Lifeology is a 2017 film from Mongolia, directed by Batmunh Suhbataar.
It's a romantic comedy focusing on Setgel, a research scientist, and his wife Undarmaa, an anthropology teacher at a university. They're forty-ish and their marriage has gone stale; in fact, Undarmaa is demanding a divorce. However, the judge tells them that they must sit through a three-month waiting period before a divorce will be granted, so they are left in an uncomfortable existence at home, with Undarmaa sleeping on the bed while Setgel sleeps on a cot.
Things go from bad to worse when Setgel's research leads to him causing an explosion in the lab and losing his job at the university. Unemployed, he has to take a job at Undarmaa's university—as a security guard. Undarmaa, embarrassed, doesn't tell anybody that the new guard is her estranged husband. That makes things awkward when Chimegtoshio, the principal, starts falling for Setgel.
A subplot involves Gegenee, Setgel and Undarmaa's daughter and a student at Undarmaa's school, who gets knocked up by her boyfriend.
Tropes:
- Dance-Off: A very silly scene has Undarmaa and her date Bataa engaging in a dance-off with Setgel and Chimegtoshio at a club. Undarmaa and Bataa win, and Bataa (who hates Setgel for getting promoted over him at the university) takes inordinate pride in his dance trophy.
- Distant Finale: An epilogue skips forward an undetermined number of months to find the family having a celebratory New Year's dinner. Gegenee is bouncing a baby on her lap, Setgel and Huyagaa have gotten a $10 million payment from the USA for their research, and Undarmaa is pregnant.
- Glasses Pull: Undarmaa's mother, who has been urging her to proceed with the divorce from Setgel, takes off her glasses in surprise after Undarmaa reports that Setgel has gotten a promotion at work.
- Gratuitous Laboratory Flasks: Setgel's research lab is filled with bubbling flasks and beakers, centrifuges, and mysterious meters.
- I Have This Friend: Undarmaa winds up pretending at work that Setgel the new security guard is her friend's estranged husband. So when Chimegtoshio, who is besotted with Setgel, starts raving about him, Undarmaa winds up saying stuff like "He is a selfish ass—is what my friend said."
- Is This Thing Still On?: The MC at the talent show goes into the wings and gets roped into an argument where all sorts of embarrassing things are said, like how Gegenee has gotten knocked up, or how Chimegtoshio has the hots for Setgel but doesn't know that Undarmaa is actually his wife. Finally they figure out that the MC is transmitting their entire conversation over the loudspeakers. Chimegtoshio, a judge for the talent show, cringes.
- Match Cut: From Setgel cutting Chimegtoshio's steak while they're out on a date, to a frustrated Undarmaa cleaning a pair of shoes at home.
- Meet Cute: How Setgel and Undarmaa met, in a flashback. Undarmaa, who dressed a lot more sexily in her youth, was enjoying watching two handsome young men fight over her. Setgel, as it turns out, was the bookish, bespectacled friend to the two young men, who tried to interrupt their fight.
- Morning Sickness: Gegenee complains of nausea while she's working her job as cashier at a KFC. When a coworker cheerfully observes that she might be pregnant, Gegenee looks horror-struck. It turns out that she is.
- Naughty by Night: Chimegtoshio, the principal of the school, who by day is a no-nonsense administrator, and by night is given to going out in tight, cleavage-baring cocktail dresses and getting hammered.
- Obliquely Obfuscated Occupation: Setgel is a scientist researching...something...and apparently trying to make...something. This is lampshaded when he and Chimegtoshio are out on a date. She asks just what he's a scientist of, and he says "What a great question! Let's drink to that!"
- Oblivious to Love: Chimegtoshio only has eyes for Setgel and is completely oblivious to Dorj, another teacher at the school and her sidekick, being head-over-heels in love with her.
- One Head Taller: Chimegtoshio is tall and busty while Setgel is rather short. When Undarmaa, desperate to undermine this budding romance, points out how much shorter he is, Chimegtoshio says that's ok, his head is in just the right spot for her breasts.
- Right Through the Wall: Deliberately invoked by Gegenee's parents. They are monitoring her social media, and Undarmaa sees her on a Facebook page for children of divorce talking about how she thinks her parents are breaking up. Another person on the page says that if they're still having sex they probably aren't getting divorced. So to allay Gegenee's correct suspicions about their failing marriage, Undarmaa and Setgel pretend to have sex, manually shaking the bed while she pretends to moan.
- Speak in Unison: Setgel and Undarmaa are going out on their separate dates, with Chimegtoshio and Bataa the science teacher, respectively. Gegenee, who still doesn't know about the impending divorce, says "Where are you going?". The parents say "I am going out" in unison, then have to cover for their mistake.
- Talent Show: The student body gives a talent show which is mostly an excuse for the suspiciously talented students to sing and dance, but does also provide an Is This Thing Still On? moment in which Setgel's and Undarmaa's marriage is revealed to the audience.
- Technicolor Science: Whatever sort of research Setgel and his assistant do in that lab, it involves a lot of liquids that are all colored.
- Title Drop: Setgel has pulled Undarmaa right out of her class in the middle of a lecture for a romantic reunion. A giddy Undarmaa finally makes it back to her classroom, where she tells the students that they should learn "not anthropology, but lifeology."
