Once In A Summer

Apparently, this Korean film was released in Feb this year. I dont recall much fanfare about it.

Taken together, it's flimsy at best. It's supposed to be a romantic film, no? But most of it, in the first hour or so, gave sporadic attention to the romance between the two leads.

(*Entry on 20 April late afternoon: After some more thinking, I realised that's what a romance should be: slow and sweet. It's really not the fault of the film. But the political turmoil thing still seems hurried)

Then all of a sudden, it explodes into life.

Suk Young (Lee Byung-hun) and Jung-in (Su-Ae) are two lovebirds who fell in love at the wrong time and place. They were to start their lives together when they found themselves trapped in the political turmoil of 60s South Korea. They were thrown into prison but he got out. She didnt. Until his father intervened. With conditions attached.

But their reunion was short-lived. They were to leave together but she had to do what she had been told by his father - she had to leave him.

It was heart-wrenching, really.

Years passed and Suk Young, now an old and worn professor, was handed a cypress leaf letter, which was Jung-in's little invention back then. He traced the origin of the letter, which led to this:

She found herself a job as a teacher in a village. One day, she decided to plant a cypress tree. Eventually, she hoped, one of its leaves would reach Suk Young. And he would know.

*Tear*

She's gone now, of course. Her ashes scattered over the seas. Suk Young was handed a box of her photos and letters. In it, he found a fish-stone...

Years before, Jung-in had told him the story of the fish-stone. After their separation, he had gone to the site of these fish-stones. There he placed the fish stone that he had given Jung-in but kept all these while when they separated, at the site.

He doesnt know it but Jung-in was watching him from behind...


She took it home.