bit too harsh to that film at that time. Seriously, maybe I should give that film another chance someday.