Innocent Steps movie poster

This movie starts off with the Korea National Samba Dance Competition where Na Young-sae, touted as Korea's best dance trainer, competes against, among other couples, his arch rival. Due to underhand tactics, he injured his leg and was laid off from competitive dancing for a long time.

Moreover, the loss of his partner to his rival put him in a depressed mood and he had no intention of dancing again, until his coach imported a Chinese girl, a dance champion in her homeland, to pair up for the upcoming Korea National Dance Competition.

Another Innocent Steps movie poster

Enters Jang Chae-rin, the younger sister of the Chinese dance Champion who did not turn up due to disapproval from her fiance.

Unwittingly, Young-sae is forced to marry Chae-rin, to grant her legal status in Korea and to complicate matters, Chae-rin is no champion dancer. Despite her shortcomings, she begged Young-sae to train her and she is determined not to return to China until she has participated, and hopefully won the dance championship, in three months' time.

Teacher and protégé

Young-sae, lives up to his reputation as Korea's best dance trainer where he has the knack of incorporating various dance moves into Samba, and coaches Chae-rin from scratch.

More coaching

Once again, Young-sae's arch rival attempts to steal Chae-rin. Is he successful?

Almost there

Although I personally love all dance movies, having watched multiple reruns of movies like Grease, Saturday Night Fever, Dirty Dancing, Fame, Staying Alive, just to name a handful, I feel that Innocent Steps lacks the intensity required for dancing with the heart and soul. The passion for dance was not strong enough but there was chemistry between Moon Geun Young and Park Keon-hyeong *yay*, despite their lack of dance screen time.

Chae-rin dreams of dancing like a pro

Also, it lacks a catchy dance theme song. It used the song "Tic Tic Tac" in the beginning and ending of the movie in both annual National Samba Dance Competitions. Isn't it weird to use the same song in the competition two years in a row?

While the song is very danceable, and it has stuck in my head since watching the movie, it is not original. As with the other dance movies that I watched many times over, although I have forgotten their story lines, their soundtracks have stayed with me after all these years.

Blooming love

Overall, a very nice movie if you like dance movies. It has a typical plot of a love relationship between teacher and protégé too, but who doesn't like a little romance now and then? I'm also glad that this is one of the very rare Korean movies without gore and tragedy.