Jun
15
2008
Lovers of Six Years (6 Years in Love)
Posted by luna6 5 Comments
Movie: Lovers of Six Years / 6 Years in Love
Release Date: February 5, 2008
Country: South Korea
Director: Hyun-Jin Park
Starring: Ha-Neul Kim, Gye-sang Yun
Runtime: 112 min.
Editor Rating: 5.5
Users Rating: 7 
(16 votes)
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I loved 2004’s “Too Beautiful to Lie” (Geunyeoreul midji maseyo), one of the better Romantic-Comedies from South Korea. That film brought to light, in my eyes at least, the talents of Ha-neul Kim as an actress – attractive, goofy, and able to make perfect faces for the most absurd situations. So, when I saw that a new film, “Lovers of Six Years,” also stars Ha-neul Kim I eagerly checked it out.
In “Lovers of Six Years,” Da-jin Lee (Ha-Neul Kim) and Jae-yeong Kim (Gye-sang Yun) find themselves in the too comfortable position of being lovers for six years. Although Da-jin and Jae-yeong live in separate apartments, their apartments sit by side by side. They spend their nights together, while only their work lives provides any degree of separation.
Da-jin works as an editor at publishing company and her boyfriend Jae-yeong works as a producer for a home shopping channel. Da-jin must recruit talented illustrator Jin-seong (Seong-rok Shin) for her next book project and in the process arouses his interest in her as a woman. Meanwhile, Jae-yeong meets a spunky part timer in the elevator at his work place. She already knows his name and seems intent on knowing even more about him. Can their relationship survive these tempting outside forces?
What “Lovers of Six Years” does well is to depict problems that occur in personal relationships involving co-habitation without the commitment of marriage. Primarily, the positives of each other’s character becomes taken for granted, while the flaws of each other’s character becomes magnified. The film also features two engaging performers able to bring their characters to life. Ha-neul Kim seems to be a natural in the film’s more comedic moments and able to bring a sense of dignity during the film’s more dramatic moments. Co-star Gye-sang Yun (former member of K-pop group G.O.D.), had the more flawed character of the two (e.g. troublemaker), but he was able to make the audience remember the character’s stronger points more so.
There were quite a few smaller blemishes in the film to keep it from becoming a more memorable commercial film like “Singles.” Supporting characters, primarily Da-jin’s friend Mi-yeong (Ji-young Ok) and Jae-young’s friend Min-hae (Dong-won Seo) were given prominent screentime during the early portions of the film and mysteriously disappeared in the second half of the film. This gave the impression that they were given more prominent roles in the original script and consequent re-edits removed their scenes in a not so transparent way. Also, happens a lot in Korean Romantic-Comedies, the outside romantic interests of the main characters felt like thin cardboard characters while the main characters are given fleshed out three dimensional characters. This out of balance treatment between main characters and supporting characters gives the film a generic quality, where supporting characters blend in with supporting characters from other films and ultimately the distinctive qualities of the film becomes lost. Lastly, when the film turned more dramatic (and you knew it will if you have ever seen more than one Korean Romantic-Comedy), the film seemed to get sluggish, needing more dramatic oomph to wake it out of its stupor.
By the time the end credits roll around, you are treated to a fairly attractive film with engaging main characters. Ha-neul Kim in particular appealed in the film. With that said, the second half of the film seemed to drag on longer than wanted, while the film’s lighter & funnier moments from the first half were solely missed. Younger couples involved in lengthy personal relationships, will most likely identify with situations depicted in “Lovers of Six Years” and given abundant chatter material for the next time they sit together in a cafe. Not a bad thing at all.
buy Lovers of Six Years from YesAsia
Cast:
Ha-Neul Kim – Da-jin
Gye-sang Yun – Jae-young
Seong-rok Shin – Jin-seong Lee (illustrator)
Hyeon-jeon Cha – Ji-eun (Jae-young’s co-worker)
Dong-won Seo – Min-jae (doctor)
Ji-young Ok – Mi-yeong
Dae-yeon Lee – Da-jin’s doctor
Yun-min Jeong – Sang-cheol Kwon (Da-jin’s rival co-worker)
Sang-Yeop Lee – Yun-seok
Hye-ok Kim – Da-jin’s mom
Hyang-gi Ko
If you like this movie you may enjoy: Hellcats, Love Exposure
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2008 Movie Reviews, Korean Movies, Movie Reviews, Movies |
Comments
5 Comments so far
You can watch this movie on Crunchyroll!!!
excuse me! Anyone can tell me where I can watch this film ” Lovers of six years”. I spend much time to find out it, but unsuccessful. Thanks a lot!
i become a fan of Kim Ha Neul since i saw her in Ditto. other than being so talented, i think she’s also one of the most beautiful Korean actress. i’ve seen this movie and like it too. i think Yoon Kye Sang also did good in it. hoping to watch his Beastie Boys soon.
I’m a big fan of Kim Ha-neul as well. As stated in the review, “Too Beautiful to Lie / Don’t Believe Her” is one of my favorite K romantic-comedies. I didn’t like My Tutor Friend as much as most people did, but she was still charming in that one. “Lovers of Six Years” wasn’t bad, but second half underwhelmed and it’s tiring to watch so many films about relationships that break-up then get back together at the end. People actually do part ways every now and then you know? But more Kim Ha-neul films is always a good thing. Cheers Rico!
I saw this one yesterday, and i thought that kim ha neul was very good, she seems to have matured a lot, and her acting is improving with every movie..