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Speaking of the most popular local movies in South Korea during the summer season.

It has to be the comedy "Pilot" starring Jo Jung-suk.

It has been more than 20 days since the film was released, and the number of moviegoers in South Korea has reached 3.88 million. Compared with the break-even point of 2.2 million viewers, it is at least a sure profit, and the number is still rising.

In terms of the number of moviegoers, this film is second only to "The Tomb Raider" and "Criminal Metropolis 4" at the beginning of the year, becoming the third new Korean local film in 2024.

Of course, those two films have already grossed over 10 million, but it seems like it will be difficult for this one to gross over 10 million.

Anyway, this movie "The Pilot" is still quite popular: on the one hand, it comes from the personal box office appeal of the lead actor Cho Jung-seok; on the other hand, the film's light-hearted and funny comedy style is also very suitable for the summer season.

However, even though it is a summer comedy, the film still caused a lot of controversy.

For example, on the well-known Korean website Naver, the film received a 7.4 rating from registered users. Among them, female users gave it a rating of8.54 points, while male users only rated5.42 points

In other words, the ratings of this film from users of different genders differ by nearly3 points。

It is amazing that the evaluations can vary so greatly depending on the gender of the audience.

Yes, this is also a gender-related film.

As for the reason, the plot synopsis from Douban has made it very clear:

This is the story of Han Zhengyu, who lost his job overnight, and found a new job using the perfect female identity "Han Zhengmei".

Yes, it is such a cross-dressing comedy story about a man dressing up as a woman. Cho Jung-seok's challenge to wear women's clothing in the film is also an important highlight of the film.

From a gender perspective, this is actually a very mild comedy. Overall, it is a very conventional spoof comedy, with all kinds of cross-dressing jokes, and even some plots that are a bit deliberately dog-faced and nonsense.

It's a particularly hilarious comedy.

I must say that some of the comedy moments in the film are quite funny, especially Cho Jung-seok's look in women's clothing is quite cute. At the same time, his performance also adds a lot to the film.

But it is true that in South Korea, where gender issues are very controversial, this even very mild movie still caused quite a bit of controversy.

The story is roughly about the protagonist, who was originally a very good pilot, but because he was involved in a workplace sexual harassment scandal caused by his boss who was drunk (he also echoed the remark), he eventually lost his job and his wife divorced him.

However, hoping to fly back into the sky, he eventually disguised himself as a female pilot and continued his work, which triggered a series of comedy stories.

In fact, this film is also a remake of a 2012 Swedish film called "Cockpit".

In fact, the Korean version is much more conservative than the original version, which actually explored gender discrimination in the workplace and other gender issues in more depth, and touched on many sensitive issues.

The Korean version, at most, only focuses on judging women's appearance.

Some Korean critics previously said that because Korea has always been very sensitive about gender issues, the film was, after all, a mainstream commercial film, so they didn't dare to be too outrageous.

Of course, even so, the controversy is still very great.

For example, some critics believe that the female characters in the film are too strong, which may make the male characters appear weak. At the same time, the film touches on the theme of female independence and self-worth, emphasizing the status of women in the workplace and family, which some viewers see as a challenge to traditional gender roles.

In addition, some viewers believe that the film's portrayal of male characters is not positive enough, which may convey a stereotype of men and lead to tensions in gender relations.

Anyway, it is probably similar views that have caused a lot of controversy in the film.

In fact, the only gender topic that the film really touches on is probably that the male protagonist, after being dressed up, can better understand some of the workplace situations that women will encounter (including harassment, discrimination, etc.).

This is also the theme that these editions have been trying to convey.

In other words, only after the male protagonist changes his clothes and switches positions can he feel to a certain extent the things that women encounter in the workplace.

This has always been the theme that this film wants to convey.

At the same time, there is actually another point that may not be comfortable for many male viewers. I have read many criticisms, but they did not point it out directly, or deliberately avoided it.

That is, Cho Jung-seok, who dresses as a woman, actually has LGBTQ-related references in the film, and his relationship with another female pilot in the film is indeed very subtle.

In the original Swedish version, the bisexuality setting is actually pointed out directly.

This topic is probably the reason why some viewers cannot accept it, including the setting of men dressing up as women, which is a mockery of the masculine image (which will obviously make some viewers feel uncomfortable).

But this topic seems inconvenient to talk about directly, as it would seem too old-fashioned, so sometimes it is packaged as other viewpoints to express.

In fact, as an entertainment film, "The Aviator" is still a bit old-fashioned. For this kind of cross-dressing gender comedy, you can probably imagine what kind of story it is and what kind of plots it has. Such a story is not a very fresh topic in many similar comedies in the past, and this film has not achieved a very advanced level.

However, it is still surprising that such a mild cross-dressing comedy can still cause such a big controversy.

This shows that there is still a long way to go in South Korea.

In addition, a few points that need to be pointed out are that the director of this film, Jin Hanjie, is a female director, which is probably the reason why she decided to remake such a movie.

At the same time, the main audience group of this film is also mainly women.

Including the above naver ratings,The male-female ratio is also 37:63, indicating that the vast majority of the audience are still female.

Of course, due to a series of controversies it caused, the film’s box office was ultimately unable to go any further. It is now showing signs of fatigue, and it feels like only a few million people have seen it.

Finally, Cho Jung-seok’s female clothing look is quite amazing.

If I have the chance in the future, I can still take a look at it. It’s a good way to kill time.