Lovers’ Concerto 연애소설 written and directed by Lee Han (이한) 2002
28 February 2008An enjoyable and quit depressing Korean Melodrama. I picked this up to see the performance of the beautiful Lee Eun-joo who was so great in Taegukgi and the Scarlet Letter (in with she played nude), and who shortly thereafter slit her her wrists and hung herself in a depression over those nude scenes. It really is a tragedy because she was really turning into a great young actress. The film itself is very well done and enjoyable and through I knew it was melodrama I didn’t expect ti to go quite where it did, and it was quite moving and sad. Well worth checking out, especially since YA Entertainment has a region 1 DVD of the film available.
Ji-hwan [Cha Tae-hyeon (차태현) from My Sassy Girl] receives a mysterious letter in the mail with no return address, but is a photo of children playing, and it reminds him of his past, and particularly two women. We cut back 5 years to where Ji-hwan is a literature undergraduate working at a cafe whose favorite hobby is photography. He spots a gorgeous woman outside the window and instantly falls in love, and wants to photograph her, but her best friend walks in the way.. These girls are Soo-in [Son Ye-jin (손예진)] and her best friend Gyung-hee [Lee Eun-joo (이은주)]. Ji Hwan doesn’t say anything in time, so he awakens his friend who owns the cafe and runs on a bike after girls who are in a taxi. He manages to catch up and goes inside and professes his love to Soo-in (though it is obvious that Gyung-hee likes him). Soon-in tells him he is making her uncomfortable, so he leaves, but goes and buys a clock, and turns back the time by and hour and has a waiter give them a note, saying he wishes he could turn back time an hour, but hopes when they meet again, they can meet as best friends.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
The girls of course return to the cafe, and the 3 become fast friends, though Ji-hwan never learns their last names, or where they live, or even much about them, he is just happy to be with them. And they go to movies, and do everything together, getting closer and closer, and the two girls both start falling for Ji-hwan. Meanwhile Gyung-hee is becoming more depressed because she thinks that ji-hwan likes Soo-in more, but in fact he is slowly falling for Gyung-hee.
Gyung-hee nd Soo-in even fight because of their love for Ji-hwan, but Gyung-hee gives up, and the two sneak out from their parents to go on a road trip with Ji-hwan. They go out camping, and one one Soo-in wants to caress the sleeping Ji-hwan, and when he awakens he wants to kiss Gyung-hee. In the morning Ji-hwan goes out and finds Soo-in and they talk about their first loves, and Soo-in tells how she was often sick when she was young, and had to go to the hopsital and how she fell in love with a boy, and they traded names.
Out in the wilderness it starts raining, and Soo-in gets very cold and sick, so they bring her back to the hotel, and Ji-hwan and Gyung-hee sit out on the balcony, and she gets mad at him, but they then kiss.
They return to Seoul, but Soo-in is sick so Ji-hwan and Gyung-hee go out together, but they feel strange, and it doesn’t work out well. He then writes a letter to Soo-in telling her that he has fallen in love with Gyung-hee, and wants her to help him, but he gives it to Gyung-hee to give to Soo-in and she is so saddened by what she thinks it is, that she rips it up.
Gyung-he then visits Soo-in in intensive care, and gives Gyung-hee a letter to give to ji-hwan as her dialysis is not working and she is going to die. Gyung-he doesn’t know it, but the letter is for him to love Gyung-hee and take care of her when Soo-in is gone.
Soo-in goes to see Gyung-he one last time and tells him they aren’t comfortable with him anymore, and he greaks out and drinks and hurts his hand, but wakes up at home in his room with his hand bandaged.
We then cut to the present and Ji-hwan is trying to find the girls, and goes to their school to get their yearbook, and hears that Gyung-he is dead, and they were both very sick, and Soo-in has moved away to the country. He finally traces down the letter, which was being made, and put in a box, but sent by a bessotted mail man. Ji-hwan hears his name, and finds it is kids playing with a dog, and they lead him Gyung-hhee, now with long hair, and looking sick. It seems she is in fact Soo-in, and was the boy who traded names with Soo-in as a child (she just had short hair)
She gives Ji-hwan the ltter, which has tips to handle Gyung-hee. We then see Soo-in telling Gyung-hee that she loves her and then dieing, and then she became sicker and moved to the country.
Ji-hwan then gets a letter from Gyung-hee saying she tore up the letter from him to Soo-in, and thanks him for his kindess and passing on his love of photography to her, and for accepting his kiss, and she asks him to come to her funeral, and finally admits that she loves him and always had.
••••
Wow, how sad can they make it. Even when it turns out Gyung-hee is still alive she still doesn’t end up with the one who she loves, and who in fact loved her the whole time. They could have at least spent five years together. So sad. And well done too. It is such a shame that Lee Eun-joo killed herself, because she was so amazing in this film. So vibrant and alive.