The Plan Man Review – Learning to Embrace Spontaneity

The Plan Man is a Korean romantic comedy movie about a man with OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) who confesses his feelings for a woman who also has OCD. You might think that would be the perfect couple because they would understand the other's need for cleanliness and order very well. But, that wasn't the case! She rejected him for being similar to her, because she hates being that way and was in the middle of receiving treatment for it.

She twisted that knife in his heart further by telling him he should see a therapist too. I don't know about you, but I'd be pissed off if the person I asked out told me to go to a therapist instead. Yet, that scene was funny. I'd be lying if I said I didn't laugh. The Plan Man IS a comedy after all.

While seeking treatment, he encounters a messy musician who helps push him out of his comfort zone into all sorts of situations he always carefully avoided. Naturally, this opens the door for endless funny moments as he views most people and things as dirty.

Han Jung Seok, the role of the male librarian, was played by Jung Jae Young who was also in the movies Someone Special and The Fatal Encounter. The part of the messy musician (Yoo So Jung) went to the beautiful actress Han Ji Min who was also the lead female in the popular Korean dramas Rooftop Prince and Hyde, Jekyll, Me.

The songs that Sojung wrote were all very catchy and fun to listen to. I think the movie could also fall under the music genre because of how often they played songs. She even convinced him to start a band with her. It would have been nice if the male lead wrote a song of his own as well. I'm curious how his lyrics would have compared to hers. His IQ is over 200 and he learned the piano very easily, so it couldn't be TOO difficult for him to write a song of his own.

The best part about The Plan Man is how much it makes you laugh. Jungseok isn't anything like my type of man, but his antics throughout the movie made me laugh so much. For example, every time someone he deemed as dirty (which was basically everyone) hugged him, he would have a nervous breakdown and flee to the dry cleaners to have his clothes cleaned immediately.

Actually, sexy isn't really a word I would use to describe Jungseok. But, one of the reasons why I was excited to watch this movie was because the man was the librarian, whereas the female lead was the rocker. I liked seeing the reversal as it would be more common to see the girl as the librarian and the man as the confident rock musician.

My biggest complaint about The Plan Man is the one kiss scene in the movie was a disappointment to me. This is probably based on my personal preference as I prefer men who are confident and assertive. The male lead stuttered sometimes and was awkward, which is part of his character. From the beginning, I wasn't expecting a steamy kiss scene due to his personality, but his reaction to it was overboard in my opinion. It was probably done for comedy's sake and it was somewhat funny. Yet, I was hoping for a good kiss. [SPOILER] If you're curious about what his reaction was, he fainted from the kiss. A grown man fanting from a kiss just doesn't appeal to me.

Another aspect about The Plan Man that I didn't like was the unprofessional therapist, but it's more of a like/dislike situation. She made me laugh about half the time. The other half of the time, I felt agitated with how unprofessional she was. In the beginning, I thought she was condescending toward the male lead. Fortunately, by the middle of the movie, she stopped being so condescending. The movie IS a comedy, so I know it shouldn't bother me too much how the therapist acted. Most people probably won't have a problem with it.

Overall, The Plan Man is a good romantic comedy that depicted obsessive-compulsive disorder in a humorous way with gender role reversals. Some will probably be offended by a mental disorder being turned into a comedy, but in my opinion they didn't go too far with it. Toward the end of the movie, they took a serious route to explain why he developed OCD in the first place and allowed him to overcome the problems without entirely changing his personality. He turned out to be much happier with himself in the end.