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Prime Video review: K-drama fantasy comes true in 'Ultimate Oppa'

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Fred Hawson

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Bela Padilla stars in " Ultimate="" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/entertainment/12/23/20221223-ultimate-oppa.jpg"/><figcaption>Bela Padilla stars in &#x27;Ultimate Oppa&#x27;</figcaption></figure></div><p>Yana Reyes (Bela Padilla) was the manager of a chicken restaurant in Manila, but she longed to write a screenplay for her favorite Korean actor Moon Sin-woo (Cho Tae-kwan). One day, she sent in a story proposal on Moon&#x27;s Facebook page, and immediately received a warm reply of encouragement from him. The engaging style of his manager Jay (Kim Gun-woo) to make Sin-woo closer to his fans was working very well.</p><p>One day, Sin-woo responded angrily to online trolls, so his staff had to do some damage control. They launched an international promotion inviting his fans to vie for a chance to be Sin-woo&#x27;s &quot;First Lady on the Moon.&quot; Among the entries who got a perfect score on their online quiz, 10 girls were picked out on a live raffle streamed online to participate in a survival game in Korea. Yana was one of the lucky contestants.</p><p>Even though this film was practically 50% in the Filipino language (aside from Korean and English), it was produced, directed and written by Koreans. Writers Hong Eun-hee, BJ Song, An Su-jin and director Whang In-roi wrote their script based on an original script with the same title written by Filipinos Jade Francis Castro and Denise Mae P. Sison. I wish I knew how similar or different the original Filipino script was from the Korean adaptation.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oUScLugPcoM?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><p>Jasper Cho Tae-kwan is best known for playing Dr. Daniel Spencer in hit 2016 K-drama series &quot;Descendants of the Sun.&quot; While he delivered Sin-woo&#x27;s English lines clearly, his comedic timing in his English &quot;jokes&quot; tended to be awkward. Kim Gun-woo is best known as the antagonistic superstar actor Park Do-ha in 2020 K-drama series &quot;Record of Youth.&quot; Kim actually had the meatier role as Jay was the one experiencing significant conflicts.</p><p>Aside from the talented and ever-charismatic Bela Padilla (as main protagonist Yana), there were two other Filipinas in major roles here. Kat Galang was Yana&#x27;s cheerful co-worker and fellow K-drama fan Cha. Janeena Chan was the bubbly and friendly Korean-Filipina contestant Thea. I don&#x27;t know how they did it but Chan&#x27;s Korean and Kim Gun-woo&#x27;s accented but straight Tagalog (complete with a curse phrase!) were actually quite well-done. </p><p>Once you meet all the characters, you can easily see the love-triangle form. If you predict with whom the girl will end up with, you&#x27;ll likely be right. Despite the simple plot, the film took a bit too long to tell its story at 109 minutes, with lengthy &quot;cute&quot; scenes in the snow and a one-dimensional villain (Lucy Baik) causing trouble. However, Bela&#x27;s chemistry with her two Korean leading men remains as the spark that kept this predictable rom-com afloat. </p><div><em>This review was originally published in the author&#x27;s blog, <a href="https://said-fred.blogspot.com/2022/12/amazon-prime-review-of-ultimate-oppa.html" target="_blank">&quot;Fred Said.&quot;</a></em></div>

Even though this film was practically 50% in the Filipino language (aside from Korean and English), it was produced, directed and written by Koreans.