Unforgettable / Pure Love - Kmovie

Friendship is an amazing thing. However there are not many people who are privileged enough to fully experience such things, or at least that is how they see things. Still stories about these kinds of ideal friendships make for very entertaining and heart-warming experiences that have you cheering and balling your eyes out all at the same time. It’s these types of stories that have graced my screen recently as I jumped into watching a few movies from both Korea and Japan.

The movie I’ll speak of is the definite tear-jerker movie from Korea that follows the story of a few teenage friends and their one summer experience that changed their lives and had echoing effects into their adulthood where the movie starts and slowing begins to reveal. The movie was named Unforgettable (internationally) but is also known as Pure Love and though it seemed like a romance from the poster and many hints throughout the movie, it turned out to be a movie about relationships and those people we never can forget who shape us and change us into who we are to become.

Starting in their future we see as Bum-Sil, a radio host begins his interesting show about talking on other’s lives and their memories and as he begins the most recent story, he unknowingly begins to talk about his own past. The movie then shifts focus to a few listeners who follow his retelling of the past and they just so happen to be the friends he speaks of, all who have moved on into different directions in their lives.

The moving story focuses around the group’s one friend who seems to be the anchor that keeps them together, Soo-Ok, a bright and happy girl with a limp that limits her movements greatly. We see how these friends still enjoy their youth and time together despite Soo-Ok’s disability and we experience the memories they make that summer, unaware of the ominous things to come.

It comes across as your average teen drama that even has a low-key love triangle that affects the lives of these young souls, while also showing us some carefree messing around that makes you want to join in on the group’s fun as you see their bonds form and grow. But like kdrama law demands things don’t stay all sunshine and roses as the group have a minor fallout due to misunderstanding and miscommunication and soon drift away from each other at a critical time for the innocent anchor of the group, who gets devastating news that takes her to the edge.

Before you know it reality slams into our teen’s lives and tragedy strikes, scarring the group for many years to come. Move forward many years later and we see our group crying as their friend tells the world of this friendship that suffered great loss in their youth. But low and behold closure comes in the form of a simple, old-school, tape. It’s this incident that has our group, though older, gather again as they reminisce and say their greetings in that old backwards village where they spent their summers so many years ago.

The story is very meaningful as it covers the dynamics of friendship and all the emotions that are associated with it. The experience of the group is very raw and brings home the reality that not all memories we hold consist of the sunny days and happy moments of our youth but also the sad and ugly things that just happen. But despite that we should treasure each moment and the people that are with us while we have the chance.

The acting was brilliant and the mood of the movie very subtle and real. I think it was a very good movie, especially if you love the stories about real relationships and how they pan out. I won’t lie though; it brings out your emotions as it has you crying at the unfortunate turn of events that occur to these innocent youths who just weren’t ready for what the world was to throw at them. But it’s very moving watching how they deal with it and how it changes them as it reminds you of your own life and youth.

Marriage Contract - Kdrama

If there’s one thing you pick up after watching enough kdrama it’s that every drama has a formula. Whether it is a medical drama, a romance drama or even an action drama no matter which it is, there are always a few ingredients that go into making it. It could even be argued that these ingredients used over and over and twisted this way and that, are the key reasons fans love it so much. Different but always the same, that’s what one could argue Korean drama, is and as a fan I see nothing wrong with it. Still who knew I’d fall into watching a drama that took one recipe and mixed it to the extreme?

The drama I’m referring to is Marriage Contract and my word this was just a tear-fest waiting to happen. Why you ask, well if you think about it, obviously when one adds not one but two terminally ill patients in a drama there’s bound to be a heavy requirement for some tissues and comfort hugs. Still, despite the salty experience you can’t help but appreciate the ride it takes you one as it conveys the important message of cherishing every moment while you have it because you never know what lies around the corner.

The story follows a single mother struggling to live as she has to raise her seven year old daughter and still pay off the debts her husband left before dying. Because of this sad and troublesome existence we see Kang Hye-Soo doing everything she can as she works hard to just get by. However, life isn’t done messing with our poor Hye-Soo as she soon discovers that she has an inoperable brain tumor as well. Down on her luck and at a point where she couldn’t be any more desperate we see Han Ji-Hoon enter our heroine’s life by pure accident. But things aren’t going so well for our hero either as he is faced with a dire situation. We see the indifferent player Han Ji-Hoon running around to find a way to save his mother who is in desperate need of a liver transplant.

There we have two desperate individuals searching for any solution, one looking to find a way to support her child, Cha Eun-Sung and the other looking to marry someone who would be willing to undergo a liver transplant for his mother. Drawn together by their own situations we have Han Ji-Hoon drawing up a marriage contract with Hang Hye-Soo who has thrown caution to the wind and decided to risk her life in order to ensure her daughter’s future. So the fake marriage begins as the two pretend to be as close as possible in order to fool the hospital and hopefully not land up in jail. Of course this draws them into each other’s lives and as time goes by our two leads slowly begin to actually fall in love.

The story is interesting, despite the many clichés that can be found within it and the actors do a wonderful job of portraying their characters, so much so you can’t help but be overly moved by their performance as it brings tears, and on occasion smiles, to your face. Admittedly the plot drags a few times there in the middle but eventually it grabs your attention and keeps you hooked into the lives of star-crossed lovers. It also should be mentioned that the kid, Eun-Sung’s performance was well played as she went from being the little brat that couldn’t stand the troublesome Han Ji-hoon to the sweet little angel that would eventually call him dad as she softened his heart and made the viewers hearts melt as they portrayed the cutest father-daughter combo.

All in all the drama was very good in my opinion, though I have to say it worked hard to bring those emotions out of its audience and that ending…well that ending almost makes it hard to let this show go as you might find yourself sitting and waiting for some closure, or maybe that’s just me? In any case it was time well spent and anyone looking for a good cry and life lesson should look into it if they have the stamina to do so.

Virtual Bride - Kdrama

Cliché, that’s the word that comes to mind when I think about this drama. Cliché and not taking itself seriously enough, Virtual Bride takes you on an interesting ride as you observe the world where mother-in-law’s are horrible human beings who really need to relax a little and the people around them seriously need a reality check on how they deal with them. Needless to say this drama poked a few sore spots as it exaggerated some points and I’m guessing a bit of cultural differences also comes into play here but we’ll get to that in a minute.

The drama follows an idol seemingly at the end of her career that is given an ultimatum by her boss to join a new program - which other idols seem to be avoiding- or get kicked out the company. Obviously she chooses the program which is the daughter-in-law’ program and is set around a family who specializes in making soy sauce and kimchi.

Our idol sets off to meet her new family that she has ‘married’ into and soon the fun begins as she learns that being a daughter-in-law in their household is much harder than assumed. The other members take to her kindly enough as they observe her strange antics and it isn’t long before they all start to get along pretty well….most of the time. 

But what is a kdrama without a little romance? Enter the eldest son of the family who technically has ‘married’ our idol without his knowledge. Our idol dubs him aptly as the ‘math pervert’ as he so loves his numbers and figures, but of course being a professor at a university this doesn’t seem too strange.

The two kick it off interestingly enough and their relationship blossoms quite sweetly, though admittedly a bit quickly. Obviously things don’t go smoothly and lots of situations occur throughout the course of the drama, but overall the pairing is sweet and fairly innocent.

The other members of the family also each have their own situations that make the drama interesting to watch. From scandalous affairs, to being scammed and having to deal with other unreasonable mother-in-law’s, the drama delivers quite a group of intriguing individuals that keep you interested in more than just the blossoming love story.

As far as kdramas go, this was a fairly short drama to watch and I guess that explains the various ‘rushed’ elements of certain things. But given more time the drama would have fallen flat and boring so I’m glad it was cut short. The acting could have also been slightly better, but at least there was chemistry between the characters and the family was enjoyable to watch. As for the cultural differences that have me questioning if all mother-in-law’s are the spawn of dark things best left unsaid, I’ll have to raincheck on that as I realize that Korean family culture is far more close-knit and complex as opposed to western family culture and to speak of it requires many words and wine, lots and lots of wine.