Kang Tae-soo (Jae-hong Ahn) has been working as a temp at JH Law and Associates for the past 8 months, doing errands and grunt work for one of the firm’s spoiled rich clients. Meanwhile, his law school classmate Song has already made partner. Tae-soo is constantly trying to impress and prove his loyalty to his boss, but his efforts usually go unrecognized. That is until President Hwang (Park Hyuk-kwon) gives him a special assignment. One of the law firm’s clients, a UK private equity firm, recently acquired a Korean zoo that defaulted on its loan. Mr. Hwang makes Tae-soo the new zoo director, telling him that he has three months to turn the business around and make it profitable. If Tae-soo succeeds, he will be rewarded with his dream job as a lawyer in the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions department. However, Tae-soo doesn’t know anything about running a zoo.

When Tae-soo arrives at Dongsan Park Zoo, he meets the four remaining zoo staff members, who think he’s there to fire them as well. Former zoo director Seo (Park Yeong-gyu) feels so guilty and ashamed for running the business into the ground, and repeatedly calls himself out, saying that he deserves to lose his job. However, Tae-soo is going to need his experience if he has any hopes of succeeding. The zoo’s veterinarian, Dr. Han So-won, chose her career path after visiting Dongsan Park Zoo as a child and falling in love with polar bear Black Nose. The bear is still at the park, though his mental heath is failing. Kim Gun-wook is in charge of feeding the animals, but he also has obvious feelings for co-worker Kim Hae-kyung (Jeon Yeo-been). However, Hae-kyung has a boyfriend, Sungmin (Jang Seung-jo), whom she loaned her life savings to so he could buy a convenience store adjacent to the zoo. When Hae-kyung is not distracted texting her boyfriend while working at the zoo, she helps him out at the store.

Upon talking to his new staff, Tae-soo discovers that when the zoo defaulted on its loan, all of the interesting animals were sold off, leaving just a handful of sub-par creatures—a meerkat, a raccoon, an ostrich, a parrot, and Black Nose the polar bear. If the zoo has any hope of turning things around, they are going to need some animals, and fast. However, that is easier said than done, and going through the proper channels to get their animals back will take at least 6 months. So Tae-soo thinks outside the cage and comes up with an unorthodox solution. He hires a costume maker to come up with some realistic looking animal costumes, insisting that guests would never suspect that a zoo wouldn’t have real animals, and as long as they kept the guests far enough away, they wouldn’t be able to tell. The staff reluctantly agree to go along with this unusual idea as they really have no other option—they all love their jobs at the zoo and want to see it succeed. After some quick animal movement practice and training, it’s time for them to test out their new roles—Dr. Han as a lion, Director Seo as a polar bear, Gun-wook as a gorilla, and Hae-kyung as a giant sloth—in front of an audience. To their surprise, the plan actually seems to be working, and people are slowly coming back to the zoo. However, when a guest video of the polar bear drinking a bottle of Coke goes viral, attendance suddenly booms, with everyone wanting to see the cola-drinking polar bear. With all the new attention it’s not going to be easy to stay under the radar and keep the ruse going.

Secret Zoo is part drama, part rom-com, and part laugh-out-loud comedy, but 100% delightful. From the moment the fake animals arrive at the zoo, I was constantly grinning from ear-to-ear. There is so much great physical humor as the zoo staff try to pretend to be animals. Hae-kyung is used to quickly typing away at her phone, but now she must be slow and hardly move at all if she’s going to pull off being a giant sloth. Dr. Han is the most reluctant of the group, but knows that there is nowhere for Black Nose to go if the zoo shuts down—no other zoo wants a polar bear with depression. While her lion suit is believable from the front, the back of the costume is less so, and so she is constantly trying to maneuver so visitors only get a look at her from head-on. Gun-wook is the one who embraces his animal’s persona the best, really getting the mannerisms of the gorilla down. But he also lets his jealously and anger towards Sungmin get to him, and allows his angry ape loose. Director Seo is the easiest to convince to go along with the plan since he solely blames himself for the zoo’s current predicament. However, walking on all fours as the polar bear is taxing on his older body. As surprise visitors and situations pop up at the zoo, the staff are constantly having to think quickly on their paws to keep up their ruse, and this leads to some very memorable and hilarious scenes.

In addition to the humor, Secret Zoo also has some nice romance and drama mixed in. There’s this great love triangle—Gun-wook doesn’t like the way that Sungmin treats Hae-kyung, and believes she deserves someone better, like him. You really root for Hae-kyung to come to her senses and go for the co-worker who’s been secretly pining away for her over the years (kind of like a Jim and Pam situation from The Office). There’s also a bit of this love/hate relationship between Tae-soo and Dr. Han—while he claims to want to help the zoo, she’s skeptical about his motives and keeps him at arm’s length. But we see Tae-soo develop and change over the course of the film—he starts off as this purely business guy who ignores Song’s offers to hang out with their classmates, saying that he doesn’t need friends. Tae-soo would do anything to impress his boss, no matter what the cost, in order to get his dream job. However, his time at the zoo changes him, making him see another side to life. The staff at the zoo are like a family, who would do anything for one another, and they welcome Tae-soo into their group.

Secret Zoo is being released on DVD and Digital in the US, so those wanting to watch in HD will need to go the Digital route. However, the DVD picture quality is, for the most part, quite excellent. There were only two brief, dark scenes where the picture became quite pixelized and had a bit of black crush, but otherwise the video looked quite clean, clear and detailed, and significantly better than many of the other DVD releases I’ve recently reviewed. The disc offers both the original Korean language soundtrack as well as an English dub. I opted for the English dub, which was the default. The voice acting on the dub was performed well and sounded quite natural, though some of the dialogue differs from what appears in the subtitles. Both audio tracks provide a generally immersive viewing experience, utilizing the surround channel to bring the ambiance of the zoo (even a somewhat empty one) to life, while also providing clear dialogue and showcasing the film’s uplifting and upbeat score. The DVD disc comes packed in a clear eco-friendly DVD keepcase without a slipcover. No digital copy is included, and unfortunately the only bonus material on the disc is a few film trailers. This looked like it would have been a really fun film to make—I wish there had been some behind-the-scenes material.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:57:57)

DVD:
• 480i / Anamorphic Widescreen 2.38:1
• Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Korean Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, English

Extras:

• Trailer (2:11)
• Also Available (3:11)
  Play All, or select from trailers for:
  • Ashfall (1:34)
  • The Man Standing Next (1:37)

Final Thoughts:

Secret Zoo is a delightful feel-good comedy-drama that had me laughing out loud quite a bit. The film feels both fresh and creative, but also includes a lot of familiar ideas and turns. The main characters are all so likeable and innocent that you find yourself really rooting for this oddball squad to succeed in their crazy ruse. This film is recommended for anyone looking for something a little different for a fun time and some great laughs. The DVD for looks and sounds quite good—the first DVD release in a while that didn’t have me constantly wishing there had been a Blu-ray release instead (though I’ll likely also pick this up on HD digital once that is released). Unfortunately the DVD doesn’t contain any bonus material.