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BIG SPOILERS from paragraph 4 onwards
While the Romance has been around for decades in Hollywood, evolving in its top-of-Empire-State-Building style from Kerr/Grant (An Affair to Remember, 1957) to Ryan/Hanks (Sleepless in Seattle, 1993), the Korean Romance has over the last few years attracted some global attention as a new genre.
The recent onslaught of Korean movies came in genre as varied as you can imagine: spy thriller, historical adventure, analytical murder thriller, Matrix-like wire-fu fantasy, serious and sexually explicit controversial drama, hilarious comedy....you name it. These have met with various degree of success, but there is always a faint trace of Hollywood in them. In is in the Romance that Korean movies have achieved a unique identity. A rundown of a few could be: Contact (1997) (not to be confused with Carl Sagan's), Christmas in Autumn (1998), Art Museum by the Zoo (1998), Li Mare (2000), One Fine Spring Day (2001)and finally My Sassy Girl (2001), the most acclaimed and bought by Dreamworks for a Hollywood remake.
If I say watching a Korean Romance is like sipping a glass of mild flavoured honey sprinkled with lightly scented lemon peels, I have said absolutely nothing because that very drink itself may taste different to different people. Those who have experienced this genre will no doubt have their own definitions of what it is. What I would say is Lover's Concerto comes a little short when compared with these ones that came before. Still, it is an enjoyable experience, although not as deeply memorable as Christmas in Autumn or as delightfully refreshing as Il Mare.
The main plot of Lover's Concerto, which remains hidden until close to the end, is a very familiar one: love in the face of terminal illness. Depiction of the main characters' feelings and emotions in face of death does not have nearly the same depth, care and sensitivity as in Christman in Autumn or My Sassy Girl. Greater attention has been given, instead, to the treatment of the triangle relationship at the beginning and the twists at the end of the movie.
The romance element of the relationships is adolescent, which in itself is not a problem. The treatment of the relationships is somewhat shallow in comparison with Contact and Art Museum by the Zoo (which respectively take a tragedy and a comedy approach). The biggest flaw, however, is the feeble pivoting point in the development of the relationships, a letter Ji-hwan asks Kyeong-hie to deliver to Su-in. It's hard to believe that you would rely on someone to take a peek at your private letter to someone else as a mean of announcing your love to the deliverer. That Kyeong-hei would tear up the letter she has been asked to deliver is also most unconvincing. Built on this flawed pivoting point, the rest of the story falls flat.
Building a twist in a Romance seems to have become standard after the success of My Sassy Girl, which has done it so seamlessly, with a twist that is both relevant and convincing. The twists in Lover's Concerto however are uninspiring. The fact that both girls are terminally ill is not so much of a twist as a fundamental element of the entire plot. The identity switch, despite the careful build-up, is somewhat contrived, an attempt to introduce dramatic effect to salvage a somewhat weak ending.
Although suffering from comparison, Lover's Concerto is an enjoyable movie. The three lead roles are pleasant to watch. Particularly well handled is the friendship between the two girls which touches the audience more than the adolescent love triangle. There is also the usual attention to small details. A good example is the first photograph the audience sees received by Ji-hwan, with a caption by the sender about being kissed. This is a clear clue to the final twist as to which of the two girls has survived.
score /10
harry_tk_yung 11 May 2003
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0888466/ |
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2-12-2019 00:55:03