This review may contain spoilers
That music....
Well, I know why this movies has relatively low rating. It is definitely not for everyone and the problem is not only the content but the pacing as well.
The story follows two lonely people yearning for companionship and family. He is a bank teller and she is a teacher in the cram academy across the road from the bank. They keep bumping into each other and though she is well aware of his existence, he seems not to notice her. When she invites him out for a meal, he rejects her coldly mostly because he has a crush on an former schoolmate and a current artist. One day he is left heartbroken when the artist ran away from debts and from him. His favourite pastime after work is watching old surveillance tapes and one evening he sees the teacher on it and realized the mistake he had made. He goes up to see her immediately and slowly they build a relationship.
This is a slice of life slow burn movie and therefore its pace is really slow. The characters are not very likable: he's on the rude side and she is a kind of a busy body. The actors were made ugly with with glasses, bad hair, ill fitting suits and frumpy clothing. The costumes do change towards the last quarter of the movie when they start seeing each other. The actors, portrayed these characters as barely living, monotonal voices and stiff attitudes.
The plot, as I mentioned earlier, is centered on two people looking to get married in order not to be alone anymore and to be happy would be an added bonus. This tells a lot about the korean society and the acceptability within it. The main characters are boring characters, everyday Joe and Jane, there is nothing special about them, they are just ordinary people trying to get through life without too much pain and suffering. Most of the people in the world are like that and though the movie is well made, do I want to watch the movie about my life? No, not really!
The movie is over 20yrs old and the video I watched was not the best of quality so it is a bit hard to judge cinematography. One thing though was nice to watch: rain and shots of umbrellas from above. The rest was nothing special.
What WAS special was the music: JAZZ in a korean romance drama? Umbrellas and the jazzy score at the beginning made me think of all those great american movies. That score was so unexpected and frankly made the movie that much more worth the watch.
The story follows two lonely people yearning for companionship and family. He is a bank teller and she is a teacher in the cram academy across the road from the bank. They keep bumping into each other and though she is well aware of his existence, he seems not to notice her. When she invites him out for a meal, he rejects her coldly mostly because he has a crush on an former schoolmate and a current artist. One day he is left heartbroken when the artist ran away from debts and from him. His favourite pastime after work is watching old surveillance tapes and one evening he sees the teacher on it and realized the mistake he had made. He goes up to see her immediately and slowly they build a relationship.
This is a slice of life slow burn movie and therefore its pace is really slow. The characters are not very likable: he's on the rude side and she is a kind of a busy body. The actors were made ugly with with glasses, bad hair, ill fitting suits and frumpy clothing. The costumes do change towards the last quarter of the movie when they start seeing each other. The actors, portrayed these characters as barely living, monotonal voices and stiff attitudes.
The plot, as I mentioned earlier, is centered on two people looking to get married in order not to be alone anymore and to be happy would be an added bonus. This tells a lot about the korean society and the acceptability within it. The main characters are boring characters, everyday Joe and Jane, there is nothing special about them, they are just ordinary people trying to get through life without too much pain and suffering. Most of the people in the world are like that and though the movie is well made, do I want to watch the movie about my life? No, not really!
The movie is over 20yrs old and the video I watched was not the best of quality so it is a bit hard to judge cinematography. One thing though was nice to watch: rain and shots of umbrellas from above. The rest was nothing special.
What WAS special was the music: JAZZ in a korean romance drama? Umbrellas and the jazzy score at the beginning made me think of all those great american movies. That score was so unexpected and frankly made the movie that much more worth the watch.
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