Miss Granny (수상한 그녀, "Suspicious Girl") is a 2014 comedy film from South Korea directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk.
Oh Mal-soon is 74 years old. She's a cranky old lady who is generally rude to everybody. She is oblivious to the adoring affection of her elderly neighbor Mr. Park, but she's not above getting into Cat Fights with a rival for Mr. Park's affections, when said rival insults her. The only people she likes are her son Hyun-chul, a professor, and her grandson Ji-ha, an aspiring rock musician.
Mal-soon is particularly annoying and hectoring towards her put-upon daughter-in-law, Ae-ja. Eventually, the stress Ae-ja feels over her overbearing mother-in-law culminates in Ae-ja collapsing from heart trouble. This results in Hyun-chul forcing his mother into an old folks' home.
Mal-soon is depressed over being rejected by her family. She's so downhearted, in fact, that she starts preparing for death. She goes to a peculiar photo studio to get a funeral portrait taken. The photographer promises to make her fifty years younger—and he delivers. Mal-soon leaves the photographer's studio and is shocked to discover that she has turned into a 20-year-old version of herself. Now 20-year-old Mal-soon sets out to enjoy her newfound youth and vigor. She adopts the alias "Oh Doo-ri", upgrades her wardrobe, and eventually becomes the lead singer in her unknowing grandson's rock band.
Tropes:
- AB Negative: Ji-ha is injured and it turns out that he has a rare blood type, and the only available donor is his grandma. So Mal-soon gives blood for her grandson, knowing that doing so will turn her old again.
- Age Cut: The opening flashback to young Mal-soon in school cuts to elderly Mal-soon telling the story.
- Age-Down Romance: Seung-woo the music producer is enchanted with lovely young "Doo-ri" and tries asking her out. She gives him the brush-off.
- And the Adventure Continues: The film ends with Mr. Park, who has been made young again by the same magical photographer, whisking Mal-soon away on his motorcycle.
- Blood Transfusion Plot: Mal-soon has to donate blood to save her grandson Ji-ha after he's been injured. She does this knowing that the blood loss will break the magic spell and turn her old again, which it does.
- But Liquor Is Quicker: Ji-ha, having drinks with the pretty young lady whom he does not know is actually his grandmother, says that she's probably not used to drinking alcohol. In Inner Monologue she says "Your dad's the result of me drinking with your grandfather."
- Call-Back:
- Mal-soon makes fun of her rival Ok-ja for calling a cup of Cafe Americano "American coffee." Later, at Ok-ja's funeral service, there's a steaming cup of black coffee in front of the memorial portrait and wreath.
- An elderly Mr. Park picks up lovely young "Doo-ri" on his motorcycle, in front of a bus stop. The young women at the bus stop laugh derisively. At the end, a now-young and very handsome Mr. Park swoops up on his motorcycle to the same bus stop and picks up Mal-soon, as the same women at the bus stop gape with astonishment.
- The Cameo:
- Kim Soo-hyun, star of Korean film (Secretly, Greatly) and TV, appears briefly at the end as a newly young Mr. Park.
- Diablo, a real Korean band, plays at the big concert before Ji-ha's band. Ji-ha's band mates are starstruck.
- Catapult Nightmare: There's a scene of Oh Mal-soon's funeral. Her family members look downcast—until her granddaughter Ha-na cracks a smile. Then they all start laughing uproariously, obviously glad the old lady is gone. It's a nightmare for Mal-soon, who catapults awake.
- Cat Fight: Ok-ja, another old lady who is sweet on Mr. Park and regards Mal-soon as an obstacle comes in to the fast food place where Mal-soon and Mr. Park work, and starts hurling insults. Eventually Mal-soon hits her, and an elderly hair-pulling cat fight breaks out, complete with Mr. Park getting a broken nose when he tries to break them up.
- Cue the Rain: Mal-soon has had to flee the Park house due to the unhinged fury of Mr. Park's bitchy daughter. She's standing outside when Seung-woo calls her. He says "Is something wrong?" Cue a clap of thunder and the rain.
- December–December Romance: Mr. Park and Oh Mal-soon. He obviously worships her. She's not really Oblivious to Love but withholds commitment while enjoying the attention.
- Dispel Magic: Oh Mal-soon in her "Doo-ri" identity suffers a cut at a water park. The skin around the cut instantly turns old and blotchy. Mal-soon and Mr. Park figure out that blood loss causes the charm to wear off and turns her old again. The charm wears off completely after she has to donate blood to save Ji-ha.
- Distant Prologue: The opening scene shows a chipper, pretty college student saying she'll kill herself before she gets old. Cut to 74-year-old Oh Mal-soon in the present day telling a friend that getting pregnant ruined that plan.
- Empathic Environment: Mal-soon/Doo-ri takes the karaoke stage and starts singing a melancholy ballad about rain falling. As she sings, rain actually starts falling, and music producer Seung-woo is soaked by the time he makes it to the rec room to hear her sing.
- Exact Words: The photographer tells Mal-soon "I'll make you look fifty years younger." He does—by making her fifty years younger.
- Flashback
- A quick series of flashbacks as "Doo-ri" sings a sad song sketches out the history of her youth. Her husband left her behind when she was pregnant to get work as a miner in Germany, only to die in an accident. An intensely grieving Mal-soon was left a young widow with an infant son, and they struggled in desperate poverty for a while.
- A flashback shows that when Mr. Park was a boy, he, an orphan, worked as a servant in the Oh household and was enchanted with lovely young Mal-soon.
- Foreshadowing:
- Ji-ha's band is handicapped by an atrocious lead singer. A frustrated Ji-ha tells her, "Even my grandma would sing better than you!" After a Fountain of Youth makes her 20 years old again, Mal-soon does in fact become the lead singer of Ji-ha's band.
- Ha-na sees "Oh Doo-ri" singing on the TV. Impressed, she says "What if I become a singer?" The film ends with Ha-na having become the new singer in her brother's band, after Mal-soon has become old again.
- Fountain of Youth: A mysterious photographer uses some sort of magic to turn 74-year-old Mal-soon into her 20-year-old self.
- Genre Shift: In-Universe. "Doo-ri" comes for her audition with Ji-ha's band. They are a loud hair-metal band complete with KISS-style makeup, and when they play a song, Doo-ri is horrified. Instead she sings them an old pop song. They immediately become a band that plays K-pop and power ballads.
- Hey, Wait!: Mal-soon, in her new identity as young Doo-ri, rents a room with Mr. Park. She's about to settle in when Mr. Park shouts "Stop!" She freezes in fear, only for him to say "We take payment in advance."
- Hey, You!: Mal-soon keeps forgetting that she is now 20 years old, and as a consequence she screws up her Korean Honorifics, addressing other old people as a peer and addressing young people casually. Multiple characters notice this and take offense.
- Hospital Gurney Scene: Ae-ja is whisked into the hospital after collapsing. It turns out that her own mother-in-law apparently stressed her into having a mild heart attack.
- I Was Quite a Looker: The photographer prompts this, saying that Mal-soon must have been lovely when she was young. Mal-soon says it's true and that all the boys were after her.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Mal-soon goes to the Youth Photo Studio to get a portrait taken. Instead, she winds up getting turned into her 20-year-old self. When a shocked Mal-soon goes back to that spot, the magic photography studio has disappeared and there is a Chinese restaurant there, and the owner has no idea what Mal-soon is talking about.
- Male Band, Female Singer: The dynamic in Ji-ha's band. Ji-ha and another dude on guitars, another guy playing drums, and a woman as lead singer. After the terrible lead singer quits, they audition and hire "Doo-ri" to be their new female singer.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Mal-soon really is a horribly overbearing mother-in-law, not only carping at Ae-ja's cooking and interrupting her when she talks, but undermining Ae-ja when the latter tries to discipline her children. She winds up driving Ae-ja to a mild heart attack, which gets Mal-soon kicked out of the house.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Ends with Mr. Park, now young, and Mal-soon riding away on his motorcycle.
- Shout-Out: A picture of Audrey Hepburn outside the magic photographer's shop prompts Mal-soon to say that Hepburn was her favorite actress and Roman Holiday was her favorite movie. After she's made young again she adopts a Hepburn-style haircut and goes by the name "Oh Doo-ri" because it sounds like "Audrey" in a Korean accent.
- Someone to Remember Him By: A flashback shows a pregnant Mal-soon waving her husband goodbye as he goes off to Korea to work. She's then left weeping with grief after she's informed that he was killed in a mining accident.
- Spit Take: Mal-soon is asked by Seung-woo what she looks for in a man. She says "As long as he doesn't starve his family and does his job right at night—", and that's when she's interrupted by Seung-woo's spit take of wine splattering her.
- Split Screen: Used when Mal-soon as Doo-ri upgrades her wardrobe, getting a bunch of bright dresses now that she's 20 years old agian.
- Storefront Television Display: Mr. Park is briefly shown watching Mal-soon and her band on a storefront TV display, with Ji-ha showing up next to him and also watching.
- Surprise Car Crash: Ji-ha, running late, is speeding to the concert venue on a bicycle. He makes some dangerous turns, narrowly misses a motorcycle, makes a reckless left where he cuts past an oncoming bus, speeds off the main road and into an alleyway...and a truck plows right into him as he exits the alleyway.
- Verbal Backspace: Hyun-chul comes home. Mal-soon jumps up and says "There you are!" He looks at her weird and she realizes that she is young Oh Doo-ri now and he has no idea who she is or why she'd be greeting him. So she clutches her stomach, awkwardly says "There you are—the bathroom call," and dashes off to the toilet.
