Very Ordinary Couple 2013

Lee Dong-hee and Jang Young are two young bank clerks at a local Standard Chartered branch who have just ended their relationship in a way that turns into a workplace scandal. Their split unleashes a period of irrational behavior, including tense confrontations and Young’s impulsive one-night stand with a mutual colleague. After this storm, they decide to give their romance another try, and for a while they fall back into a state of being madly in love.

The true arc of the film unfolds as they start dating again, stepping into a fragile second honeymoon that is shadowed by shared doubts and fears. As the glow fades, the same issues threaten to pull them apart: boredom, trust issues, and mutual dishonesty about what they truly want. Dong-hee, hot-tempered and quick to flare, seems to be in need of some anger management, while Young attempts to dodge conflicts by telling small lies—unaware that even harmless-seeming deception can erode trust over time.

Above all, their mutual breakup experience lingers, leaving them insecure about the viability of their relationship. This insecurity blossoms into a suffocating pressure: Dong-hee goes to great lengths to pretend he’s genuinely interested in Young’s ideas, just to keep the relationship afloat, even if it means choosing sleep over an amusement park on his day off. Young, meanwhile, grows extremely self-conscious about every word she says, fearing she’ll say something that will upset him—just as she did before the first split.

There is a quiet sadness that fills the frame as the couple clings to a hopeful facade, insisting that nothing is wrong and that things will eventually work out. > “I will be good to her,” Dong-hee repeatedly says in the film. > “I’ll try harder to make this work.”

Yet the tension remains under the surface, and the audience can sense the toll of keeping up appearances while growing more distant from one another. The film builds toward a piercing realization: despite their genuine affection and best efforts, the same fundamental patterns have sabotaged them again. The two flawed souls confront the truth that some forces are too powerful to control, and that denying them may only push love toward an inevitable, heartbreaking goodbye.