인포미선 (A Dance Musical)

 Korea is a country that celebrates and encourages the arts. After I came to Korea, I have had much more opportunities to watch art performances as compared to Malaysia, such as - opera singing, dances, piano performance, paint exhibition etc. There is a famous university nearby (Kyungsung University) that specializes in the arts (singing, dance, musical instruments) so sometimes my friends who study in that university will invite me to go watch their performances. Many of the performers in Busan graduate from that university.

On Monday, my labmate Jae Ho gave me tickets to watch his girlfriend perform in a comedy ballet at Haeundae Cultural Hall. His gf was the 2nd main dancer in the musical. The title of the musical was "인포미선" ... or short for '인생을 포기 한 미선' （抛弃人生的女孩）. In English it means "Mee-son who gave up on life". The story centers around a 34-year old lady named Mee-Son whose life is temporarily "on-hold". She has no job at the moment and lazes on the couch at home all day, occasionally getting up to eat some ramen, ice-cream, or getting into a job-finding frenzy on the Internet and day-dreaming about various possible outcomes such as being a successful career woman, ballet dancer, or crazy office worker. The comedy ballet is actually not only ballet but is a mix of other genres such as jazz, contemporary, swing etc.

Because the story is all about Mee-son, all the focus is on the main dancer to make the ballet a success. Although her dance movements were good, I felt that her facial expressions and character were not attractive nor cute/pleasant enough to captivate the audience and draw the audience along. The only salvaging point was the few eye-candies (cute guy dancers!) that appeared at some stages as Mee-son's probable love-interests! And the guy and girl pair who played the "fantasy ballet dancers" were really good. My friend's gf too was hot and sexy in her portrayal of the jazz-dancing-successful-career-woman-in-a-tight-suit-bundled-up-hair-and-dark-rimmed-specs. At the end of it all, Mee-son found her true love (quite comically) and had a bunch of kids. Maybe that's the true meaning of life to most women. :-)