Happiness 행복 written and directed by Heo Jin-ho (허진호) 2007
23 February 2008Another sad romance from Heo Jin Ho. I enjoyed his Christmas in August and April Snow, and going in you know it is going to be a painful experience, and this one lived up to that. And I did enjoy this dark film, but honestly the biggest problem is that I just didn’t like the main character. He is just an evil cad, and while he finally does have some semblance of change at the end, he really is just a bastard throughout, and couldn’t even get over himself to help a dyeing woman. What an evil bastard. I did enjoy the film, but overall it is just a painful watch.
Yeong-jae (Hwang Jeong-min 황정민) is an alcoholic chain smoking night club owner, who is just falling apart. His girlfriend Su-yeon (Kong Hyo-jin 공효진)) is sick of him, and leaves him when he tells her is leaving for overseas for a year or two. He sells his business to his best friend, also lies to his mother about going overseas, and then heads to a small town where there is a place called the Hotel Hope, which rehabilitates and helps sick people. He drinks some soju, and has a cigarette, pissing off a beautiful girl named Eun-hi (Im Soo-jeong 임수정). He then heads up to the rehab, but really doesn’t take it seriously, even though he has liver sorosis, though he still sneaks drinks and smokes. His roommate has lung cancer and snores. Slowly though he develops a relationship with the beautiful Eun-hi who has bad lungs, and can die from exertion. She slowly falls in love with him, and he likes her, and they end up moving in together in a small place outside of the facility, and living a small simple life, but he is not happy, while she is ecstatic, and wants him to promise to stay with her until she dies.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
The Region 3 Special Edition is gorgeous if a bit expensive.
Eun-hi is as happy as could be, and OK living a frugal life with the man she loves, but things go bad when Yeong-jae’s best friend comes with Su-yeon, and he decides he should head to Seoul to visit.
He goes and ends up sleeping with Su-yeon and staying with her, and is only planning to return to tell Eun-hi that he is leaving her, but he just can’t do it. Finally he gets himself real drunk and ruins Eun-hi’s life, and leaves her weeping by herself.
Yeong-jae returns to Seoul and Su-yeon, and drinking like a mad man, and smoking. And his recovery is no longer working. And his life is miserable. He fucks around with his best friends girl and loses his job as a night club manager, and then leaves Su-yeon again and lives in a cheap place, but starts couching blood again, and ends up in the hospital.
The woman who runs the rehab facility comes to get him and tell him Eun-hi is dyeing, and he goes to her, and spends her last minutes with her, but not at all as he promised, and finally he returns again to the Hotel Hope to hopefully turn around his life.
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Im Soo-jeong from I’m a Cyborg and a Tale of Two Sisters is fantastic, and Hwang Jeong-min is great as an absolute evil cad, but the fact he is so damn bad just makes me not like him, and not care even if he reforms at the end. He didn’t do what was right when it counted, and that says it all.