''Penny Pinchers'' (; lit. "Penny-Pinching Romance" or "Saving Up for Romance") is a 2011 South Korean

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film written and directed Kim Jung-hwan, starring

Han Ye-seul Han Ye-seul (Hangul: 한예슬; born Leslie Kim on September 18, 1981) is an American-born South Korean actress. She made her acting debut in the sitcom '' Nonstop 4'' (2003), and has since played leading roles in television dramas such as ''Co ...

and Song Joong-ki. Kim received a Best New Director nomination at the 48th Baeksang Arts Awards in 2012.

Plot

Chun Ji-woong is an unemployed college graduate who continually fails job interviews and lives off an allowance from his mother, who runs a small restaurant in the countryside. Ji-woong is an eternal optimist, but having no money is cramping his dating life when he can't even afford to buy a pack of condoms. Yet despite living in a tiny, dingy apartment in a low-income neighborhood, he's about to get evicted when his mother abruptly cuts him off and he can't pay the rent. Gu Hong-sil lives in the apartment opposite Ji-woong's. Hong-sil is extremely

frugal Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the consumption of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance. In behavioral science, frugality has been ...

; she collects then sells recyclables, rummages through abandoned homes, steals sugar from coffee shops, and will walk anywhere within 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) to save on bus fare. She denounces all activities that involve wasting money, such as going to church and the hospital, and even dating. Romance is the last thing on Hong-sil's mind, she considers it a luxury and an unnecessary frivolity. Hong-sil's favorite hobby is depositing her savings at the bank, but her plans are brought to a screeching halt when she learns that she needs a separate bank account under someone else's name to reach her goal of (). So she tells Ji-woong that she'll teach him the art of penny-pinching and include him in a short-term moneymaking scheme if he follows whatever she tells him to do for the next two months.

Cast

as Gu Hong-sil * Song Joong-ki as Chun Ji-woong * Shin So-yul as Ha Kyung-joo * Lee Sang-yeob as Yang Gwan-woo * Lee Jae-won as Tae-woo * Lee Yong-joo as Chang-geun * Kim Dong-hyun as Hong-sil's father * Moon Se-yoon as Sysop * Ra Mi-ran as Ji-woong's landlady

Release

''Penny Pinchers'' was released in theaters on November 10, 2011. It was not a big commercial success, grossing on 424,002 admissions. It also screened at the 4th Okinawa International Movie Festival in 2012.

References

External links

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''Penny Pinchers''
at

Naver Naver (Hangul: 네이버) is a South Korean online platform operated by the Naver Corporation. It was launched in 1999 as the first web portal in South Korea to develop and use its own search engine. It was also the world's first operator to in ...

''Penny Pinchers''
at

CJ Entertainment CJ Entertainment (Hangul: CJ 엔터테인먼트) is a South Korean film production and distribution company under CJ ENM. The company operates as a film production company, film publishing house, investment and exhibition. History During early 1 ...

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Penny Pinchers 2011 films 2010s Korean-language films South Korean romantic comedy films 2010s South Korean films