Happily Ever After

           If I were to choose only one Korean movie, I would choose this one, <Take Care of My Cat>(2001). It is the most special to me. Thanks to this movie, I got to experience personally life-changing events that I will surely cherish for my entire life.    In 2021, the movie reopened in theaters after a 4K remastering. As a big fan of actress Bae Doona, I went to the movies. And what I witnessed was something odd. To begin with, the story was odd. There was no romance, no thrill, no comedy, no pity in it. It was a first. The music was odd, too. Feeling doubtful about what I just watched for 2 hours, not knowing what should have been felt from it, I remember walking out of the theatre dumbfounded.    Then by chance, I got to watch <Take Care of My Cat> again. And I wasn't dumbfounded at all this time; I was dumbstruck. Because the movie mesmerized me. Enchanted me. It was truly a magical moment. I had a realization that m...

  Sports movies are surprisingly rare these days. They have their own strength in that they induce joy, thrill, excitement, fulfillment, and a bunch of other positive feelings. This movie was made by a renowned, young director Lee Byung-hun and stars famous actors Park Seo-jun, IU(Lee Ji-eun), Lee Hyun-woo, and so on.    Hong-dae is a famous soccer player, but things didn't go well for him. He has to play a role as the coach of a soccer team of homeless people. And the whole process is to be filmed into a documentary by a producer So-min. Hong-dae and So-min both start this project just for personal interests, but as time passes, they begin to work together to actually make the homeless people's lives better.   The movie shone much more than I had anticipated, as I thought that it would be like a typical sports movie. But there was definitely something special about it, and it took some time to figure out what it was.   <Dream> was special because while wa...

    Hong Sang Soo is one of the most renowned movie directors of all time. His works are appreciated all over the world and has gotten many international film awards. With respect, the first movie of his I'm going to introduce is a short film; it's running time is less than half an hour, but it's impact is extraordinary.   Mi-hye and her mother go on a trip. Mi-hye decides to write down a list of things to do on the trip and writes down twelve things to do the next day. The two of them go to the beach, and they encounter a famous movie director, Sang-jun, there. Sang-jun takes immediate interest in Mi-hye, and as they spend time together, Mi-hye begins to open up her feelings for Sang-jun, too.   Hong Sang-soo is a director renowned for filming impromptu. Due to this style of work, his movies tend to be interesting because they focus even on trivial things. He captures seemingly insignificant things and then blows spirit and liveliness into them. As a consequence, th...