Hyun-Woo is released from prison after spending 17 years behind bars. During his college days he was involved in the student led anti-government protests that swept across Korea in the early 1980’s. Now that he is finally free, Hyun-Woo travels back to the town where he spent a few precious months immediately prior to his arrest.

Seventeen years ago, Hyun-Woo fled into the rural area of Korea, hiding from the government that was trying to quash his anti-government group. He found sanctuary in the home of Han Yun-Hee. She was a former sympathizer to the anti-government cause, but now living a modest life as a teacher in a small rural community. The couple quickly became intimate, Hyun-Woo able to provide the spark that was missing from Yun-Hee’s simple life.

Unfortunately, while Hyun-Woo was still hiding in Yun-hee’s home, he learned that most of his fellow anti-government protesters were captured & imprisoned. Even though the government now has Hyun-Woo high on their wanted list, he feels ashamed that he is living peacefully, while his friends are imprisoned. Thus, he makes the difficult decision to leave Yun-hee and go back to the movement centered in Seoul. What he would later learn is that he left behind the sole person that would stay faithful to him throughout his 17 year imprisonment and also the woman that was carrying his baby.

The Old Garden is likely to appeal much more to native Koreans who actually lived through that violent era. The film doesn’t attempt to explain the backdrop of either the student led protests or the government’s oppressive regime. The film assumes the viewers have a familiarity with the subject matter, which works for the local film goers in Korea, but can be jarring for foreign viewers with little knowledge of that era.

The first half of the film that deals with Hyun-Woo’s release from prison, as well as the months he spent hiding in the home of Yun-hee prior to his arrest, would have been the most interesting part of the The Old Garden. The relationship between Hyun-Woo and Yun-Hee was compelling as their similarities and dissimilarities provided the foundation for their dynamic relationship. Also, Sang-Soo Im effectively used flashbacks to weave between the past and present. As an example, when Hyun-Woo traveled back to the home of Yun-Hee, he would open a door and the film would then shift in time to the moment in Hyun-Woo’s memory when he first opened that door.

Unfortunately, the second half of the film increasingly got more dull as the movie expanded its focus to the anti-government protests, the individuals in the anti-government protests, as well as Yun-Hee’s life during Hyun-Woo’s imprisonment. The endearing simplicity of the love story between Hyun-Woo and Yun-Hee was for all intents and purposes lost, while the film ineffectively tried to tackle many different sub-plots. Furthermore, Sang-soo Im took liberty to infuse the final portion of the film with his own stylistic stamp that simply felt hokey and clashed with the overall narrative flow of the film. Praise should go out to Jung-ah Yum (step mother from A Tale Of Sisters) who played Yun-hee in an understated but nevertheless extremely captivating manner.

The DVD for the Old Garden also contained sub-titles that were extremely poor. The person responsible for the translation took great liberty to make the eloquent Korean dialog spoken in the film fit into their concept of Western speech. When Hyun-Woo first told Yun-Hee that he would go back to Seoul, Yun-Hee said something along the lines of “…think about me” but the sub-titles would say “…what about me?” Although the change is slight, the slight change in phrasing shifted the intentions of the speaker from an impassioned plea to stay to more of a self-centered plea. An even more egregious example would have been when Yun-Hee told Hyun-Wook “I even gave my body to you” but the subtitles would say “I even let you fuck me.”

Although the Old Garden started out as compelling period piece between two star-crossed lovers, the film’s shift of focus in the second half of the film was disappointing to say the least. Everything from poor special effects, to out of place stylistic methods were used which made the film feel tedious and even boring. Also, not a fault of the film per se, but the subtitles in the film were simply awful. I can’t really see the Old Garden appealing to anyone outside of the native Koreans that lived through those turbulent times set in the film. The nostalgia that is brought up during the film should make the film palatable for those film goers. For others, after watching the Old Garden they may just end up thinking “who knew revolutions could be such a bore?”