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Wow. It's almost as if it wasn't Korean at all. There were maybe 2 overdone moments in whole 2 hours of the Director's cut. And of course, I knew that I'm going to bawl as soon as I heard Time After Time in the beginning.
Well, yeah, I cried on and off throughout the movie but it was... actually soothing, not horribly painful as it gets sometimes. The movie itself is a mix of magic, inspiration and nostalgia. I didn't grow up in Korea nor, of course, did I attend a middle school in Seoul (I even missed all the action in my own school, as it turned out years later). But the feeling of nostalgia, of hesitant wonder upon seeing places you only remember as parts of your childhood is very familiar to me.
Another thing this movie does well is portrayal of death of close people. There is no realism in portraying the sick, but the uncertainty of the healthy when dealing with sick people, attempts to avoid the contact or pretend that everything is fine... Times when you momentarily able to forget, to pretend that everything IS fine and times when you're cruelly reminded that it is not.
Some would say that this portrayal is too light-hearted. I say that it's shown how we all wish it will go: not grieving endlessly about the loss but celebrating the fact that we were lucky to have this person as a part of our lives. I would even say that I wish my death would bring such a positive change into the lives of people I'm leaving behind.
There are several specific things I really liked about this movie. First is lack of background for many characters. It all goes the way it goes for Na Mi. She doesn't have time to learn all the life stories around her, she doesn't need to know them to care about people - so we don't learn them unless it's crucial to the story. And this goes beyond the end of the movie (although pictures during the credits tell us some things).
Second is lack of some... profound change in the heroine's life. She doesn't drop everything and turn her life upside down. She doesn't leave her husband - her feelings for him don't even change. She rediscovers herself, she ties up some loose ends and she ends up even more comfortable in her old life.
And third and most important are the gifts. This movie wouldn't be the same if those gifts were different. They fit so well with Chiun-Hwa's character as it's shown in the movie. She's a true leader and actually reminded me a lot of leaders from my favorite teen books, like President of the Stony Island and such.
Gah, there are so many things I want to say about this movie (the political situation in Korea at the time creeping into random scenes! the music! the pretty boy! the designer bags! Sophie Marceau!) but I can't figure out the way to say it all.
Well, yeah, I cried on and off throughout the movie but it was... actually soothing, not horribly painful as it gets sometimes. The movie itself is a mix of magic, inspiration and nostalgia. I didn't grow up in Korea nor, of course, did I attend a middle school in Seoul (I even missed all the action in my own school, as it turned out years later). But the feeling of nostalgia, of hesitant wonder upon seeing places you only remember as parts of your childhood is very familiar to me.
Another thing this movie does well is portrayal of death of close people. There is no realism in portraying the sick, but the uncertainty of the healthy when dealing with sick people, attempts to avoid the contact or pretend that everything is fine... Times when you momentarily able to forget, to pretend that everything IS fine and times when you're cruelly reminded that it is not.
Some would say that this portrayal is too light-hearted. I say that it's shown how we all wish it will go: not grieving endlessly about the loss but celebrating the fact that we were lucky to have this person as a part of our lives. I would even say that I wish my death would bring such a positive change into the lives of people I'm leaving behind.
There are several specific things I really liked about this movie. First is lack of background for many characters. It all goes the way it goes for Na Mi. She doesn't have time to learn all the life stories around her, she doesn't need to know them to care about people - so we don't learn them unless it's crucial to the story. And this goes beyond the end of the movie (although pictures during the credits tell us some things).
Second is lack of some... profound change in the heroine's life. She doesn't drop everything and turn her life upside down. She doesn't leave her husband - her feelings for him don't even change. She rediscovers herself, she ties up some loose ends and she ends up even more comfortable in her old life.
And third and most important are the gifts. This movie wouldn't be the same if those gifts were different. They fit so well with Chiun-Hwa's character as it's shown in the movie. She's a true leader and actually reminded me a lot of leaders from my favorite teen books, like President of the Stony Island and such.
Gah, there are so many things I want to say about this movie (the political situation in Korea at the time creeping into random scenes! the music! the pretty boy! the designer bags! Sophie Marceau!) but I can't figure out the way to say it all.
