Conanblue32's Movie Weekend Picks

Here are some South Korean movies that I recommend. While they don’t particularly have that much in common, I would say these are the Korean movies that had some sort of significance for me.




Country: South Korea     Year: 2003     Genre: Romance, Drama,Melodrama

Ju Hie (Son Ye Jin) is acollege student who has a crush on her senior Sang Min (Jo In Sung). While cleaning up her attic, Ju Hie comes across a box of letters and diaries written by her mother, Joo Hee (Lee Mi Sook). The movie alternates between Ju Hie's love story with Sang Min, and a younger Joo Hee (also Son Ye Jin) and her life as a young lady and the love she encounters with Jun Ho (Cho Seung Woo).

The biggest reason why this movie has a strong place in my heart was mostly because it was the beginning of my ever growing love for actor Jo Seung Woo who was brilliant as always as the lovestruck Joon Ha. But another reason was because I remembered sobbing to this movie. The story is a classic Korean romantic melodrama filled with lots of tears in the rain. But there’s just that added something that makes The Classic stand out among the rest. This is definitely a weeper, so be on the lookout for some tissue boxes.

 



Country: South Korea     Year:1998     Genre: Romance, Drama

Jung-won (Han Seok Kyu) is a man in his 30s who runs a photography shop. From the outside, his life seems normal as he walks through life like everyone else. Only very few know that Jung-won is actually battling an illness. He decides to accept his impending death while his family and friends worry about him. One day, Jung-won is visited by Da-rim (Shim Eun Ha), a parking agent, and he ends up falling in love with her.

If there was ever one Korean movie I recommend to another human being, I’ll probably say this one. While it seems like the same old love story, when looked closely, it’s a lot more than that. It’s a beautiful narrative of life and death, friendship and family, old and new love. It’s about the small moments that seem to pass by, not the grand gestures that we often watch in movies. Also Han Seok Kyu and the now retired Shim Eun Ha were excellent, and the directing by Hur Jin-ho was wonderful.

 


Country: South Korea     Year: 2005     Genre: Comedy, Drama

In the heat of the Korean War, the villagers of the remote village Dongmakgol remain unwary of the devastation happening in their own country. That is until soldiers from the North, the South, and the US find themselves in this village.Their tension brought a bit of ruckus to the usually peaceful Dongmakgol. After one of the soldier’s grenade destroys the village’s food storage, the men decides to put aside their differences and work together to help out the villagers.

I’ve never been a big fan of war, and that includes war movies. They’re usually filled to the brim with blood, guns, and mostly lots of cursing. Welcome to Dongmakgol takes a different look at war by removing themselves from the battlefield and bringing the tension to a small village with lots of funny characters. You can look at it simply as a comedy with a hilarious boar scene, or as a more meaningful look at war and partisanship. Either way, it’s the “lighter” of my three recommendation and a nice way to cap off your week.

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So there you have it, three Korean movies that don’t necessarily get mentioned that much but definitely deserve their own spotlight. Have a great weekend :)