Some good movies can make us care a lot more about their characters than we expected at first, and South Korea film “Ms. Apocalypse” is one of such cases. Mainly revolving around two different women who are not exactly likable in their respective ways, the movie closely and sharply observes the comic development of their unlikely relationship, and we come to understand and empathize with them more even while getting some painful laughs along the story.

The early part of the film, which is incidentally shot in black and white film, is set in late 1999, and we are introduced to Yeong-mi (Lee Yoo-young), a meek young woman who has worked in the accounting department of some small company. While she is often ignored and ostracized by many male employees in the company for her awkward appearance and attitude, she has a crush on a young (and good-looking) delivery driver named Do-yeong (Roh Jae-won), and we are not so surprised when it turns out that she has been covering up a serious act of embezzlement of his for a while. As a matter of fact, she does some part-time job for earning enough money for covering up his ongoing criminal deed, and, just because of her growing affection toward him, she does not mind this at all even though she becomes quite exhausted from time to time.

However, things get much worse during the last days of 1999, when many people around the world were quite afraid of that possible apocalypse due to Y2K. Yeong-mi’s very sick aunt, of whom she has taken care instead of her aunt’s useless son, dies suddenly. While she tries to handle a number of following matters including the aunt’s funeral, she soon finds herself getting arrested for covering up Do-yeong’s embezzlement, and then she is shocked and devastated to learn belatedly that Do-yeong is actually married.

Anyway, Yeong-mi gets imprisoned for next several months after labeled as Do-yeong’s accomplice, and that is just the beginning of her messy circumstance. When she is eventually released in the middle of 2000 (The film switches to color film at this point, by the way), she remains confused and befuddled as before, and then she is approached by Yoo-jin (Lim Sun-woo), a quadriplegic woman who turns out to be Do-yeong’s wife. Accompanied with a young goofy hairdresser named Joon (Moon Dong-hyeok), Yoo-jin has a certain business to discuss with Yeong-mi, and, after coming to learn that she has nowhere to live at present, Yeong-mi soon lets herself getting involved with Yoo-jin even though she does not like Yoo-jin much.

Yoo-jin, who is incidentally about to divorce with her husband once he gets released some time later, gives Yeong-mi a rather generous offer she cannot easily refuse, but she is no Helen Keller at all. At one point, we see her becoming quite mean and harsh to a young volunteer sent to her little apartment, and we are not so surprised when Yeong-mi subsequently begins to take care of Yoo-jin instead. As a woman who has endured a fair share of mistreatment throughout her life, Yeong-mi is not easily daunted by Yoo-jin’s abrasive sides, and they soon become more like close roommates as days go by.

Now you may think this is another feel-good disability drama like “The Intouchables” (2011), but the screenplay by director/writer Lim Seon-ae, who previously made a feature film debut with “An Old Lady” (2019), wisely avoids that clichéd route. Yes, our two ladies slowly come to show their better sides to each other along the story, but there is always that harsh reality outside, and we get to know more about how messy their respective situations really are. For example, Yoo-jin has a number of private matters which turn out to be more complex than they seem on the surface, and Yeong-mi is also revealed to have a lot more personal issues behind her back.

As getting more exasperated and frustrated in one way or another, Yeong-mi and Yoo-jin naturally come to bond more with each other because, well, they do not have any other option besides that. The mood becomes a bit poignant as they open themselves a little more to each other later in the story, and you may also appreciate how the movie shows some care and attention to several other main characters including Do-yeong, who turns out to be more decent and sincere than he looked at the beginning.

Everything in the film depends a lot on the good comic chemistry between its two talented lead actresses, who did a fabulous job of complementing each other throughout the movie. While Lee Yoo-young, who previously appeared in “Perhaps Love” (2021), ably holds the ground with her engaging performance, Lim Sun-woo, who was terrific in “The Hill of Secrets” (2022), is uncompromising as effortlessly embodying her character’s bitter stubbornness, and several main cast members of the film including Roh Jae-won, Moon Dong-hyeok, and Jang Sung-yoon are also well-cast in their respective supporting parts.

In conclusion, “Ms. Apocalypse”, which is released as “Love at the End of the Century” in South Korean theaters, is Lim Seon-ae’s solid second work after “An Old Lady”, which is one of more impressive South Korean female films during last several years. Although it is not entirely without weak aspects (Several subplots including the one involved with Joon remain rather unresolved, for instance), the movie is still interesting enough to hold our attention, and it surely reminds me again that the future of South Korean cinema lies in the hands of talented female filmmakers like Lim.