Lucky Romance

The nutty eccentric Shim Bo Nui is blindly superstitious, spending all of her time, money, and energy on getting fortunes read, observing elaborate rites and hanging all sorts of bad-luck-warding objects in her home (from charms to chicken heads). This is why she arranges her whole life around what’s lucky. One day, she receives a dire prediction from a psychic saying that death is in her fortune within the year unless she manages to right the bad luck she’s accumulated (in a prior life as a thieving raccoon who would steal a tiger’s hard-caught food, making it starve). The way to do it is to have a one-night stand with a (preferably virgin) man born in the year of the tiger (or 1986) before the month is over. Afterwards, fixated on improving her luck., Bo Nui seeks out someone that matches those criteria. Je Su Ho is a stiff, Scroogey 29-year-old with a sense of frugality that borders on the epic. He lives his life to make and save money. He has never dated because it’s a waste of funds. He rifles through trash for recyclables, eats old leftovers, cuts his own hair, and argues for discounts like the orneriest ajumma on a bargain hunt. He is hilarious and maybe even a little unlikable, and he sees Bo Nui as absurd and perplexing — and also a money sink, because she’s four months behind on rent and he’s just taken ownership of her apartment building. He evicts her, she tries to seduce him, comic mishaps ensue, and along the way they gradually start understanding each other and fall in love.