South Korean film “Pilot” does not convince me enough with its drag comedy. Right from its first drag scene, I could not help but aware of its artificial aspects as the camera, which can be quite glaringly objective as many of you know, clearly shows that this is no more than a mere drag performance, and that reminds me again of how drag comedy can be a lot more difficult and challenging than it seems.

Oh, it goes without saying that Cho Jung-seok, who has been more prominent thanks to his goofy supporting turn in “Architecture 101” (2012), is not a bad actor at all. As a matter of fact, he is well-qualified considering that he previously performed the lead character in a stage performance of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” several years ago, and he surely puts lots of efforts here for making his hero’s female disguise look as convincing as possible, but, alas, I did not believe that his character actually could fool many others around him. To be frank with you, I often kept myself from shouting at others around me during my viewing: “He still looks like a man, folks!”.

The early part of the film establishes how Cho’s character, Jung-woo, suddenly becomes quite desperate. He is a leading pilot of some prominent airline who has been a popular public figure after appearing in a local TV talk show, but then his rising status crumbles down due to a very unpleasant incident which occurs during a big company drinking meeting. When he unwisely makes a very insensitive comment on the female colleagues at the meeting, somebody records it and then discloses it in public, and now he becomes one of the most unpopular figures in the country.

As a result, Jung-woo quickly gets fired, and, not surprisingly, no other airline wants to hire him. In addition, his wife, who has been tired of being disregarded by him day and day, leaves him along with their little son, and he has no choice but to move to a little apartment where he bought for his mother and younger sister. While his mother is mostly absent due to a little private hobby of hers, his younger sister, Jung-mi (Han Sun-hwa), is mainly occupied with promoting her makeup skills on the Internet, and she turns out to be a considerable help when, after getting drunk a bit, Jung-woo impulsively decides to search for a new job as a woman.

What follows next is very predictable to say the least. Yes, Jung-woo is surprised and delighted to see that his female disguise works better than expected, though his female disguise is a bit too transparent in my humble opinion. Yes, as “Jung-mi”, he gets employed mainly because the female head executive of the same airline company he once worked for happens to want to employ more female pilots out there. Yes, while inadvertently drawing the attention of one of his ex-colleagues, he also gradually gets friendly with a female pilot named Seul-ki (Lee Joo-myoung), and the situation becomes more complicated as Jung-woo finds himself attracted to Seul-ki.

The movie, which is incidentally based on Swedish comedy film “Cockpit” (2012), naturally provides a series of absurd moments as Jung-woo tries to maintain his female disguise in front of many others around him, but many of these scenes feel rather contrite in addition to reminding us too much of several other notable drag comedy films out there. While “Tootsie” (1982) instantly comes to our mind right from the beginning, we later get a sequence which is not so far from the similar one in “Mrs. Doubtfire” (1993), but the movie is often deficient in wit and humor compared to these and other senior comedy films, and it only resorts more to silly gags and jokes from its hero’s female disguise.

Of course, the movie also tries to handle several gender issues as Jung-woo struggles to present himself well as “Jung-mi”, but, despite its good intentions, the result is clumsy at best and confused at worst. While Jung-woo surely comes to learn a lot about how men like him can be quite rude and insensitive to women, this does not change an inconvenient fact that he virtually snatches the position intended for woman. In case of his relationship with Seul-ki, the movie thankfully does not push them into conventional romance, but it does not seem to know that well what to do with their developing relationship along the story, and their situation becomes merely muddled when Seul-ki turns out to have some important matter behind her back.

Furthermore, several main cast members surrounding Cho are mostly under-utilized due to their flat supporting parts, though they try their best for filling their respective spots. While Lee Joo-myoung brings some life and personality to her rather thankless role, Ha Sun-hwa and Oh Min-ae have some fun with their more colorful supporting roles. and it is a shame that the movie does not utilize more of their considerable comic talent.

Overall, “Pilot”, directed by Kim Han-gyul (She previously directed “Crazy Romance” (2019), by the way), does not succeed enough to make me laugh a lot, but it may work better for you as long as you can go along with its lead performer’s female disguise more than I could. After all, I am just your average cranky movie reviewer who is more fastidious about how and what movie is about, and I let you decide whether you can spend some free time on this mildly enjoyable product.