User Reviews

Jenny, Juno is a Corean romantic comedy released in 2005 that deals with teen pregnancy. Despite the rather serious subject matter, the film actually manages to keep a very lighthearted, primarily romantic, tone, which led to the ratings board to initially slap it with a 18+ rating, despite its otherwise innocent nature, with the argument that the film trivializes teen pregnancy and makes it seem rather easy. Eventually, the film ended up with a 15+ rating.

The story opens with Jenny (Park Minji), a high-achieving middle- schooler, discovering that she's knocked up and quickly informing Juno (Kim Hyesun), her middle-school boyfriend. There is brief ensuing drama, very similar to Apatow's Knocked Up, where the two decide to keep the baby and raise it together. From there it's a matter of keeping the pregnancy thing secret from parents and further building their relationship.

Something that immediately impressed me about Jenny, Juno, was how it was able to keep dramatic urgency, despite the fact that the conflict remains rather light throughout the first half of the film. Instead, we primarily see Jenny and Juno continuing their very sweet relationship and working to both help Jenny be a healthy mother and Juno be a responsible father. The trick to retaining drama, it turns out, is the unspoken threat of parental action should the parents find out about the baby. (And it should be no spoiler to note that they eventually do.) Overall, the story kind of reminds me of female-centric comic books popular in both Corea and Japan, as the story progression, action, scenes from flashbacks, have a very Asian comic book feel and some of the comedy draws from that sort of visualization. I also liked how it retained a light hearted cheerfulness throughout. When things are supposed to get serious, they do, but unfortunately, the drama is more than a little hamstrung, because of the film's continuing push to keep its very optimistic outlook intact. Ultimately, though, the end problem with the story lies in that we don't actually get to see any development in either Jenny and Juno or the people around them (and it should be the parents that we see the most development in as Jenny and Juno both seem like a pair of "magical" characters, who affect those around them). Also, the film really is rather unrealistic throughout, with little drama in the high school and setting up a rather pregnancy friendly situation for Jenny by giving her a wealthy family.

The film is modern and composed adequately. I was very impressed by the two young actors, both young teenagers themselves, although the roles weren't all that challenging. The supporting cast was well done too, although their characters were also more archetypal than complex. The music is understated with the exception of the theme song to the movie, which is rather catchy, but gets a little overplayed throughout.

Honestly, I have to say that I found this film rather refreshing, despite its rather notable problems, in both that it somehow manages to stay sunny throughout the first half and still retain its drama, as well as enjoying the romance between the two kids. That doesn't absolve the film of its problems with being so light-hearted that it floats away from dramatic grounding or its too-good-to-be-true atmosphere. And yet, somehow I found myself enjoying the film regardless. It's not great and is only arguably decent, but I liked it. It was cute. 7/10.

I didn’t like this Movie on many accounts. First, the overall message was astonishing to me. I understand it is suppose to be a light-hearted comedy but in my book, underage pregnancy is not a topic that should ever be construed as so. Second, I imagined myself viewing this movie as if I were a teenager again. This is the message that I would have token away as a teenager, boy gets girl pregnant, boy and girl are both from well to do families, miraculously through the magic of cinema, the baby has no complications at birth, nor does the pregnant mother ever put on any weight, and overall, parents will “understand” and eventually will live happily ever after. Now this to me, is a horrible message as it doesn’t lead anywhere.

Even at the very end where I expected some sort of realization that this teenage mother in a café surround by mature women discussing their baby woes, may shed some sort of light but this then gets turned into (through the magic of cinema) another scene where somehow, the whole family appears, the Entire school supports the underage pregnancy, marriage, etc. of these two teens, and that somehow everything will turn out alright

To me, this film sends the wrong message for any age viewer under 21. I say this because most, maybe not all, under this age, have a limited or lack a concrete understanding of how horrible teenage pregnancy can be...the alarming statistics of these un-wed, sometimes, improperly cared for babies who, even if they do make it, usually have far tougher stats if the teenage parents do decide to stay with the baby all the way through adulthood, and for the majority, do not end up in fairytale endings.

Anyhow, to conclude, when I was a teenager, I consider myself at least a bit more responsible and conjured up the courage to contact a place called Planned Parenthood before "doing the deed" and getting information before making such a half-hearted life changing decision.

I’m glad I never saw such a Movie growing up, and if you have the choice to, would suggest giving this Movie a watch before recommending/endorsing/etc. etc. to someone you care about.

As a Korean-American, I was surprised that this movie did so good at the Box Office. Movies there rarely deal with teenagers and sex. However, this movie deals with teenage pregnancy and shows teenagers in a responsible light.

The story seems a little unbelievable. How the young teenage girl Jeni dealt with the pregnancy is unbelievable. How did she deal with the morning sicknesses and the pressure of having to attend school and hide her pregnancy for nearly 5 months? She curiously stares at her stretch marks while full-grown woman are sometimes horrified by their appearance. And how did a couple of 15 year old manage to hide the pregnancy without anyone noticing anything unusual for such a long time? But yet, Jeni and Juno's efforts to keep the baby and their relationship from falling apart is so sweet and innocent. This movie respects teenagers and their seriousness about things like love, while many movies portray teenage love as a fickle puppy love. Their little "wedding" at the end is sweet too.

I was kind of disappointed at the ending because it seemed so unreal- Their parents take care of the baby while they go to school? It wasn't believable at all. But keep in mind that while this movie tries to speak to teen about dealing maturely with sex, it's also a funny comedy piece at the same time.

OK before i say anything what age are they? 15 or 13? anyway i believe what all of you guys are saying is true but in the end wen the parents are helping out the kids wit their baby is believable even if a little. its not totally impossible and be sides before that the parents had punished their kids. Also what else can they do but help out their kids. its not like they can reverse what happened. and i don't think abortion will be a choice too. since the kids would never let that happen. or just killing the baby after its born. both of those are murder. all in all the movie was great. i could watch it a thousand times and never get tired of it.

Sometimes kids make mistakes but it's not the crime and it should be understand by the parents. The movie does not shows the reality at all because in real life the baby got k*lled for sure by the parents of those kids but the movie gives the good message that "it's not the last option at all and the ending could be happy." The Juno's parents are no doubt very funny. I laugh so hard in many scenes. Jenny sometimes behaves like Adult kid and it shows how beautiful actor she is. She portrays her role with full of motherhood for the baby. Overall it's a pretty good and cute movie and if you like watch some school romance then this one is damn good to watch.