Hwaiteu ballenta-in

White Valentine

Starring: Park Shin-yang, Jun Ji-hyun Directed by: Yang Yun-ho

Korean cinema has taken off over the past few years and has begun to reach untraditional audiences, a category in which I'd include myself. There have been some movies with very good scripts and imaginative direction, such as One Fine Spring Day, Failan and My Sassy Girl.

White Valentine, meanwhile, is the debut film of Jun Ji-hyun, who has since gone on to star in My Sassy Girl, which became as massive Asian hit. In White Valentine, she plays a girl in a remote town helps run a bookstore with her grandfather. A high-school dropout, she has a talent in drawing and has ambitions to become an artist, much to the dismay of her grandfather. Meanwhile, a young bird-store owner (Park Shin-yang) moves into the town. Heartbroken and love-lost, he longs to see his girlfriend once more, and sends messages to her via a dove. The dove, however, arrives at Ji-hyun's window. And so she writes back and returns messages via the dove.

White Valentine is a traditional love story, and whilst it's not extravagant, its beauty is in part down to its simplicity. There are some beautifully constructed scenes, with gorgeous camerawork and direction. And the two central actors do bring the brightness out of the plot.

White Valentine isn't outstanding, but it is a gorgeous story. One I recommend to see.

(I won't say any spoilers here, so you can read it freely)

White Valentine is a really traditional love story. Not only this, it's also a somewhat confusing movie. I don't know if it was because of the subs, but it got confusing in some parts.

This movie isn't very great since it really didn't have any climax. It's one of those movies you watch and when it ends, it makes you think "What? It's over already?". Yeah, and it has some unnecessary scenes, which makes its pace really slow...

It's strange because it doesn't really have a "main" story. I mean, there's a lot of short stories (by story, I mean the character's personal problems) gathered altogether, which really doesn't matter in the movie. This is why it's confusing, because it gets like this: The movie shows you about a little particular problem that one of the two main characters is having. And, even though it gets resolved, in the end this really didn't matter in the movie's main story!! These little problems are just there to confuse you!

And here's the most strange part: the movie's main story is actually all these "little personal problems" gathered together.

Well, but overall it's a good movie, thanks to the good acting of the main characters.

"Ok, so should I watch it or not?" I'd say, watch it only if you're a Jeon Ji Hyun fan, or if you're really a fan of traditional love stories. Even though I like both JJH and traditional love stories, it didn't really satisfy me. I'd still recommend Il Mare over this one. (for people who likes just love stories)

If you're going to watch this movie, the tip is: pay a lot of attention in the plot and the subs (or dubs, if it's your case).

White Valentine is strongly "cultural based storytelling" instead of canned and stale boy-girl meet/part/reconcile structure storytelling.

Many Americans only think of a romance or love story as having one format, one way of progressing, while the rest of the world might be very familiar with the "American" format, Americans tend to miss the nuances of other cultures.

In this case the lack of money-- not poverty, just a lack of money, the cross generational bonding and emotional ties, the way the characters need to balance their family ties with cultural norms as they try to move toward goals that they personally choose, this set of culture based guidelines makes the story more difficult to understand, and, on top of the simple cultural difference, the story is a story that is less romance that the personal journey story for the two leads as each heads toward their personal destination.

The question of what happens to "the two" is less important to the movie than the question of what happens "to each" of the characters. Not for everyone, be it in Korea, China, Japan, or the USA, this is a story of two personal tales, two personal stories, each bouncing off the other, each providing the other story the dynamic to stay in motion.

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