Ditto
Director: Kim Jeong-kwon
Year: 2000
Rating: 7.0
Country: Korea
This one made me feel a little gooey inside like a caramel left in the sun
too long. It managed to breach 67 years of cynicism and a thick crust growing
around me and tug on some emotional strings. Yet, I am not exactly sure which
strings. Sentimental ones for sure but nothing that is easy to define. If
you look at this film from afar there is nothing really tragic about it or
really romantic, but it slowly quietly sneaks up on you and sucks you into
this amber lit fantasy and then lands a melancholy blow to your heart. It
was inevitable, you see it coming and yet you still feel it. The film is
admittedly as gooey as I felt - all soft lighting, a bittersweet piano score,
quietly spoken words, beseeching eyes, withheld tears - but I guess I was
in the mood for it.
So-Eun (Kim Ha-neul) is a junior at university very much enamored with her
classmate Dong-hee (Park Wong-yoo) who is just back from his stint in the
military. The year is 1979 and the students are protesting against the military
rule. Due to circumstances she ends up having to take a broken down ham radio
home though she has no idea how to use it. One night after the eclipse of
the moon, she suddenly hears a voice calling through the radio. This is In
(Yoo Ji-Tae) who is just seeing who he can get. They talk a bit, learn that
they go to the same school, he says he will give her a book on ham radio
tomorrow at the Clock Tower on the school grounds. He waits two hours in
the rain. She doesn't appear. She waits two hours on a sunny day. He doesn't
appear.
It takes a while but they eventually realize that she is in 1979 and he is
in 2000. He tells her things that will happen, but they both agree that it
would be immoral for him to give her information that could make her rich.
Fools. That would be the first thing I would want to know. Invest in Apple
and Microsoft. What the hell is that? Meanwhile their lives go on in their
own time - So-Eun and Dong-hee are getting closer and In is beginning to
love the girl that won't leave him alone (Ha Ji-won). So love between the
two ham operators is never really an option - they just become good friends.
And then that melancholy blow shows up and the film takes on a hue of fate
and sadness that digs into you. It is a very slowly paced film - beautifully
shot - a lilting score - and terrific acting.
The four main actors were very near the beginning of their careers and all
of them have gone on to fine ones. Yoon Ji-tae has One Fine Spring Day, Natural
City, Old Boy, Woman is the Future of Man on his resume. Kim Ha-neul is a
fave of mine in films like Too Beautiful to Lie, Ryeong and My Girlfriend
is An Agent. Park Wong-yoo was in My Scary Girl, Blood Rain. And perhaps
my favorite Korean actress Ha Ji-won has been in a lot of films that I like
- Phone, Sex is Zero, Duelist, As One and I am currently watching her in
a TV wuxia she starred in titled Damo. I had no idea she was going to be
in this one so it was a pleasure seeing her. But it is the performance of
Kim Ha-neul that drives this film and she is great and won some awards for
it. She is as soft and sweet as honeysuckle. No doubt this film is doing
its best to manipulate your emotions - welcome to the world of Korean drama.
And you are fully aware that it is manipulating you like an ex-girlfriend
who needs money - but you go along with the ride - like a taxi taking you
to your destination. It just comes with the territory. Every time director
Kim Jeong-kwon goes in for a close-up of Kim Ha-neul's buttery eyes you want
to pet them like a homeless kitten.
The film Il Mare with a similar theme came out the same year. Independently?
Il Mare became the more famous one for sure and an American re-make of it
was made called The Lakehouse.
