South Korean independent film “Teaching Practice: Idiot Girls and School Ghost 2”, which is a standalone sequel to “Idiot Girls and School Ghost: School anniversary” (2024), tickled and amused me a lot. While deliberately silly and exaggerated in its cheerfully absurd mix of comedy and satire, the movie also has enough wit and spirit to support its numerous broad comic moments, and you may gladly go along with that as alternatively chuckling and rooting for its main characters.

 The main center of the story is Kang Eun-kyung, a student teacher who happens to return to her old female high school for her teaching practicum. This young idealistic lady is quite determined to become a good teacher, but she is only advised that she should not make any trouble during her teaching practicum period, and she becomes all the more daunted when her mentor, who is still teaching at the school, also gives the same device later.

Nevertheless, Eun-kyung still tries to keep her spirit as high and unflappable as possible, and she soon comes to pay attention to three certain students in the school. Although they are not troublemakers at all on the surface besides being respectively ranked first in the national mock exams, there is something odd about these students. For example, they were allowed to change their Korean names into the Japanese ones for no apparent reason, and they have also been permitted to run their little black magic club, though nobody in the school seems to know what the hell they have been doing down there.

Needless to say, Eun-kyung decides to delve into whatever these girls have been hiding behind their back, and it is not much of a spoiler to tell you that the girls do have a diabolical secret involved with their very impressive exam scores. Their club room turns out to have a hidden portal to the world of dangerous ghosts, and, not so surprisingly, this supernatural world has a long historical connection with their school, which was incidentally established around 100 years ago.

As Eun-kyung enters this supernatural world along with the girls, the movie wildly swings back and forth between horror and satire. For encountering a certain powerful entity who has exerted a considerable influence over not only this supernatural world but also the school, she and the girls must pass several different stages first, and the certain parts of their risky quest are presented in a way more effective than those forgettable Super Mario Brothers animation films.

 As reflected by the title of the film, there are several creepy ghosts to appear here and there along the story, but these supposedly malevolent ghosts often give unexpectedly hilarious moments to be appreciated by me and many other South Korean audiences who had to endure a lot under that demanding South Korean education during their adolescent years. Each of these ghosts are ready to test Eun-kyung and the girls in one way or another, and I particularly like a scene involved with one particular ghost, which throws a lot of English questions which would baffle even native users. Even though she is not so good at English, Eun-kyung must give the right answers as soon as possible, because the consequence of failing in this test is pretty dire to say the least.

When Eun-kyung and the girls finally confront that powerful entity in question, what is being actually at stake turns out to be much more than expected. Their supernatural opponent has been feeding on the desperation and frustration from both the teachers and students in the school for quite a long time, and there subsequently come some horrible (and absurd) surprises for Eun-kyung not long after her confrontation with that powerful entity. This figure is surely determined to dominate over the school as usual by any means necessary, and Eun-kyung comes to see that she is now the only one standing on her mighty opponent’s way. To be frank with you, I chuckled a lot again while watching her receiving a certain powerful old tool which may destroy her opponent once for all.

Around the expected moment of the showdown between good and evil, the movie becomes all the more outrageous as throwing more horror and satire into its loony genre mix, but it keeps its attitude straight along with its main characters nonetheless. While it is quite amusing to see Eun-kyung and the girls concocting a rather clever strategy for distracting all those ghostly minions of their powerful opponent in advance, it is also actually a little touching to see how Eun-kyung demonstrates that she has all the right stuffs for being a real good teacher, and the movie even attempts a bit of melodrama with some self-conscious wink.

The main performers in the film admirably stick to their straight acting mode from the beginning to the end. While Han Sun-hwa earnestly holds the center as required, Hong Ye-ji, Lee Yeo-reum, and Lee Hwa-won hold each own place well around the story, and Yoo Seon-ho, Park Chul-min, Jung Man-sik and Kin Hyun are also effective in their respective supporting roles.

Overall, “Teaching Practice: Idiot Girls and School Ghost 2” is another entertaining work from director/writer/editor Kim Min-ha. With “Idiot Girls and School Ghost: School anniversary” and this film, he demonstrates well his considerable talent in comedy film, and I will not mind at all if there is another sequel to come.