Harlie picked this for movie night and when it started I thought I was in for a Korean adaptation of Lolita.
Turns out this goes into some other territory that is at times uncomfortable, at times sensual, at times melodramatic, and at times kind of bland.
What we had hoped would be a sweet (but problematic by American standards) little romance story really turns into a soap-operatic tragedy by the end. Lee falls for a teenager, gets his manuscript plagiarized by his pupil, the book he ghostwrote for that same pupil is a massive hit that he reaps no rewards for, the pupil wins an award for the plagiarized story, and then the teenager he loves sleeps with the plagiarizing pupil. Oh and then he has to live out his life believing that he murdered the guy. By the end it was just depressing seeing Lee get the short end of the stick in every measure.
I will say that I found the last shot/ending of the movie to be very powerful and sweet. Eungyo saying during her final monologue “thank you for making me so pretty. I didn’t know I was such a pretty girl. I had no idea,” really did get to me and was such a strong way to end the film.
Still a little wary about praising a film with characters overtly lusting after a high schooler, but taken as a piece of art form a culture outside of my own, I can appreciate the beauty in it even if it did make me a bit uncomfortable.
Also I find it wonderful that so much of Asian cinema has a tendency to sneak in such poetic dialogue and sentiments into otherwise saccharin/melodramatic stories. This one has the recurring motif of people seeing the same thing differently (star example and the mirror) that had offered some poignant philosophical musings to chew on.
7.2/10
Harlie picked this for movie night and when it started I thought I was in for a Korean adaptation of Lolita.
Turns out this goes into some other territory that is at times uncomfortable, at times sensual, at times melodramatic, and at times kind of bland.
What we had hoped would be a sweet (but problematic by American standards) little romance story really turns into a soap-operatic tragedy by the end. Lee falls for a teenager, gets his manuscript plagiarized by his pupil, the book he ghostwrote for that same pupil is a massive hit that he reaps no rewards for, the pupil wins an award for the plagiarized story, and then the teenager he loves sleeps with the plagiarizing pupil. Oh and then he has to live out his life believing that he murdered the guy. By the end it was just depressing seeing Lee get the short end of the stick in every measure.
I will say that I found the last shot/ending of the movie to be very powerful and sweet. Eungyo saying during her final monologue “thank you for making me so pretty. I didn’t know I was such a pretty girl. I had no idea,” really did get to me and was such a strong way to end the film.
Still a little wary about praising a film with characters overtly lusting after a high schooler, but taken as a piece of art form a culture outside of my own, I can appreciate the beauty in it even if it did make me a bit uncomfortable.
Also I find it wonderful that so much of Asian cinema has a tendency to sneak in such poetic dialogue and sentiments into otherwise saccharin/melodramatic stories. This one has the recurring motif of people seeing the same thing differently (star example and the mirror) that had offered some poignant philosophical musings to chew on.
7.2/10
