Well in honor of Holy Thursday I decided to type up a little review on a Korean movie I recently watched called Maundy Thursday (aka Our Happy Time). I was at first drawn to the movie because I knew Kang Dong Won was in it, and I love him! The only problem I had with this movie, that I can think of off hand, is that I can't think of anything I can complain about. And I love to criticize the dramas and movies I like...so I guess this post will be mostly filled with praises. I hope it doesn't bore you. I personally found my posts of that sort (the non-criticizing sort, por supuesto) can be a bit dry...a bit lacking. I guess I have to have a passion for what I am writing. Bear with me.
The plot is about a lonely woman who falls in love with a man on death row. Doesn't it sound Korean?
-Spoilers Ahead-
1. The crying: I have to admit I cried so much while watching this movie. First off, in my family, you don't cry during a movie because my siblings (and my dad) will jump at you like a rabid cat with claws extended. So I usually like watching movies alone, I can judge them better too, without others' opinions clouding my own. But what I was going to write about was the actual crying in the movie. Basically this movie is about two people who have both experienced difficult lives...so hence the crying. I have to say, though, the crying in the movie did not especially trigger my tear ducts to start flowing, it was the content that did. To be honest Kang Dong Won's crying was a bit pathetic, when people cry they aren't thinking of how they look and sound, it is just them reacting to overwhelming sadness and despair. And Kang Dong Won was defiantly trying to look pretty, not that I mind, it just effected his performance (so maybe I do mind). In a very crucial scene, the mother of the woman Yun Su (KDW's character) killed comes and confronts him and then begins to forgive him, Yun Su breaks down and cries. Well before hand Yun Su had shown no remorse and had just wished for an immediate death. I think I can buy it if the angle is that Yun Su was sorry all along. But I saw this as a moment when Kang Don Wan's character was supposed to show the audience how much he regretted what he did, I just didn't see that. It was as if his character was sniveling a bit, showing us some crocodile tears. But Kang Dong Won's performance at the very end of the movie made up for any seemingly insincere tears towards the beginning.
2. Yu Jeong's secret: This secret causes Yu Jeong (played by Lee Na Young---who is much better at crying) to try and commit suicide many times. All the while Yu Jeong's mother is losing her patience, and is tired of the shame and embarrassment her daughter is causing her to go through. Yu Jeong lashes out and asks her mother to just let her die.
As Yu Jeong befriends Yun Su she opens up to him and tells him her secret, of which she revealed that she never told anyone before. She was raped by her cousin (an older man with a wife and kids) when she was a young girl (supposedly Yun Su raped a girl, so he aplogizes for guys like him---but we find out he took the rap for his friend...so it was unclear to me if he really raped someone). But the reason why she wants to kill herself is because she can't face her mother. Her mother's reaction to her rape was one of disgust towards her own daughter, blaming Yu Jeong for being raped. As the film progresses Yu Jeong discoverers how much her anger towards her mother was holding her back from peace. And in a desperate attempt to possibly let God save Yun Su's life, in return Yu Jeong tries to forgive her mother. Her love of Yun Su was more important than her mother's betrayal. I love what Yu Jeong said to her mother right before Yun Su's execution, "It would be so much easier for me to die than to forgive you." (That quote is from memory---so it could be a little inaccurate)
3. Yun Su's crime: Well apparently he killed one person, and took most of the blame for the other two murders (and rape?). Now the reason Yun Su got involved with some messy business was that he needed a lot of money and he needed it quickly. He impregnated his girlfriend and she ended up having a ectopic pregnancy. He couldn't afford surgery, hence the killing (he was hired to get a hit man close to the victim, an older woman who he was familiar with). Let's see, where was I going with this? Well anyway, Yun Su trusted (for the first time) that his "friends" would support him and he wouldn't be...be killed basically...for his crime(s). I do have to say that this whole movie sheds a very unfavorable light on capitol punishment. Maybe if Kang Dong Won's character was a hardened serial killer (and ugly and creepy as all heck) my opinion would be different. But Yun Su was a man constantly beaten down by life, and was someone effected by a error in judgment (and his split second reaction to the situation) that destroyed his life. Well anyway, they should show this movie to people who are for the death sentence, maybe they'll change their opinions (maybe it's just me who feels this way, I didn't want to see Yun Su die!).
I loved this movie! And Kang Dong Won too...haha. It had the traditional sad end found in many a Korean love story. I, at first, could not get over the fact that Korean movies did not always have a happy ending as found in Hollywood movies today. But I found a different kind of satisfaction with a sad ending in a Korean movie, I found closure even when the characters I had come to care for had died. I have even come to hope for a sad endings. Which shows how much I've come to appreciate something outside the sometimes sickening happy happy lovey dovey perfect endings of the Hollywood variety.
My Rating: ★★★★★
Thursday, March 20, 2008
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