💔🎬 Todo Sobre Mi Esposa (2012) — When Divorce Becomes a Romantic Mission
What if the only way to leave your wife… is to make her fall in love with someone else? That’s the outrageous premise of Todo Sobre Mi Esposa (내 아내의 모든 것 / All About My Wife), a critically acclaimed South Korean romantic comedy that blends humor, heartache, and unexpected romance with sharp writing and unforgettable performances.
Released in 2012, the film stars Im Soo-jung, Lee Sun-kyun, and Ryu Seung-ryong, and quickly became a box office hit in Korea thanks to its refreshing twist on relationship dramas.
📝 Plot Summary
Lee Doo-hyun (played by Lee Sun-kyun) is an ordinary man with an extraordinary problem: he's married to Yeon-jung-in (played by Im Soo-jung), a passionate, fiery, and opinionated woman who seems to complain about everything — food, neighbors, the news, life itself. After years of quietly enduring the emotional chaos of their relationship, Doo-hyun decides he wants a divorce… but he’s too timid to ask for one directly.
Instead, he comes up with a crazy plan: hire a notorious womanizer — the legendary seducer Jang Sung-ki (Ryu Seung-ryong) — to make his wife fall in love and leave him first.
But nothing goes as planned.
As Sung-ki begins his “mission” to woo Jung-in, he unexpectedly discovers that beneath her tough exterior is a woman full of passion, dreams, and vulnerability. Meanwhile, Doo-hyun begins to realize what he’s losing — and that perhaps, it wasn’t her that needed changing all along.
🎭 Performances & Tone
Im Soo-jung delivers a powerhouse performance as Jung-in, portraying a woman who’s both hilarious and heartbreaking — chaotic, yes, but also deeply real. Her energy carries the film, making audiences love her even when her husband can’t.
Lee Sun-kyun plays the quiet, frustrated everyman with subtlety, while Ryu Seung-ryong steals scenes with his eccentric, over-the-top charm. Their unlikely triangle isn’t just funny — it’s tender, absurd, and surprisingly moving.
🎥 Style & Direction
Directed by Min Kyu-dong, the film plays with genre conventions: part romantic comedy, part character study. It avoids typical tropes and focuses instead on emotional honesty, even when the setup is absurd. Through clever editing, a vibrant soundtrack, and heartfelt monologues, it explores the complexity of long-term relationships, the loneliness of marriage, and the hope that sometimes still lingers underneath exhaustion.
❤️ Themes
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Communication: The film highlights how miscommunication, or the lack of it, can erode even the deepest love.
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Identity in Marriage: Jung-in’s fiery personality is a defense mechanism, not her whole story — the film asks what happens when someone gives too much of themselves to a relationship.
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Regret and Rediscovery: Can love be rediscovered when it’s almost gone?
🏆 Reception & Legacy
Upon release, Todo Sobre Mi Esposa became a commercial success in South Korea, praised for its fresh approach to marital comedy and its strong performances. It remains one of the more unconventional romantic films of the 2010s, often cited for its witty script and its deeper emotional layers hiding beneath the comedy.
In fact, the story was compelling enough that it inspired international remakes, including the Argentine film Un novio para mi mujer, on which it was originally based.
✨ Final Thoughts
Todo Sobre Mi Esposa is much more than a comedy about divorce — it's a film about the messy beauty of love, how hard it is to live with someone, and how much harder it is to truly see them. With a perfect balance of absurdity and sincerity, it reminds us that sometimes, the greatest love stories begin right at the edge of goodbye.
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