Genre: Drama, Romance
Starring:
* Lee Tae-sung as Lee Su-Hyun
* Naoto Takenaka as Ichima Hirata
* Junko Hamaguchi as Rumiko Okamoto
* Hideko Hara as Shie Hoshino
Release year: 2007
Language: Korean/Japanese
Subtitle: English
SYNOPSIS:
In early 2001, a Korean student tried to save another passenger who had fallen onto the tracks at Shin Okubo station, dying in the process. This film tells the story of his time in Japan prior to his tragic demise, including his romance with one of the locals.
RATING: ?/10
REVIEW:
The romantic aspect of the story is adequate, but not brilliant. There’s enough weight to the relationship that it makes sense, but there’s simply not enough to the characters, particularly of Su-yon, to leave an impression. The characterization of Su-yon, the main character, is easily the Achilles’ heel of the movie. Simply put, he’s portrayed as bland, without interesting flaws or much personality, but with enough naïve wisdom to have the perfect piece of advice for every troubled person he encounters (which often challenges believability). Yuri is fortunately much more interesting; obstinate and principled (she has one of the best scenes in the film when she throws a glass of water at an obnoxious record producer), she laments the breakup of her family and her strained relationship with her racist, besieged father, and the similarities she sees between the two of them.
Her father, played by Takenaka Naoto, is another noteworthy character, but his irrational attitude towards Koreans is never fully explained outside of the ambiguous suggestion that it was borne out of a failed business deal. Considering the primary contention of the film, that the racial tension is a warped consequence of a larger societal apathy (the history between the two countries is mostly treated as secondary and not thoroughly explained, taken, I assume, as largely understood by the audience), they missed a great opportunity to really say something about this particular character in his unique position at the centre of both primary aspects of the movie, ie, the romance and the social commentary.
The Korean policy of mandatory military service was briefly addressed, but nothing of consequence was said in this scene, which made me wonder why it was brought up at all. The movie also has some shocking pacing (the entire first half could have been compressed into thirty minutes) and gets quite heavy and clumsy with its drama. The final decisions some of the characters came to, particularly Yuri and her father, struck me as rather insensitive. There’s just enough worthwhile stuff in this film to make it watchable, and while I’m not quite so cynical (operative word being “quite”) as to suggest that it was little more than a vehicle for Maakii’s career, I do think several things could have been handled far better, not least of which included its respect to the memory of the departed whose story its supposedly based on.
Source: Nihon Review
PREVIEW:
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MU:
Part 01 - Part 02 - Part 03 - Part 04 - Part 05 - Part 06 - Part 07 - Part 08 - Part 09 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 - SUB
MF: (links interchangeable)
Part 01 - Part 02 - Part 03 - Part 04 - Part 05 - Part 06 - Part 07 - Part 08 - Part 09 - Part 10 - Part 11 - Part 12 - Part 13 - Part 14 - SUB
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