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.

Entertainer - KDrama

The one thing you always get used when watching kdramas is the romance element between the lead couple. It becomes quite refreshing when this element is overlooked for a change and a different approach is made when addressing the storyline. This is the case with a recent kdrama that has finished and I must say I am happily impressed with what I have watched and experienced.

Entertainer strays from the usual romance plotline we see in so many kdramas and instead it focuses on the importance of the people around you and the relationships you have that can both make or break you. Yes sure, there is still a little bit of romance implanted here and there but what I love about the drama is that it doesn’t focus on it and in doing so gives us quite a refreshing story about life and consequence.

The drama follows a music director, Shin Suk-Ho, who leaves his company in order to start his own. However, things don’t go smoothly for our lead as his former employer holds a slight grudge at his leaving as well as his intent to take one of their famous groups with him. Things go pear-shaped and poor Suk-Ho ends up landing in prison for a brief while as well as having his barely started venture going under.

Luckily however fortune smiles on him as he comes across a new talent while in search of funds. Enter Jo Ha-Neul an aspiring singer with a sad past and complicated situation that could break the fragile hope that Suk-Ho has. Here we have a good singer who has been falsely framed for sexual harassment by his best friend, who just so happens to have recently been taken in by Suk-Ho’s old company as a new talent.

Believing in Ha-Neul, Suk-Ho makes it his mission to clear the young singer’s name in order to make him a star and thus he begins forming a band. Joining the band are quite a few interesting characters, each with their own interesting and sad past. First we have the ex-student from Julliard, Kyle, who makes his living playing as a stand-in for others. Then we meet Na Yeon-Soo who works at night in karaoke bars in order to support his son Chan-Hee and last but not least we have studious Seo Jae-Hoon who is somewhat pushed harder than most to study and make something of himself that his mother approves.

Taking this bunch of interesting and mismatched group of boys, Suk-Ho goes on to create the ‘Ddanddara Band’, meaning entertainer in Korean. However things don’t go easily as Suk-Ho soon discovers that clearing Ha-Nuel’s name will come at a cost. It also makes things more complicated that the incident is connected to his previous company and the workings of the devious CEO that has various reasons for which to block the band’s success.

Another interesting thing is that Suk-Ho and Ha-Nuel actually have a past connection through Ha-Nuel’s deceased brother, something that also brings a bit of complication into their lives as there turns out to be some undiscovered sadness in their connected past.

Honestly this drama brings so much to the table in terms of storyline it’s hard to outline it all here. It kind of makes sense that the romance plotline would take a backseat as all the other stuff happens. But we still can’t deny the drama’s love triangle between Suk-Ho, Ha-Nuel and Jung Gue-Rin that occupies a good chunk of the drama, but not enough to overshadow the overall beautiful story that follows the lives of a few entertainers trying to overcome their struggles and make it on their own.

I loved this show and the relationship between Suk-Ho and Ha-Nuel, maybe a bit more than the romance story even. This drama had good writing and the pacing was on point. I can’t even deny that some scene’s brought a bucket of tears to my eyes while the little victories that the band had made me cheer like a crazy person. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in storyline over the love-love aspect.

One must also acknowledge the amazing songs that were churned out of this drama as they moved your feels into all kinds of frenzy. From the band’s first song ‘I see you’ to the heart aching duet between Jo Ha-Nuel and the deceased Jo Sung-Hyun. These are all memorable songs that you just have to love as they bring more life to the drama.