오늘의 연애 Today's Love

Title: 오늘의 연애 Oneul-ui Yeonae
English Title:

• Love Forecast
• Today's Love
• Today's Romance

Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Year: 2015
Cast:

• 문채원 Moon Chae Won
• 이승기 Lee Seung Gi
• 이서진 Lee Seo Jin
• 김갑수 Kim Gab Soo
• 이경진 Lee Kyung Jin
• 박시은 Park Si Eun
• 정준영 Jung Joon Young
• 류화영 Ryu Hwa Young (화영 Hwa Young)
• 박수영 Park Soo Young (리지 Li Ji) (리지 Lizzy)
• 김부선 Kim Bu Seon
• 홍화리 Hong Hwa Ri
• 손가인 Son Ga In (가인 Ga In)
• 김소연 Kim So Yeon

SYNOPSIS
Kang Joon Soo has been in love with Kim Hyun Woo since their elementary school days, when Hyun Woo came to live with Joon Soo's family in Seoul for her education while her mom works in Jeju island. He has confessed his real feelings to her then, but she rejected him.

Joon Soo and Hyun Woo are still close friends eighteen years later, but she has moved out of his family home and into her own apartment. He is now an elementary school teacher, and she works as a weathercaster who is famously known as the Weather Goddess.

REVIEW
Today's Love is about two childhood friends who took almost two decades to finally get together, because it took that much time for Kang Joon Soo to find the courage to confess his feelings again after he was rejected the first time, and for Kim Hyun Woo to realize her romantic feelings for her best friend.

It is a movie you'll watch for the lead actors because they made their flawed characters sympathetic and endearing. Lee Seung Gi did a fine job of portraying beta male Joon Soo, but Moon Chae Won was excellent in her portrayal of foul-mouthed weather goddess Hyun Woo who only cares about herself.

I doubt if I'll even be remotely interested in the characters and what happens with them, if they were not played by actors I like. Joon Soo seems to be resigned as just Hyun Woo's drinking buddy but he seems to think he has some control over her and her love life.

Although I'm okay with people prioritizing themselves over anyone else (because why not?!), I'm conflicted with Hyun Woo's affair with a married man. It also doesn't seem right that she keeps stringing Joon Soo along for almost two decades even though she knows that he is still in love with her. I just think being selfish is entirely different with willfully hurting other people.

Today's Love doesn't seem to know how to tell its story about good friends becoming lovers. Since Joon Soo has been in love with Hyun Woo for what seems like forever, and Hyun Woo has explicitly stated that she is not attracted to Joon Soo, it seems very important to convincingly show the resolution to her issues.

The movie laboriously spent a lot of time on the lead character's various love affairs with other people, which I wouldn't have minded if there was ample time set aside to address the issues between Joon Soo and Hyun Woo so that their union is more organic.

Given that Hyun Woo has declared at least twice that she doesn't see Joon Soo as a man, I wish there was also a scene where it is clearly shown that she has finally done so. I suppose I could infer that based on what happened between them, but it's just more believable if that moment was especially highlighted in the film.

I think the ending part was kind of rushed, which is such a shame because I would have given anything for more scenes of Joon Soo and Hyun Woo being adorable together.

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오늘의 연애 Today's Love

건축학개론 Architecture 101

Title: 건축학개론 Geonchukhakgaeron
English Title:

• Architecture 101
• Introduction to Architecture

Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Year: 2012
Cast:

• 엄태웅 Uhm Tae Woong
• 한가인 Han Ga In
• 이제훈 Lee Je Hoon
• 배수지 Bae Soo Ji (수지 Suzy)
• 조정석 Jo Jung Suk
• 유연석 Yoo Yeon Seok

SYNOPSIS
...

REVIEW
...


건축학개론 Architecture 101

시라노;연애조작단 Cyrano Dating Agency

Title: 시라노;연애조작단 Shirano (Cyrano); Yeonae Jojakdan
English Title:

• Cyrano Agency
• Cyrano Dating Agency

Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Year: 2010
Cast:

• 엄태웅 Uhm Tae Woong
• 박신혜 Park Shin Hye
• 이민정 Lee Min Jung
• 최다니엘 Choi Daniel
• 박철민 Park Chul Min
• 전역산 Jun Yuk San
• 송새벽 Song Sae Byuk
• 류현경 Ryu Hyun Kyung
• 이미소 Lee Mi Soo

SYNOPSIS
The Cyrano Dating Agency claims it can make someone fall in love in a top secret manner. It used to be a theater group, but it started taking on special projects to make ends meet. The Cyrano Dating Agency is composed of manager Byung Hoon, scriptwriter Chul Bin, production assistant Min Young, and researcher Jae Pil.

Soccer player Hyun Geon hired the agency so he can get to know the coffee shop worker Sun Ah. The agency researched about Sun Ah's likes, and gave Hyun Geon a makeover so that he satisfies her preferences. The agency also constructed many situations to make Sun Ah more open to Hyun Geon's wooing.

Financial trader Sang Yong also hired the agency to get close to his crush Hee Jung. They met at a church service, and he is convinced that they are destined for each other.

Byung Hoon didn't want to accept Sang Yong as a customer because he realized that Hee Jung is his ex-girlfriend that he has really never gotten over. But because of the agency's debts, he has no choice but to take on the case.

REVIEW
Cyrano Dating Agency is an interesting movie about a special dating agency that claims to make people fall in love in secret. Byung Hoon and his staff conduct extensive research on their clients and their target persons, and they create situations to make the target persons fall in love with their clients.

? Min Young: Politicians and celebrities, what they do in public is all staged. Their every word has been planned in advance.
...
? Jae Pil: Why do stars in films and dramas act and speak so cool? Because there's a script.
? Byung Hoon: In reality, people fumble because there's no script. But with us, your love life could have the perfect script.

I think it will be quite interesting to work at a dating agency, specifically Seo Byung Hoon's version. Do companies like that really exist, and how do they recruit employees? I'm really interested with the work they do, and I think I can be quite good at it with my wild imagination and crazy ideas.

? Min Young: Men have hang-ups about the men their women used to date... Women are more curious about who their ex will date next... That's just the way it is.

Honestly though, I am a little conflicted with the existence of Byung Hoon's version of dating agency in real life. It seems acceptable for it to exist in a fictional world but it somehow seems unacceptable for it to exist in the real world.

I think there's generally nothing wrong with what the company is doing because they assess the feelings of all parties involved before taking a case, and essentially they have good intentions about their work. However, if I was a target of one of their clients, I can't help but feel manipulated and I suppose I will definitely question everything that has happened, including my feelings and actions and reactions.

Alike:
연애조작단; 시라노 Dating Agency; Cyrano


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시라노;연애조작단 Cyrano Dating Agency

왕의 남자 The King and the Clown

Title: 왕의 남자 Wang-ui Namja
English Title:

• The King's Man
• The King and the Clown

Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Year: 2005
Cast:

• 감우성 Gam U Seong
• 정진영 Jeong Jin Yeong
• 이준기 Lee Jun Gi
  

SYNOPSIS
At the height of the 16th-century Chosun Dynasty, a pair of rural male actors — boisterous, macho Jang Seng and quiet, feminine Gong Gil — travel to Seoul and team up with a struggling acting troupe. When their irreverent show — complete with enough bawdy humor and gender-bending to make a contemporary audience blush — mocks the famously hedonistic king, they get more than they bargained for.

After being promptly arrested, they are given a chance to spare themselves if they can make the king laugh. To everyone’s surprise, the ecstatic monarch loves the show and names the actors official court jesters, giving them more extravagant food and shelter than they’d ever imagined.

But the king’s attentiveness to Gong Gil makes it quickly apparent that humor isn’t the only thing motivating his generosity. The king’s mistress, the country’s ministers and Jang Seng soon grow suspicious, and jealousy and anger spring from all sides.

REVIEW
...

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왕의 남자 The King and the Clown

클래식 The Classic

Title: 클래식 Keulraesik
English Title: The Classic
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Year: 2003
Cast:

• 손예진 Son Ye Jin
• 조인성 Jo In Seong
• 조승우 Jo Seung Woo

SYNOPSIS
Ji Hae is a quiet college student who is good in writing. Her friend Soo Kyung asks her to write love letters (for her) to give to Sang Min, a quiet guy in their theatre class.

Ji Hae writes the letters for her friend but she's devastated when Soo Kyung and Sang Min begins dating each other. Ji Hae also likes Sang Min and she confessed her feelings in her letters to Sang Min, written in Soo Kyung's name.

While cleaning around the house, Ji Hae finds a box of letters that belonged to her mother, Joo Hee. Ji Hae reads through the letters and finds out about her mother's past.

Joo Hee went to the countryside one summer, where she met Joon Ha. They explore the area together and before Joo Hee leaves, she gives Joon Ha a necklace.

However, Joo Hee is already promised to Tae Soo, who is a good friend of Joon Ha. Tae Soo knows of the attraction between Joo Hee and Joon Ha, so he helps the two to communicate with each other by telling Joon Ha to sign his letters with 'Tae Soo' instead of his own name.

But Tae Soo's parents insist on the marriage between Tae Soo and Joo Hee. They eventually get married and have a daughter together, which is Ji Hae. Joon Ha also moves on and marries another woman.

Ji Hae tries to avoid Sang Min to lessen her pain of seeing him dating another woman, but Sang Min seems to be everywhere she went. One day, he confesses his feelings to her and tells her he had liked her for such a long time.

Ji Hae travels to the countryside where her mother met Joon Ha and Sang Min accompanies her. She tells him about her mother's tragic past. Sang Min cries and shows Ji Hae a necklace, the same necklace that Ji Hae's mother Joo Hee gave to Joon Ha. It turns out, Sang Min is Joon Ha's son.

REVIEW
I have made a really long synopsis for The Classic but I really wanted to show the parallelism between the daughter's present life and her mother's past.

I'm a little bothered by the movie's premise that although Joo Hee and Joon Ha were not able to be together, Joo Hee's daughter Ji Hae and Joon Ha's son Sang Min will have a chance to make it work. I find it somewhat disconcerting and uncomfortable although I'm not sure why.

Nonetheless, I did enjoy the romantic scenes and this movie has a lot of those. My favorite is what I call the 'umbrella scenes'.

Ji Hae walks along the courtyard when it suddenly rains. Since she doesn't have an umbrella, she takes shelter under a tree. Sang Min suddenly appears by her side and offers to escort her where she needs to go. The two of them run all over the university on their way to Ji Hae's destination, taking cover under Sang Min's coat so they wouldn't get wet.

Ji Hae is in a coffee shop where she could clearly see the tree where she took shelter in the rain. The shop lady tells her about Sang Min and how he purposely left his umbrella one rainy day for some strange reason and rushed out into the rain with just his coat. Ji Hae finds out that their encounter in the rain was no coincidence.

I think it would have been better if the flashback scenes, the scenes between Joo Hee and Joon Ha, where filmed in black-and-white or sepia. It would be more melancholic that way and it will be easier to tell the scenes belonging to the two different times apart since everything is shown simultaneously.

Son Ye Jin plays both the parts of the mother Joo Hee and the daughter Ji Hae. I thought it would be better if she only played one character, the daughter Ji Hae perhaps, and another actress played the part of the mother Joo Hee. After all, two different actors played the roles of Joon Ha and Sang Min.

Alike:
사랑비 Love Rain


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클래식 The Classic