Antique

2008 "Love. Life. Cakes."
Antique
6.8| 1h51m| en| More Info
Released: 13 November 2008 Released
Producted By: Sponge
Country: South Korea
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Jin-hyeok opens a cake shop in an old antique shop, hiring Seon-woo, Korea's best pastry chef, who fell in love with him in high school. Also there, are Su-young, crushing on Seon-woo, ex-boxer Ki-beom, and Seon-woo's French ex-boyfriend.

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Reviews

Lawson What a bizarre movie. It was adapted from a Jap yaoi (gay) comic so that probably accounts for why it's so fantastical in nature and why all too many things don't make sense. While they gave the four characters interesting back stories, their motivations were still often random and unexplained. The lead character is a rich kid who decides to open a patisserie to meet girls. He is determinedly straight but gives in a lot to his flaming chef (though resisting his advances). The chef, who's a "gay of demonic charm," lol, has an unrequited crush on the straight guy and a French ex-boyfriend who's trying to steal him away for his own patisserie. Then there is the apprentice chef, who's an ex-boxer of indeterminate sexuality and totally devoted to the chef. And the last guy is the straight guy's "bodyguard" and the most underdeveloped character. It seemed like he was crushing on the chef but that vanished and he didn't do all that much later in the movie.So the four of them run the place and cute hijinks ensue. This lighter half of the movie was all kinds of silly but frequently had me smiling and laughing. The cinematography made the movie look like a dream so it was easy to just let logic go and enjoy the comedy and the sight of the many lovely cakes they paraded. It's too bad Antique gets bogged down later with dark drama involving kidnappings and implied pedophilia that were quite discordant to the fluffy earlier half. These scenes are still punctuated with some humor but the movie just never quite recovers. If it had all been sunshine and rainbows, I would've given the movie a solid 10 and put it as a potential favorite but as it is, I'm still considering buying the DVD.
KineticSeoul I must say this movie can be a torture at times, not because it's a bad movie but it really made me crave sweets. Okay so the plot is about a bakery run by gay guys, maybe semi-gay and also has to do with kidnapping and murder which mainly revolves around the character Jin-hyeok Kim. Although it doesn't have pretty actresses playing the main roles, but it is sure to satisfy female and gay viewers. If you're comfortable and sure of your own sexuality you should be able to watch it and enjoy the movie for its own merits. It's a pretty funny movie, but the main positive thing I can think of to compliment about this is the cinematography and creative editing. On the negative side, the creators tried to cram a lot in it's running time to the point it can be confusing sometimes, even if it's based on a manga. So in another words I enjoyed the fast pacing of this film, but also disliked some aspects of it, but enjoyed it more than dislike it. It's a enjoyable and funny movie, if you ain't a super homophobe. And although the building of the bakery is fun to watch with it's creative editing with it's bright and colorful cinematography and all, when it came to the thriller it really did fall into the cheesy territory and not very intriguing. Basically it's a charming film about a bakery run by attractive gay guys, that will give some fan service to girls and gays while also being entertaining to watch for heteros.7.4/10
orange milo I have to admit that I underestimate this movie in the first place. Ithough is just an eye candy movie full of gorgeous man and delicious body to enjoy. But I was wrong.Another confession, I have to watch it 2 times in a row since in the first time, I lost focus, drown by beautiful cakes in this movie. Every time these work of art appears, I lost the story and get hypnotized :) And as sweet as the cake is Joo Ji Hun. Since I watched him in TV drama "Goong" and also "Devil", I am not really impress with his acting as much as with his look. But here, he can show the range of expressions, fragile yet strong, mature but still have the boy's charm in him.
kigaiyuuto "Can anyone be unhappy while eating cake?" First of all this movie is hard to be "labelled" under a specific category. It's not really a fluffy comedy as the trailer might suggests as it has a thriller element, it's not really a gay movie as the main character is a straight male. Howeever what I do know is that Antique is surprisingly good and leaves a sweet aftertaste.The movie is pretty faithful to the Japanese manga/comic which it is based, and they try to cram as much content as possible into this 110+ minutes. The only drawback is that the dialogue is so fast (in the first half of the movie) sometimes it's hard to catch up and also that it might not have as much of an emotional impact compared to the pages of the comic book when it's being read slowly. That being said, this movie is the best adaptation out there. Yup, Antique bakery has been adapted into a Japanese TV series (the gay aspect was completely cut off), Japanese anime series (poorly directed mess), and a Chinese/Taiwan TV series.This movie has all the ingredients (comical moments, thriller, slice-of-life drama, romance) in different proportions and the director successfully turn them into a charming film with a lot of heart. And lastly....WHO COULD FORGET THOSE WONDERFUL CAKES. Trust me there are moments when I can't decide whether I should pick the cakes or the beautiful people. So the judgment: satisfied for now and will be back for more.