Antique Bakery (2008)

What a unique movie for its time. I had never heard of this movie until recently from a friend who loved it.

Each of the four male characters have their own interesting backstories and past histories, but the most important is that of Sun-woo (played by Kim Jae Wook) and Jin Hyuk (played by Joo Ji Hoon). I think it was rather groundbreaking for its time to have an openly gay man who flaunts his sexuality and kissing scenes between two men.

Yoo Ah In's character had an interesting backstory but since he was just a supporting character, the story was not elaborated on very much.

What makes it unique is probably the 'hyperrealistic' or 'surrealistic' way in which the movie was shot, with strange musical numbers popping out of nowhere during which the characters express how they feel, instead of speaking it, or the way each character's memories fade in and out of reality, such that sometimes I don't know what is real or not. I personally did not like this because I became very confused about what was the truth.

There is a bit of everything in this movie, such that it is difficult to pinpoint what genre this movie would fit into. It has comedy, romance, and some drama to it.

Even though I am still utterly confused about the ending, I would recommend this movie as a 'chance card' watch - you won't know how you would feel about it until you have watched it.

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This moive was EXCELLENT. not only did the story line keep you completely on the edge of your seat at all times but the way it was filmed was really different too. the transition between scenes was unlike anything ive seen before, in korean movies at least. it was very fun when it probably should have been serious at parts. The plot was very different and not stereotypical at all!
This movie was so good that i thought it should have been made into a drama instead. How they got all that information and drama into a single movie... blows my mind. seriously go watch this movie now if you haven't you wont be sorry ^^

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Chaotic mess.

Honest to gosh, I had no idea what was going on in this movie. Characters were unbelievable, and did unbelievable things for unbelievable reasons. Pacing was like the director was on crack. Plot holes were enormous. I'm halfway through, and I'm wondering if I will be able to finish what appears to be a major train wreck

Okay, a couple of cute guys, and the pastries looked great, but that's not really enough to counter the rest of this disaster.

If I do finish it, I'll revisit this review. I can't imagine what will salvage it at this point, though.

UPDATE: I finished it. It became slightly more comprehensible, which only meant that I downgrade it on the believable part to ludicrous. A hot mess pretty much from start to finish.

I'm sorry I wasted my time on it. I'd downgrade the ratings ever further, but I don't care enough to bother.

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I just finished watching this. I've heard of it before but for some reason, I never got to watch it till now. It was cute. The actors are awesome. Their back stories were interesting. Four men who you'd think wouldn't get along. But they did. And Kim Jae Wook is so pretty. (There I said it.) :) Yoo Ah In was so adorable. Joo Ji Hoon was... I can't really describe it. Struggling so hard trying to find who he truly is. The bodyguard guy, I can't remember his name, he was sweet. Being so loyal to Ji Hoon's character.

The music, I wasn't really paying attention to it. Love the cakes. Overall, I wouldn't mind re-watching this later on.

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Honestly, I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked this movie. The few brief descriptions that I read didn’t truly prepare me for the story as a whole. I knew it was about a bakery where four very attractive men worked, but that’s about it. Which means that I was wonderfully and pleasantly surprised by the story and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The characters were so much fun, well made, and remarkably intriguing. On top of that the story was unexpected. I thought it was going to be just a fluffy piece without much substance, but I was wrong. It was deep and full of substance. I would absolutely recommend this! I do believe that you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

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Story - it had it's good points and approached serious issues. there wasn't an extreme attention to the gay couple and world and the story talked about important issues besides that. The bad point is that I didn't really get if they're a couple in the end or not.

Cast - I love the characters! The actors are amazing and, in my opinion, choosed perfectly. I love every single one of them.

Music - I didn't pay much attention to it, but in no time did it seem inappropriate for the moments.

Rewatch value - I would definitly rewatch this, because I love the characters so much!

Overall - It was a great story and amazing characters. Too bad Ki Beom and Su-yeong didn't form a couple. I thought they were amazing together... Anyway, this film is woth your time.

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What can I say, I absolutely loved this! I personally have never seen a gay/queer main storyline done before in Asian drama, only seen side characters that are hugely flamboyant or act as comic relief. Having lots of same-sex interactions in a way that felt less jokey and more "cheeky" or charming was really fun and sweet to see, and I loved the incredibly rich backstories to each of the four main characters, as well as some of the other supporting cast. There is a dark underbelly that the main character of the film deals with, but it's kept really entertaining by sharing screen time with the day-to-day goings on of the cute little bakery the story is based around. So although this film does have some pretty dark themes I honestly can't get across how fun and feel-good this movie ends up being.

The only negative I can think of mentioning is that a couple of the characters pull quite heavily from drama tropes/stereotypes - but these tropes are then given fleshed out, natural-feeling backstories which illustrate why they act the way they do. So although their surface behaviour appears "typical", it never comes off too cheesy. For this I decided the acting deserved a resolute 10/10, as I can't imagine how difficult it must be to pull something like that off - playing a stereotypical personality whilst getting across the humanity of that character.

It's slightly difficult to talk about the story itself without revealing potential spoilers, as even the opening scene is linked quite heavily to the story's ending. But what I will say is that I went into this completely blind (as I didn't even realise it was a manga until coming here to write a review), and the emotional punches that this movie comes with are definitely best experienced with no prior knowledge of what you're getting into. So: if you like cakes, pretty gentlemen and a fantastic plotline, give Antique Bakery a go - I can't recommend it enough. :)

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