Rain, fireflies, and true love

Keulraesik (The Classic)

Leave it to the rain to bring two people closer. Leave it to the fireflies to make them fall in love.

Written and directed by Kwak Jae-yong. Starring Ye-jin Son (Ji-hae/Ju-hie), In-seong Jo (Sang-min), Seung-woo Cho (Jun-ho), and Ki-woo Lee (Tae-su).

Running Time: 127 minutes.

Story

It's kind of hard to write the synopsis without spoiling the plot twist. So let me just say it involves a girl who writes love letters for her best friend. The girl (the one who writes the letters) happens to also have a crush with the guy (the recipient of the letters). Then in flashbacks you have the story of a man who writes love letters for his best friend. He (the writer) fell in love with the girl (the recipient of the letters). This girl in the flashbacks is the mother of the girl (the writer) in present time.

Thoughts

I like it better than "Il Mare", although I prepared and waited to cry my heart out for 10 minutes (as suggested by Keevee, a friend from Accounting and a high school classmate) but never did, not for 10 minutes anyway. It did make me cry twice. Both times near the end of the movie. It's a sad movie, but with a satisfying end. Maybe my thoughts keep distracting me that's why I didn't cry as hard as my friend. Perhaps I was thinking too much. Halfway through the movie I kept on thinking why did they bother to tell the story of the daughter in parallel with the story of the mother. I kept on thinking the story of the mother stands on it's own and I thought they're trying to pull an unnecessary stunt of telling the story of the daughter. "The mother's story is beautiful enough and complete enough for a movie, why bother telling the daughter's story?" But when Sangmin (the daughter's crush) used the exact line used in one of the mother's letter ("When the sun shines in the ocean, I think of you. When the dim moonlight shines over spring, I think of you," or something very similar to this) I thought there's something going on here. I wondered where he got the line. Perhaps the mother wrote a book, or perhaps the father. So maybe my thoughts kept distracting me from feeling extreme sadness from the story. But I love the twist in the end. Love the soundtrack. Love the cinematography. Love the river. Would have love to take pictures there. A very sad movie, but with a satisfying end. I agreed with how they ended the story so maybe that's the reason why I didn't cry for 10 minutes like my friend. I like how it ended.

And that's " The Classic". Leave it to the rain to bring two people closer. Leave it to the fireflies to make them fall in love. You'll know what I'm talking about when you watch the movie. I wish Hollywood remade this movie, just like "The Lake House" which is an American remake of the Korean "Il Mare". Would I watch it again? Definitely. Would I recommend it to my friends? Definitely.

By the way, there's a short battle scene shot in the Philippines. :) Thanks to Mae Etesa for lending me her copy of the movie and Kathy who owned the original from which it was copied.