Kwak Jae-Yong's newest romantic-comedy, "Meet Miss Anxiety," has smashed the box office with more than 90 million yuan ($14.54 million) in earnings in three days since its big screen debut on Dec. 12.
The film's successful beginning was largely because of its female audience and their attraction to "nuannan," which literally means "warm man" in Chinese. The "nuannan" lead role was played by Chinese actor and singer Tong Dawei. According to Women of China, more than 70 percent of the movie's audience were women.
The cast in "Meet Miss Anxiety" also includes Zhou Xun, Zhang Zilin and Wallace Chung.
The movie starts with its main character Qi Jia, a 26-year-old woman facing many challenges in life. Aside from having an unfortunate love life, Qi Jia is also experiencing signs of menopause. This condition normally happens to women in their late 40's or early 50's, and has symptoms like dizziness, anxiety and unstable menstrual cycles. All of these issues have caused Qi Jia to become short-tempered, affecting both her work and personal life--hence, the movie's title.
As Qi Jia goes through this misery, Yuan Xiao'ou (played by Tong Dawei) has never left her side. Xiao'ou has loved her ever since he saw her. He also does not mind being Qi Jia's shock absorber, enduring her temper without any complaint.
"Meet Miss Anxiety" has a similar theme to Kwak's other films about women, such as "My Sassy Girl" in 2001, "Windstruck" in 2004 and "Cyborg She" in 2008.
According to KoBiz, Kwak described Zhou Xun as a "jaunty girl" with an "extraordinarily comical character." He added that, at first sight, he had a hunch that the award-winning Chinese actress would be fit to be the heroine in his new romantic-comedy film.