Feb
18
2007
Once In A Summer
Posted by luna6
Movie : Once In A Summer / Geuhae yeoreum / 그해여름
Release Date : November 30, 2006
Country : South Korea
Director : Geun-shik Jo
Starring: Byung-hun Lee, Ae Su
Runtime : 121 Minutes
Editor Rating : 5.5
(9 Votes, User Rating: 8.89)
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Plot Synopsis : I found my first real love
Found her while working in the countryside
She played coy til my emotions bled
It was summer of ‘69
Me and some guys from school
Had a Club and we tried real hard
Hae-Un quit and Eun-Sook got married
I shoulda known we’d never get far
Oh when I look back now
That summer seemed to last forever
And if I had the choice
Ya - I’d always wanna be there
Those were the best days of my life
Back in summer of ‘69
Movie Review : “Once In A Summer” is one more Korean melodrama that does a few things right and many other things not quite so right. The film is set during the turbulent summer of 1969 when President Park Chung-Hee ruled the country with an iron grip. A group of college age kids decided to take a break from their studies (and demonstrations) to spend a few weeks helping out the people in a rural village.
This is where Suk-Young, played by Byung-hun Lee (JSA/A Bittersweet Life), met Jung-In. Jung-In led a difficult life mainly due to her parents defecting to North Korea. She carried that burden with her everywhere she went in the village and tried to please her neighbors as much as possible, to compensate for her parents actions. Suk-Young first noticed Jung-In when she was forced to sing in front of his college friends. He then saw her the next day, reading an adult novel to the older illiterate townspeople, all the while re-wording the more risque passages on the fly. Shortly afterwards they would fall in love.
One of the big problems I found with this film was the choice to have Byung-Hun Lee play himself as a younger college age student. He was obviously in his mid to late 30’s and it was difficult to believe, during the countryside scenes, that he was someone in his early 20’s. This was even more exaggerated because the girl that he was chasing was really in her early 20s. Often, Byung-Hun Lee tried to overcompensate for the age difference by using exaggerated child like mannerisms. During these scenes, I found his character to resemble more of a middle aged man afflicted with autism (can you say Rain Man?), rather than a typical college age kid.
The film felt slow and languished for the first 2/3rd of the film, simply focusing on a relationship that lacked any type of spark. There wasn’t anything particular interesting about Suk-Young and Jung-In’s relationship, beyond watching Byung-hun Lee unintentionally spoof the Rain Man. Fortunately, the movie did pick up big time when Suk-Young took Jung-In back to Seoul. They both got swept away by the police during a student demonstration and are given a Guantanamo Bay style interrogation by the Korean police. Suk-Young is forced into the very difficult decision of turning his back on Jung-In (because of her parent’s defection to North Korea) or ruin his chances for an academic career. These scenes were very good and both main actors were very good here. It’s just too bad the film didn’t start off with these scenes and show their initial courtship in a flashback segment of 10 minutes or so.
P.S. The soundtrack for this movie is awesome. Worth checking out way more than the movie.
buy Once In A Summer from YesAsia
Cast:
Byung-hun Lee - Yun Suk-young
Su-Ae - Suh Jung-inDuek-mun Choi - Suk-young’s senior
Seok-yong Jeong
Jung-ki Kim
Hae-eun Lee - Bok-ja
Se-eun Lee - Lee Su-jin
Ki-su Na - Suk-young’s father
Dal-su Oh
Hae-jin Yu - TV Programme Producer
2006 Movie Reviews, Movie Reviews |
Comments
3 Comments so far
Dont like the end, too Korean Movies. Love the song!!!
This movie was about the power that memories have in defining our lives. This movie is close to perfect. ;)
Really liked this movie : D