Opening Day: 2 March 2006

Synopsis:

A simple teenager Su-ho and the pretty and popular Su-Eun start dating. Their young love is the object of much jealousy from all the other students, but for Su-ho and Su-Eun, their love just seems splendid and eternal. Until Su-ho finds out something tragic about the girl he loves...
"My Girl and I" is the remake of the Japanese box-office hit "Crying Out Love from the Centre of the World".

Movie Review:

On the subject of high school sweethearts, My Girl and I is essentially about the intense experience of a first love. For the case of Su-ho (My Sassy Girl’s Cha Tae-hyun), it is so intense that even years after her death, he has not and does not want to get over her. It is a self-torturing process he puts himself through because of his love for Su-eun (Song Hye-gyo).

Su-ho is your average regular kid, while Su-eun is the prettiest girl in the school. Lucky for him, she has had a crush on him ever since they were kids. The relationship develops over time and with a little help from his friends to help speed things up, it is during the trip to Maemul Island that Su-ho realises that he really is in love with Su-eun. As typical as any tragic love story goes, that is also the same moment that tragedy strikes.

Shot in 70 days in several stunning locations along the southern coast of Korea, My Girl and I was more like watching a very elaborate advertisement for the South Korean tourism. The cinematography was beautifully and artistically done to capture the sceneries and the various atmospheres. The movie also makes use of CGI and is used quite well here. Especially in the scene where the couple share their first kiss, they literally recreate the experience of how it would be if time stood still at that one special moment. But no matter how pretty a picture director Jeon Yun-soo paints this, it cannot deny the fact that the plot is very weak.

Boy meets girl, girl tells boy she likes him, boy likes her too, they fall in love and then bad things happen, girl dies and boy ends up alone. That pretty much sums up the entire movie and these facts are established right at the start of the movie, so there is not even an element of surprise to it. With a slow pace, the movie tends to drag itself especially in the second part where they start dating. It crawls on almost painfully at certain scenes such as one where Su-eun is looking out of a window singing a sappy love song. No joke, that is all she does for about fifteen seconds in that scene. Sing a song.

The story’s other flaw is that it sidetracks to tell the story of Su-ho’s grandfather and his first love. In trying to establish the concept of one’s first love being the most important, the movie spends too much time on the grandfather’s story, which in turn actually makes it more interesting than the love story between Su-ho and Su-eun.

Cha Tae-hyun portrays the role of Su-ho with the just the right amount of awkwardness and emotion needed for the character. However, this should not be anything new for him since his previous movies in My Sassy Girl and Lovers Concerto all have a similar image. Song Hye-gyo is a well-known TV star, and with her previous roles in shows like Autumn in My Heart and Hotelier, this melodrama romantic flick is easy peasy stuff for her.

For a romantic drama, this movie lacks impact and substance, banking too much on melodramatics that attempt to pull at your heartstrings. Watch this only if you are a die-hard romantic drama Korean fan.

Movie Rating:

("Only if you’re really into romantic Korean movies or interested in looking at South Korean landscapes")

Review by Jolene Tan