Keulraesik (2003)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Jae-young Kwak

Writer:

Jae-young Kwak (writer)

Release Date:

30 January 2003 (South Korea)

Genre:

Romance

Plot:

Shy Ji-hae's friend is having problems expressing her feelings to the boy she loves, so she asks Ji-hae to write e-mails to him in her name...

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Ye-jin Son	...	Ji-hae / Ju-hie
In-seong Jo	...	Sang-min
Seung-woo Cho	...	Jun-ho
Ki-woo Lee	...	Tae-su
Sang-in Lee	...	Su-kyeong
Ye-jin Lim	...	Shopkeeper
Hyeon-tae Yang	...	Seok-woo
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Byeong-ok Kim
Yeong-hie Seo

Also Known As:

Classic (International: English title)

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Certification:

South Korea:12

Company:

Egg Films

A wonderful, heart-warming film

What can I say about The Classic, except that I never thought I'd like such a film. Cheesy romances featuring teenagers are really not my usual viewing, but The Classic was just beautiful.

I am not familiar with Korean cinema, and have never seen 'My Sassy Girl' so I cannot comment on how it measures as a follow-up. But as a movie standing on its own, it was a touching, tear-jerking and humorous 2 hour journey for me. The cinematography was outstanding, and paired with an equally impressive soundtrack it created beautiful scenes of the Korean countryside, as well as enhancing the generally poignant, nostalgic mood of the film. The acting was first class all around in my opinion, the movie could've so easily gone overboard with bad-acting considering the general plot of the movie, but never once did I find myself irritated by the lead female. The casting was perfect, and I was absolutely charmed by the characters of Jun-ho and the hilarious Tae-su. There were also a lot of comical elements in the movie which had me laughing off my sofa, making the characters endlessly endearing. The film takes us through a journey of many years in the past from when the characters' parents first meet, and had me bawling my eyes out at the end. The modern day story is just as good too. The film also finishes with what I consider two big surprises which had me thinking about the movie for ages afterwards.

All in all, I am really surprised that I liked this film. After considering why this was so since I really don't like romantic/comedy dramas, I came to the simple conclusion that this was just great filmaking, where the watcher gets utterly lost in the movie. It may not be very realistic, and however long we analyse it and it's clichés at the end all we know is that we were moved and entertained by this movie.