This is probably the second Korean romance which I have seen. The first movie which I saw around 8 years ago was the brilliant My Sassy Girl. And today on a lazy Saturday was just browsing UTV World Movies, and caught this captivating romance, which came in the same year as My Sassy Girl.
Named as if it is one of the eternal love stories like Romeo & Juliet, Laila Majnu, Veer Zaara, it is hardly anything like that. Instead, it deals with many mature themes at multiple layers, which many people will find as a kind of a taboo or even repulsive. But it is shown with so much sensitivity and subtlety that you end up caring for the main characters.
Wanee is an animator, having a live-in relationship with Junah, who is trying to put his foothold in the movie industry as a writer on his own terms. Things get complicated when Wanee's old friend visits her, and unearths memories of her first love, who happened to be her stepbrother.
Making his debut as writer-director, Yong-gyun Kim creates a perfect poignant atmosphere, where in the beginning when you see the two young protagonists, who should be living happily with each other, but there looks something missing with them. When Wanee gets reminded of her past love, she gets so involved in her memories, that it becomes a love triangle, without being an actual one. The third person in the love triangle is not a person, but memories of Wanee's stepbrother. Many people would have considered falling in love with one's stepbrother as a taboo, but having already witnessed a similar story line in the 7th season of Showtime TV series – Dexter, I was very much open to it.
The performances are extraordinary, especially by Hee-seon Kim as Wanee shows great subtlety in her performance. It's a shame that she hasn't been in anything major since this movie. Though Jin-mo Ju was just fine as Junah, it was Seung-woo Cho as Yeong-min, Wanee's stepbrother who gave a very competent performance. I would love to watch a full movie which shows just their love story.
Overall, I would recommend it to anyone who would like to experience some of Asian cinema. Try to catch it on UTV World Movies sometime, watch it with an open mind and I am sure you'll love it. And after having a very good experience with two Korean movies, I am going to search for more in Korean cinema.
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