SYNOPSIS:
A SEASON FOR LOVE chronicles the lives of four very different
couples as they deal with love, loss and life in romantic, loosely
interconnected stories -- A 30-year-old fire-fighter looking
for just the right ring for his fiancée; A long-term
relationship between a guy who cannot find a job and a wonderful
and long suffering woman who is beginning to tire of their relationship;
An 8-year-old boy who desperately misses his career-minded mother;
A deaf girl with a terrible burn on her face falls in love with
a painter, dreaming of a perfect love. All of these situations
are filled with heartache and sometimes despair, but like love,
it comes in many forms. In many ways, love must end for it to
begin again.
MOVIE
REVIEW:
A Season
For Love is patchworks of four interpersonal relationships
sew together in a united topic of love. Akin to the 2003 romantic
comedy Love Actually, the film moved from unrelated couples
to couples, exploring their emotional struggle and turmoil
in their encounter with love. Beside conventional Boy-Girl
romance, the film also explores the love between a mother
and his son. But unlike the British movie, this tranquil Korean
film ends with breakups and death. A plan I suspect to make
more audience cry in the fashion of all Korean love stories.
A
Season For Love is no doubt a sad film contemplating the agonizing
possibilities of denial, acceptance, inferiority and sorrow,
in love. Yes, all the possibilities of breaking a heart.
There
is Ju-Yung (Yeom Jung-Ah of A Tale of Two Sisters), a solemn
career woman whose absent from her family has beginning to
take toil as her only son is showing signs of resentment for
his mother.
Firefighter
Jin-Woo (Jung Woo-Sung of A Moment to Remember) and his long-time
girlfriend Su-Jung (Im Su-Jung of A Tale of Two Sisters) are
warming up to the idea of getting married. But Jin-Woo’s
hectic and risky career, in addition with his stubbornness
to wait for a perfect time to propose are deemed by Su-Jing
as being insincere about their relationship. Su-Jing is getting
impatient with his block headed boyfriend.
Meanwhile
Su-Jing’s sister, Su-Eun (Shin Min-Ah of A Bittersweet
Life) is a bubbly mute and deaf girl who works as an entertainer,
dressing up in a costume of a giant doll and entertaining
children in a local park. She is smitten by an awkward artist,
yet is reluctant because of a scar on her face.
And
final couple is undergoing through a breakup as the guy (Cha
Tae-Hyun of My Sassy Girl) is a loser and his girlfriend Suk-Hyun
dumps him for that.
Though
the star-studded cast of A Season For Love with roles from
all walks of life have been looking at Love Actually for ideas,
this Korean film also oozes some innovative suggestions like
CHA Tae-hyun (My Sassy Girl) started his own ‘Separation
Agency’ for lovers wanting to breakup, yet too guilty
or scared to initiate. I enjoyed watching him scurried around
the city with requests to do others’ dirty deeds for
them. And how Su- Eun has always teach his sister’s
boyfriend the incorrect (but funny!) hand language to impress
Su-Jing.
The
pace of the movie is smooth, allowing an easy traffic to exchange
between the couples. It is not as messy to watch like that
orgy of characters and story lines they squeezed in for Love
Actually. Beneath the humorous screenplay, there is not much
twist and the plot is pretty predictable. This is a decent
romantic production with alluring piano soundtracks released
by the Koreans for the Valentine’s day. I would give
it a satisfying three stars if it wasn’t for the ending.
In
the tradition of western cowboy’s comedies like Maverick
(1994) and Shanghai Noon (2003) where Mel Gibson managed to
mind-read the poker game of his life time or that the pretentious
poser Owen Wilson managed to outgun his opponent despite having
two dozen of bullet holes on his coat and each of them missing
him. Korean romantic comedy producers obviously shared that
uncanny sentiment of illogical and fate-fearing style in tying
up their loose ends.
Remember
in My Sassy Girl (2001) where Kyun-woo (Cha Tae-hyun)’s
aunt was supposed to introduce him some blind date? It turns
out to be Jeon Ji-hyun, his sassy girlfriend all along!
In
A Season For Love, that trend amplified in the quadruple endings!
Ha-Seok (Cha Tae-Hyun) took a one last look at his ex-girlfriend
and accepted that their relationship was really over. He left
an umbrella behind. Then it began to rain, and his ex-girlfriend
uncovered that same umbrella…
Or
why Ju-Yung’s little boy employed Ha-Seok’s ‘Separation
Agency’ to deliver a message to his ailing mother? Why,
why, why?
And
comes the final blow when the firefighter Jin-Woo realized
that he was trapped in a burning building and death was inevitable.
He grabbed the nearest CCTV and hand signal that he loved
her and that he wanted to touch her breasts…
I
know, I know. Fans of such genre alike will start protesting
stuffs like; ‘Fate is beautiful’ or ‘Love
works in mysterious ways’. While I agree with all that
notions and that they sometimes enhance the golden hope that
love is not perchance but predestined which works really well
for love stories. But for them to happen all the time can
make us question our reasoning, if not our patience.
My
Sassy Girl made that formulae worked because they focused
solely on a couple. For ‘A Season For Love’, when
four stories cramped up the space of the film, leaving not
much opportunity to explore further in their relationship.
It seemed like a weak attempt to tie things up conveniently
and jerk some fast tears in its process.
Perhaps
Korean romantic filmmakers when producing should focus more
on their story telling with a suitable flow into a proper
ending instead of obsessing in wanting people to cry.
SPECIAL
FEATURES :
NIL
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The
movie is presented in Korea Dolby Digital 2.0 with great piano
soundtracks.
And 16 X 9 Widescreen with Chinese and English subtitles
MOVIE
RATING:
 
OVERALL
DVD RATING :
Review
by Ang Wei Kiat
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