a moment to remember

Title: Nae meorisokui jiwoogae
Director: John H. Lee
Producer: No Jong-Yun
Writer: John H. Lee
Cinematography: Lee Jun-Gyu
Editor: Ham Seong-Won
Music: Kim Tae-Won
Art Director: Choi Gi-Ho
Costume Designer: Kim Seong-Il
Lighting: Lee Eun-Su(a)
Adapted Screenplay: Kim Young-Ha
Release Date:5 November 2004 (South Korea)

Cast:
Jung Woo-sung as Cheol-su
Son Ye-jin as Su-jin
Baek Jong-hak as Seo Yeong-min
Lee Sun-jin as Ahn Na-jeong
Park Sang-gyu as Mr. Kim
Kim Hie-ryeong as Mother
Seon Ji-hyun as Jeong-eun
Kim Bu-seon as Madam Oh


Was no. 1 for 3 weeks eventually ended up as the top 5 top grossing movie in Korea for 2004.

Screened in Japan on Oct 2005. Hit no.1 on first week for weekend 22 - 23 Oct and 24 - 27 Oct (still screening at the time of this post)

John H. Lee's A Moment to Remember starring JUNG Woo-sung and SON Ye-jin has opened at #1 in Japan only the second time a Korean film has ever debuted at the top of the Japanese box office. The film has drawn wide interest in Japan both because of the Korean Wave and because the film is based on a popular Japanese TV drama.

Although exact opening figures are not available yet, the film opened on 308 screens and held off competition from Hollywood films Corpse Bride and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. To date, the only other Korean film to open at #1 in Japan was Shiri, with April Snow and JSA both opening at #2.

A Moment to Remember's distributor Gaga Communications expended a lavish $6 million marketing campaign on the film prior to its October 22 release. The company says it expects the film to ultimately gross 3 billion yen (~US$26 million). To date, the highest grossing Korean film in Japan is April Snow, which is still on release and which has totaled 2.4 billion yen.

Incidentally, both A Moment to Remember and April Snow feature the same lead actress SON Ye-jin.

A Moment to Remember was produced by Sidus Pictures and released by CJ Entertainment in Korea in late 2004, where it sold over 2.4 million tickets.

Synopsis:
This review is for the Director’s Cut version of ‘Eraser’ or ‘A Moment To Remember’.
Unlike ‘The Classic’, AMTR is lacking in poetic beauty but herein is the attraction for me. It is more like real life to me. The love between Chul Soo and Su Jin feels real to me. Much have been written about AMTR already, I would like to expand on two main plots of the film and then show some highlights.

Major plot 1: Chul Soo and Su Jin healed each other of their past
This subplot tried to convince the audience the importance of Chul Soo and Su Jin to each other.
In the Director’s Cut, you will learn that Su Jin was not completely over her relationship with the ex-boyfriend when she met Chul Soo and started dating with him. There was a scene whereby Su Jin finally went to the house she lived with Yong Min (the married ex-boyfriend) and finally packed up all her things and dropped the keys into the mail box. If she has not met Chul Soo, she would still be suffering from this relationship. She loved Yong Min so much that she was ready to forgo her family and go through any kind of persecution to be with him. She also told her brain specialist that she ‘felt like dying’ when Yong Min didn’t turn up at the train station.

Su Jin is a woman who put love as her first priority in life. She would do anything for her love. Whether her man was a married man or a lowly carpenter, as long as she loved him, she would give herself to him completely. Love was the reason for Su Jin’s existence. By falling in love with Chul Soo, the hurting from her relationship with Yong Min was healed. In the Director’s Cut, there were more scenes showing Su Jin courting Chul Soo. As the saying goes, falling in love is the best medicine for the last failed relationship. Su Jin had a lot more to do to heal Chul Soo of his past. Chul Soo just met his mother about 3 years ago in the movie. He was dumped by his mother since young and was treated badly by the old carpenter who brought him up. Hence he was a loner and had no faith in relationships. As far as he was concerned “life can be very cruel” and “no one can be happy forever”. She convinced Chul Soo to use his hard-earned savings to pay the debts of his mother. In the process, they lost the dream home they wanted to build. Obviously this was a huge blow for the couple who had already went to the land earmarked for their new home and even planned the layout of their new home. The scene that Su Jin comforted Chul Soo by snatching his cigarette and doing his card trick was heart-warming and lovely. When Chul Soo said that “we have no more money”, Su Jin said “No problem, I will pay for this meal. See! I promise to buy you dinner”

Their relationship also taught Chul Soo about relationships. In another scene which was only in the Director’s Cut, Chul Soo explained his design of the new house he was commissioned to build. In the explanation, he told Su Jin how he got the inspiration from Su Jin’s family gatherings and how people moved in such a gathering. The joy and warmth of Su Jin’s family gatherings with their relatives was something that Chul Soo had never experienced.

Major plot 2: Their reactions and struggles on Alzhemier’s disease
Immediately after Su Jin learnt about her condition, she didn’t know what to do. She could not even tell Chul Soo because she needed to make a choice. In the next few scenes that followed the revelations, you could see conflicting emotions.

Su Jin had always been brave and fought for her love. Could she ever win in this fight against Alzhemier? She could not bear to leave Chul Soo because finally she had found the perfect man in her life. (Not many people can claim to have found the right person in their lives) She fought so hard to convince Chul Soo about their relationship and then with her father and now she had to leave him. Did she have any choice? Will she inflict too much pain on Chul Soo by staying with him?

Deep down inside she knew that sooner or later she would lose Chul Soo because she would lose the memories of their love, of Chul Soo and even herself. How much more time did Su Jin have to spend with Chul Soo? Should she bear him a child before she leaves him? Is there time for all these?

The incident where Su Jin was lost on the street and bumped into Yong Min finally convinced Su Jin to break up with Chul Soo. She realized that she had forgotten about Chul Soo momentarily and then she would not be herself anymore. In the next baseball court scene, she asked to break up with Chul Soo.

Chul Soo, on the other hand, was still unaware of what he would be facing. His first reaction was to hope for a cure and to take care of Su Jin and to keep her with him. He did not realize the extent of the sorrow and agony he would have to go through by living with a Su Jin without memory. In one incident, he doubted their love when Su Jin called out the name of her ex-lover and he asked the brain specialist “Who does she really love?”

Finally Su Jin made the logical choice, which was also the most painful choice for the two of them, to terminate their relationship.