We'€™ve all heard the story somewhere before. A young debt-ridden woman marries a rich old man on his deathbed for money and finds herself knee-deep in trouble after becoming a widow in the course of the next few days. The usual suspect.

The modern day Cinderella story '€” a phrase repeatedly said in the South Korean movie '€” is not the only reference that comes to mind while watching.

Adrian Lyne'€™s Indecent Proposal (1993) and Ted Kotcheff'€™s Weekend at Bernie'€™s (1989) begged its audience for repeated viewings.

With the story based on the novel La Femme de Paille (Woman of Straw) by Catherine Arley, Perfect Proposal is the Korean version of the 1964 British film starring Sean Connery and Gina Lollobrigida.

There are some twists and turns that give the film an Asian feel and more modern relevance.

Written and directed by Yoon Jae-gu (7 Days, Secret), the film is steered away from merely being about a murder in a yacht.

Ji-yeon (Lim Soo-jung) is a tour-guide in her thirties who pulls all-nighters working in a bar to pay off her debts in Macau.

While struggling to keep her head above the water, a proposal comes from Sung-yeol (Yoo Yeon-seok) to babysit his boss.

CEO Kim Seok-gu (Lee Geung-young), head of a giant casino group in Macau who resides in a luxurious yacht, is confined to a wheelchair and has prepared a will to donate his wealth to charity.

Sung-yeol suggests that Ji-yeon seduce the old man, marry him, inherit the fortune and give half to Sung-yeol.

As predicted. Ji-yeon jumps on board and takes her chance in the convoluted scheme, although the CEO is perhaps the vilest bully ever on screen.

Sung-yeol helped by a makeover, becomes a classy member of the yacht crew, a life that is a better alternative than playing hide-and-seek with the debt collectors.

There is romance in the air on the early part of the film, with the anxious but tough Ji-yeon trying to get more than just respect from Seok-gu, and at the same time, be more than just a '€œbusiness'€ partner to Sung-yeol.

There are some kissing scenes in the film, but romance falls by the wayside as the main focus of the plot becomes the mystery surrounding the death of Seok-gu and how Ji-yeon deals with making the headlines as a tycoon'€™s Cinderella wife and a murder suspect on the next day.

The film is not for anyone, including fans of mystery novels who can easily guess the who and how of the story. But what makes the story ingenious is the way it laces the grim subject matter with romance '€” something that can be attributed to the original novel'€™s author.

Perfect Proposal is Lim So-jung'€™s first big screen project after winning Best Actress at the Blue Dragon Film Awards in 2012 for her role in All About My Wife.

Yoo Yeon-seok is a rising heartthrob that in this year alone has signed contracts for four films.

Perfect Proposal does not offer something new in the mystery film genre, but as the director said, it'€™s two movies in one: one-part classic romance, another one is crime thriller.

Perfect Proposal is entertaining, not too obvious or mushy, a perfect choice for a weekend movie outing with the gang.

'€” Photos courtesy of Soo Film, Bidangil pictures

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